Beryl Booker was a swing pianist of the 1950s. Born in 1922 in Philadelphia, she played with Slam Stewart

Slam Stewart

Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart was an African American jazz bass player whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was originally a violin player before switching to bass at the age of 20.-Biography:Stewart was born in Englewood, New...

's trio in 1946, and played off and on with him until 1951. She also played accompaniment for Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...

. In early 1952, Booker led a quintet which played Birdland

Birdland (jazz club)

Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...

, featuring Don Elliot, Chuck Wayne

Chuck Wayne

Chuck Wayne was a jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1940s. He is best known for his work with Woody Herman's First Herd, and for being the first guitarist in the George Shearing quintet...

, Clyde Lombardi and Connie Kay

Connie Kay

Connie Kay was an American jazz drummer.Kay was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet from 1955 until the group's dissolution in 1974...

. Recordings with Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 sitting in on the group have been preserved. In 1953, she formed her own trio with Bonnie Wetzel

Bonnie Wetzel

Bonnie Jean Addleman, later Bonnie Wetzel was an American jazz double-bassist.Wetzel learned violin as a child, and was an autodidact on bass. She played with Ada Leonard in an all-female ensemble, and soon after worked in a trio with Marian Grange...

 and Elaine Leighton. This group toured Europe in 1954 as part of a show entitled "Jazz Club USA", which featured Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

. After another stint with Dinah Washington in 1959, she slipped into obscurity. In the 1970s she continued to play and record with small groups.

Discography

• Girl Met a Piano (1952) (on EmArcy Records
  EmArcy Records
  EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by Mercury Records, and today a European jazz label owned by Universal Music Group. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company....
  
  )
• Beryl Booker Trio (1954) (on Discovery Records
  Discovery Records
  Discovery Records was a United States-based record label known for its recordings of jazz music.Discovery was founded in 1948 by jazz fan and promoter Albert Marx...
  
  )
• Don Byas with Beryl Booker (1954) (on Discovery Records
  Discovery Records
  Discovery Records was a United States-based record label known for its recordings of jazz music.Discovery was founded in 1948 by jazz fan and promoter Albert Marx...
  
  )
• The Beryl Booker Trio (1954) (on Cadence Records
  Cadence Records
  Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...
  
  )

External links

• [ Beryl Booker at Allmusic]