Ward Pinkett was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz trumpeter remembered for playing two notable solos in recordings by jazz pianist and bandleader Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

. His promising musical career was cut short by alcoholism and illness.

The son of an amateur cornet

Cornet

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

 player, Ward Pinkett started playing the trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 when he was ten years old. He played in the school band at Hampton Institute and later attended the New Haven Conservatory of Music.

After working with the White Brothers Orchestra in Washington D.C., Pinkett moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He played for brief periods with the bands of Charlie Johnson

Charlie Johnson (bandleader)

Charlie "Fess" Johnson was an American jazz bandleader and pianist.Johnson led an ensemble called the Paradise Ten, who played at Small's Paradise from 1925–1935 and recorded five times between 1925 and 1929. Though Johnson was a capable pianist, he rarely soloed on his recordings...

, Willie Gant

Willie Gant

Willie "The Tiger" Gant was an American jazz bandleader and pianist.Gant began on piano at age 12, and played in local New York clubs and cafes from age 17. He played with Lillyn Brown & Her Jazzbo Syncopators in 1921, and formed his own band, the Ramblers, that same year...

, Billy Fowler, Henri Saparo, Joe Steele and Charlie Skeete. During his stint with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928–30, he participated in seven of Morton's recording sessions and his solos on "Strokin' Away" and "Low Gravy" (both recorded on July 14, 1930) are considered by music historians to be the best of his career. He also worked with Chick Webb

Chick Webb

William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...

, Bingie Madison

Bingie Madison

Bingie Madison was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist.Madison began his career as a pianist, working first out of Des Moines, Iowa and then touring Canada and California in 1921...

, Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra....

 (1933) and Teddy Hill

Teddy Hill

Teddy Hill was a big band leader and the manager of Minton's Playhouse, a seminal jazz club in Harlem...

, but was never able to achieve fame. In 1935 he teamed with Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas was an American jazz reed player.Nicholas's primary instrument was the clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio in his hometown of New Orleans. Late in the 1910s he played with Buddy Petit, King Oliver, and Manuel Perez...

 and Bernard Addison

Bernard Addison

Bernard Addison was a jazz guitarist who began as a banjo player in the 1920s. He became interested in banjo when he moved to Washington, D.C. in his youth. In 1930 he switched to guitar to fill in for a Louis Armstrong's guitarist. He would also work with Jelly Roll Morton and the Mills Brothers...

 at Adrian Rollini

Adrian Rollini

Adrian Francis Rollini was a multi-instrumentalist best known for his jazz music. He played the bass saxophone, piano, xylophone, and many other instruments. Rollini is also known for introducing the goofus in jazz music...

's Tap Room and also had a short stint with Louis Metcalf

Louis Metcalf

Louis Metcalf was a jazz cornetist and trumpeter. He played for a short time with Duke Ellington for which he is best remembered....

's Big Band. In addition to the Jelly Roll Morton recordings, he recorded with King Oliver, Bubber Miley, Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson

James P. Johnson

James P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...

 and the Little Ramblers.

Ward Pinkett died of alcoholism-aggravated pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

six weeks short of his thirty-first birthday.