Pee Wee Moore

Who was Pee Wee Moore?

Numa Smith "Pee Wee" Moore was an American jazz saxophonist.

Moore attended the Hampton Institute in Virginia as a pre-med student where he switched his major to music after one semester. He joined the Royal Hamptonians and toured on a USO circuit. While traveling back to Hampton from New York, Pee Wee, while asleep in the backseat of his friend’s car, lost his left eye in an accident.

Moore played with Lucky Millinder and Louis Jordan in 1951, and played with R&B musicians such as Wynonie Harris early in the decade. He worked with Illinois Jacquet in 1952 and James Moody in 1954-56, then played with Dizzy Gillespie in 1957, recording with him on several albums for Verve Records. He also worked with Mary Lou Williams in 1957 and Bill Doggett in 1965.

Moore moved from New York back to Raleigh in the 1970s to care for his mother and recover from alcohol addiction. There, he earned a living as a handyman while playing regularly at a variety of venues in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Moore has often been confused with Sol Moore, also called "Pee Wee", who also played with Dizzy Gillespie. This Pee Wee Moore played with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, recorded with Floyd Ray late in the 1930s, and worked with Gillespie in the Les Hite big band in 1939-42 before recording with Gilliespie's ensemble in 1946-47.