Harry "Sweets" Edison

I met Harry Edison’s mother, Mrs. Kitty Redmond, in 1981. She was living in Poindexter Village, in East Columbus and she was very pleasant and personable. She would tell me about her famous son, where he was traveling in the world and when he would be home.

About the fifth time I visited Miss Kitty, I was finally introduced to Harry and we discussed his career. He told me about his training on bugle as a child with his uncle and his first days on trumpet. He told me he was fourteen in 1930, when he began playing with Earl Hood, the local bandleader who had the local job at Valley Dale Ballroom. He was the “get off” player with Hood, but was having a difficult time getting Earl to give him any money for his work.

Miss Kitty said she marched down to Valley Dale, had a talk with Mr. Hood about her son’s contributions and afterwards Harry began getting regular pay. Mr. Hood insisted that Harry learn to read music, in addition to “getting off.” Harry says that was his key to musical longevity.

Harry’s next job was with the Jeter-Pillars Band, where in his words, he acquired the nickname “Sweets.” According to what I remember Harry saying, “The Jeter-Pillars Band was based in Cleveland and I would ride the train to hook up with the group. My mother would fix a big basket of food for me to travel with and the fellows would call me ‘Sweets’ when I’d get to Cleveland and they would tear into that basket.”

Others stories emerged about Harry’s nickname; his trumpet sound was so sweet, he was sweet with the women, saxophonist Lester Young allegedly gave him the nickname when he joined Count Basie’s Orchestra in 1937. However, despite how he got his nickname, Harry proved to be sweet indeed, with a muted trumpet solo sound that is indescribable delicious.

If you google his name he has over a million pages online. His legend was made in his eleven year with Count Basie that lasted until 1950. In 1944, he played a prominent role in perhaps the finest jazz film ever made, Jammin' the Blues. Basie's orchestra disbanded temporarily in 1950, and thereafter Edison pursued a varied career, leading his own groups, traveling with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and working as a freelance with other orchestras. In the early 1950s he settled on the West Coast, where he became highly sought-after as a studio musician, recording extensively with Frank Sinatra. He regularly led his own group in Los Angeles in the 1960s and he rejoined Count Basie on several occasions.

Harry came home to visit his mother in September, 1983 and offered to play a birthday party for Earl Hood. We had Miss Kitty in the audience at Valley Dale, Harry played two sets with an allstar band of Columbus musicians, including his signature song, Centerpiece and had a wonderful time saluting Mr. Hood at eighty-seven.

Harry continued travel and appearing worldwide, jazz festivals in Europe, concerts in Japan, clubs in the United States. But in 1999, he retired to Columbus, where his daughter, Helena, had settled. He was honored by the Columbus Senior Musicians Hall of Fame in June of that year, wearing a beautiful chocolate brown suit and matching hat as he sat for a photograph that afternoon.

Harry “Sweets” Edison died of cancer the following month, July 27, 1999 at age eighty-two. I served as a pallbearer and played horn for his celebration at the cemetery.