Musa Kaleem
{{short description|American jazz musician}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Musa Kaleem
| birth_name = Orlando Wright
| birth_date = January 3, 1921
| birth_place = Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|3|26|1921|1|3}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| genre = Jazz
| instruments = Flute, saxophone
}}
Orlando Wright, better known as Musa Kaleem (January 3, 1921 – March 26, 1988){{cite web |last=Kaleem |first=Musa |title=California, Death Index, 1940-1997 |url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VPV7-C85 |publisher=familysearch |accessdate=28 October 2013}} was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.
Career
Wright bought a clarinet in 1937, and by 1939 was touring as a saxophonist with the El Rodgers Mystics of Rhythm, featuring Eddie Jefferson on lead vocals. Early in the 1940s, he began using the name Gonga Musa, and then Musa Kaleem, the name by which he is best known. He played in Pittsburgh often in the 1940s, gigging with Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, and Art Blakey.
In the middle of the decade he toured with Fletcher Henderson, then relocated to New York City and played with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, and the Savoy Sultans in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, Kaleem was a seaman. Upon his return in the 1960s, he played with James Moody.[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p92287/biography|pure_url=yes}} Musa Kaleem profile], Allmusic.com; accessed November 13, 2014.
Discography
- Tiny Grimes & Coleman Hawkins, Blues Groove (Esquire, 1958)
- Eddie Jefferson, The Jazz Singer (Inner City, 1976)
- James Moody, James Moody (Argo, 1959)
- James Moody, Cookin' the Blues (Argo, 1965)
- Dizzy Reece, Comin' On! (Blue Note, 1960, reissued on CD in 1999)
References
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Category:American jazz saxophonists
Category:American male saxophonists
Category:American jazz flautists
Category:Musicians from West Virginia
Category:20th-century American saxophonists
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:20th-century American flautists
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{{US-jazz-saxophonist-stub}}