Jesse Drakes

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Jesse Drakes (b. October 22, 1926, New York) was an American jazz trumpeter.

Drakes hung out at Minton's Playhouse in his youth, and attended Juilliard in the 1940s. He played in the 1940s with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, Sid Catlett, J.C. Heard, Eddie Heywood, Deke Watson, and Sarah Vaughan (1947). He worked extensively with Lester Young; the pair collaborated on and off between 1948 and 1956. Alongside this Drakes played with Harry Belafonte, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, (1953), Louie Bellson, (1955), and Duke Ellington (1956).

In the late 1950s he played less jazz and more R&B music, touring with King Curtis and playing at the Motown studios in the 1960s. From 1969 he was based out of New York, leading dance ensembles and singing. He gave an interview with Cadence in 1984.

[edit] References

• Eugene Chadbourne, Jesse Drakes at All Music Guide
• "Jesse Drakes". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.