Booker Pittman

Booker Pittman or Pitman (3 March 1909, Fairmount Heights, Maryland, USA - 19 October 1969, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil) was the son of Portia Pittman and a grandson of Booker T. Washington. He became an accomplished jazz clarinetist and played with greats like Louis Armstrong and Count Basie in the US and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. He is also an alto and soprano saxophonist. His stepdaughter Eliana Pittman is a Brazilian jazz singer and actress.

He left the US for the first time in 1933, when he went with Lucky Millinder's orchestra to France and stayed there for four years. During that period, he met a Brazilian musician named Romeo Silva, who took him on a tour of Brazil along with other musicians. They sailed to Bahia aboard the Siqueira Campos.

In 1937, Booker moved to Brazil, where he was known by the nickname "Buca", and continued his musical career there, playing at the Urca Casino. He lived in Copacabana and befriended Jorge Guinle and Pixinguinha. He also played in other countries, like Argentina.

In October 1969 he died in his home in the São Paulo quarter of Vila Nova Conceição of laryngeal cancer at the age of 60 . On behest of his wife Ofélia he was transferred to Rio de Janeiro and there laid to rest at the Cemitério São João Batista in the quarter of Botafogo.

Sources

• Booker Pittman at Dicionário Cravo Albin da Música Popular Brasileira.
• Booker Pittman at Allmusic
• Official Website of Eliana Pittman