The Buddy Collette-Chico Hamilton Sextet

An important force in the Los Angeles jazz community, Buddy Collette was an early pioneer at playing jazz on the flute. Collette started on piano as a child and then gradually learned all of the woodwinds. He played with Les Hite in 1942; led a dance band while in the Navy during World War II; and then freelanced in the L.A. area with such bands as the Stars of Swing (1946), Edgar Hayes, Louis Jordan, Benny Carter, and Gerald Wilson (1949 and 1950). An early teacher of Charles Mingus, Collette became the first Black musician to get a permanent spot in a West Coast studio band ...