Jimmy Forrest

Afro-American jazz musician and composer. A hard-driving, modern-intoned tenor saxophonist, he began with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and then worked during the mid- and late 1930's with Fate Marable and Dewey Jackson in the St. Louis area. In 1940, he joined Jay McShann in Kansas City, playing in the same section of the band as Charlie Parker. After a spell with Andy Kirk in New York, 1943-47, he returned to St. Louis, leading his own small combo. Forrest had a massive hit with the all-time jazz standard "Night Train", which, however, owed much to a composition by Duke Ellington, "Happy-Go- Lucky Local". He was part of Ellington's organisation for one year, from 1949 to 1950. During the next three decades, Forrest became a prolific free-lance recording artist, who often combined elements of bebop and R&B with mainstream jazz. After leading several groups of his own, he worked with Count Basie and the Clarke-Boland Big Band in the 1970's.