Roy Eldridge - That's What I'm Here For (2024)

Roy Eldridge is one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.

But unlike many trumpet players, Roy Eldridge did not derive most of his inspiration from other trumpeters, but from saxophonists. He first developed his solo style by playing along to recordings of Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and later said that, after hearing these musicians: "I resolved to play my trumpet like a sax."

Eldridge was very versatile on his horn, not only quick and articulate with the low to middle registers, but the high registers as well; jazz critic Gary Giddins described Eldridge as having a "flashy, passionate, many-noted style that rampaged freely through three octaves, rich with harmonic ideas impervious to the fastest tempos."