Donald Clayborn Sleet was an American jazz trumpeter.
14 Facts About Don Sleet
1.
2.
Don Sleet was a member of Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars and Lenny McBrowne and the Four Souls.
3.
Widely considered a gifted musician, compared to the likes of Art Farmer and Kenny Dorham, Sleet had a short career as a result of his drug abuse, recording only one album as a leader.
4.
Don Sleet was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on November 27,1938.
5.
Don Sleet's father was a music teacher at school from whom he began to take lessons at age nine.
6.
Don Sleet's family moved to San Diego, California, when he was ten years old.
7.
Don Sleet studied classical music, playing for the San Diego Symphony for three years.
8.
Don Sleet fronted a small jazz combo in the mid 1950s, winning the Easter Week Jazz Festival at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach in 1956 and 1957.
9.
In October 1960, Don Sleet went to New York with The Four Souls to record their second and final album, Eastern Lights, supervised by Ornette Coleman.
10.
Don Sleet died on December 31,1986, at his home in Hollywood due to a lymphoma that he had been battling for three years.
11.
An "expressive, swinging player", Don Sleet was influenced by Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham amongst others.
12.
Don Sleet has been compared to Art Farmer due to his "smooth tone".
13.
Don Sleet got married in the 1970s but never had children.
14.
Don Sleet's younger brother David was a professional drummer in the 1960s and a member of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers.