Burt Collins

Burt Collins

Burton L. "Burt" Collins (March 27, 1931, New York City – February 23, 2007, Philadelphia) was an American jazz trumpeter. Collins was born in New York but raised in Philadelphia. He worked in the 1950s with Dizzy Gillespie, Urbie Green, Neal Hefti, Woody Herman, Elliot Lawrence, Johnny Richards, and Claude Thornhill. He relocated to New York again around 1960, where he played in Broadway orchestras and in ensembles with Cannonball Adderley, Albert Ayler, Jimmy McGriff, Blue Mitchell, Duke Pearson, and Stanley Turrentine, among others. He and Joe Shepley formed the group Collins-Shepley Galaxy in 1970, which recorded two albums, including a Lennon/McCartney tribute. Later the 1970s he worked with Urbie Green again as well as with Lee Konitz and David Matthews, and played flugelhorn on T. Rex's album Electric Warrior. His other associations include work with Sal Salvador, Pat Moran, Astrud Gilberto, George Benson, Manhattan Transfer, Airto Moreira, Paul Desmond, Eumir Deodato and Lalo Schifrin. He played little after the 1970s, though he appeared on record with Loren Schoenberg in 1987.

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