Fred Beckett

Who was Fred Beckett?

Fred Lee Beckett was an American jazz trombonist. Beckett was born in Nettleton, Mississippi, and began playing horn in high school. His professional career began in Kansas City in the 1930s, and soon after he landed a job with Eddie Johnson's Crackerjacks in St. Louis, Missouri. He played with Duke Wright, Tommy Douglas, Buster Smith, and Andy Kirk over the next few years, as well as time in a territory band with Prince Stewart and a gig in Omaha, Nebraska with Nat Towles. Later in the decade he played with Harlan Leonard.

Early in the 1940s Beckett played with Lionel Hampton, with whom he recorded extensively. He served in the Army during World War II, where he contracted tuberculosis; he died of the illness in 1946.