Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard backing singers, most notably Frank Sinatra.
Biography
Edison was born in Columbus, Ohio, United States.
In 1933, he became a member of the Jeter–Pillars Orchestra in Cleveland.</blockquote>
"Sweets" Edison came to prominence as a soloist with the Basie Band and as an occasional composer and arranger for the band. In 1956, he recorded the first of three albums with Ben Webster. On Sinatra's albums, he worked closely with the arranger Nelson Riddle, who gave Edison a microphone that was separate from the rest of the trumpet section. He made use of a Harmon mute to improvise his solos and obbligatos. As Will Friedwald wrote in his 2018 book Sinatra! The Song is You, "Edison in particular was a past master at saying an awful lot in a very few notes, and most of his parts on Sinatra records consist of merely an extremely well-placed handful of beeps."
According to the Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies, Edison in the 1960s and 1970s continued to work in many orchestras on television shows, including The Hollywood Palace and The Leslie Uggams Show, specials with Frank Sinatra; prominently featured on the soundtrack and in the soundtrack album of the film Lady Sings the Blues. From 1973, Edison acted as Musical Director for Redd Foxx on theatre dates, at concerts, and in Las Vegas. He appeared frequently in Europe and Japan until shortly before his death. He was the Los Angeles Jazz Society's first Tribute Honoree.
Edison died of prostate cancer at his home in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 83.