Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados on May 30, 1935, Harry Beckett was a UK-based jazz and free jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. Learning to play music in a Salvation Army band in Barbados, he eventually relocated to the UK. A busy bandleader and sideman, he worked with many British free jazz bands including the London Improvers Orchestra, Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Ronnie Scott’s Quintet, Charlie Watts, John Surman’s Octet, Django Bates, Elton Dean, and others. Beginning in the 1960s and spilling into the 1970s, he maintained a working relation with bassist and composer Graham Collier. In 1970, he began his career as a bandleader, releasing his debut album Flare Up. Other albums in his catalog include Harry Beckett’s Warm Smiles (1971), Joy Unlimited (1975), Picture of You (1985), Tribute to Charles Mingus (1999), Maxine (2011), and The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett (2008). He continued to be an in-demand sideman throughout his career, working with artists such as Jah Wobble, Keef Hartley, David Sylvian, Alan Price, Weekend, Robert Wyatt, Small Faces, Jack Bruce, Memphis Slim, the Faces, Alexis Korner, Scaffold, Eddy Grant, Working Week, and more. Harry Beckett died of a stroke on July 22, 2010.
