- Born
- Died
- Birth nameClora Larea Bryant
- Clora Bryant was born on May 30, 1927 in Denison, Texas, USA. She was married to Joe Stone. She died on August 25, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- SpouseJoe Stone (divorced, 2 children)
- Clora Bryant, a trumpeter who was widely considered one of the finest jazz musicians on the West Coast - but who ran into gender-based limitations on how famous she could become.
- Dizzy Gillespie called her his protégé. But faced with sexist discrimination, she did not establish herself as a bandleader until middle age.
- In 1988, inspired by a Moscow concert by Dave Brubeck, she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, hoping to be the first female horn player invited to the USSR. The Kremlin extended an invitation, and she embarked on a two-week tour of the Soviet Union.
- While working in Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s, she did a vocal and trumpet impersonation of Louis Armstrong.
- She led small combos and played alongside several stars, including singer Billie Holiday, drummer Max Roach, and saxophonist Dexter Gordon.
- At first I'd hear the musicians say, "She plays like a woman." But after a while, they said I played like a man - whatever that means.
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