Pee wee russell biography

Born Charles Ellsworth Russell, March 27, 1906, in St. Louis, MO, (died February 15, 1969, in Alexandria, VA); son of Charles Ellsworth Russell (a clerk, store manager, and broker) and Ella Ballard; married Mary Chaloff, March 11, 1943, in New York.

From the beginning, Pee Wee Russell was an enigma, an unclassifiable jazz musician whose unique style graced uncounted live and recorded jazz sessions.

Bent on developing a singular voice, Russell consistently surprised both fellow musicians and fans with his recognizable solos. Though he became proficient on several reed instruments and a good reader of music, and though he could blend well with an ensemble with fine tone quality, Russell always preferred smaller groups to larger ones and developed a clarinet style that utilized growls, squeaks, swoops, whispers, and shouts to express his daring musical personality.

Most critics and fellow musicians regard him as one of the truly inventive, expressive voices in jazz. Categorized for mo