Editing Roy Eldridge (section)

===Influences===
According to Roy, his first major influence on the trumpet was [[Rex Stewart]], who played in a band with young Roy and his brother Joe in Pittsburgh.<ref>Chilton, p. 10.</ref> But unlike many trumpet players, the young Eldridge did not derive most of his inspiration from other trumpeters, but from saxophonists. Roy first developed his solo style by playing along to recordings of [[Coleman Hawkins]] and [[Benny Carter]], and later said that, after hearing these musicians: "I resolved to play my trumpet like a sax."<ref>Chilton, pp. 11–12.</ref> Following these musicians was evidently beneficial to Roy, who got one of his first jobs by auditioning with an imitation of Coleman Hawkins' solo on Fletcher Henderson's "Stampede" of 1926.<ref name=Giddins69>Giddins, p. 69.</ref> Eldridge additionally purports to have studied the styles of white [[cornet]]tist [[Red Nichols|Loring "Red" Nichols]] and Theodore "Cuban" Bennett, whose style was also very much influenced by the saxophone.<ref>Chilton, p. 14.</ref> Eldridge, by his own report, was not significantly influenced by trumpeter Louis Armstrong during his early years, but did undertake a major study of Armstrong's style in 1932.<ref name=Robinson691 />

==== Style ====
Eldridge was very versatile on his horn, not only quick and articulate with the low to middle registers, but the high registers as well; jazz critic Gary Giddins described Eldridge as having a "flashy, passionate, many-noted style that rampaged freely through three octaves, rich with harmonic ideas impervious to the fastest [[tempos]]."<ref name=Giddins69 /> Eldridge is frequently grouped among those jazz trumpeters of the 1930s and '40s, including [[Red Allen]], [[Hot Lips Page]], [[Shad Collins]], and [[Rex Stewart]] who eschewed Louis Armstrong's lyrical style for a rougher and more frantic style.<ref>Giddins, p. 70.</ref> Of these players, critic Gary Giddins names Eldridge "the most emotionally compelling, versatile, rugged, and far-reaching."<ref name=Giddins71>Giddins, p. 71.</ref> Eldridge was also lauded for the intensity of his playing; Ella Fitzgerald once said: "He's got more soul in one note than a lot of people could get into the whole song."<ref name=Wilson /> The high register lines that Eldridge employed were one of many prominent features of his playing, and Eldridge expressed a penchant for the expressive ability of the instrument's highest notes, frequently incorporating them into his solos.<ref name=Giddins71 /> Eldridge was also known for his fast style of playing, often executing blasts of rapid [[double-time]] notes followed by a return to standard time. His rapid-fire style was noted by jazz trumpeter [[Bill Coleman (trumpeter)|Bill Coleman]] when Roy was as young as seventeen; when asked by Coleman how he achieved his speed, Eldridge replied: "Well, I've taken the tops off my valves and now they really fly."<ref>Quoted in Chilton, p. 1.</ref> Eldridge attributes these virtuosic elements of his style to a rigorous practice regime, particularly as a teen: "I used to spend eight, nine hours a day practicing every day."<ref>Eldridge, quoted in Chilton, p. 2.</ref> Critic J. Bradford Robinson sums up his style of playing as exhibiting "a keen awareness of [[harmony]], an unprecedented dexterity, particularly in the highest register, and a full, slightly overblown [[timbre]], which crackled at moments of high tension."<ref name=Robinson691 /> Giddins also notes that Eldridge "never had a pure or golden tone; his sound was always underscored by a vocal rasp, an urgent, human roughness."<ref name=Giddins71 />

As for Eldridge's singing style, jazz critic Whitney Balliett describes Eldridge as "a fine, scampish jazz singer, with a light, hoarse voice and a highly rhythmic attack," comparing him to American jazz trumpeter and vocalist [[Hot Lips Page]].<ref name="Balliett, p. 153">Balliett, p. 153.</ref>

==== Musical impact ====
Eldridge's fast playing and extensive development of the instrument's upper register were heavy influences on [[Dizzy Gillespie]], who, along with [[Charlie Parker]], brought [[bebop]] into existence. Tracks such as "Heckler's Hop", from Eldridge's small group recordings with alto saxophonist and clarinettist [[Scoops Carry]], in which Eldridge's use of the high register is particularly emphasized, were especially influential for Dizzy.<ref>Oliphant, p. 388.</ref> Dizzy got the chance to engage in numerous jam sessions and "trumpet battles" with Eldridge at New York's [[Minton's Playhouse]] in the early 1940s.<ref>Robinson, pp. 692–93.</ref> Referring to Eldridge, Dizzy went so far as to say: "He was the Messiah of our generation."<ref>Gillespie, quoted in Giddins, p. 70.</ref> Eldridge first heard Dizzy on bandleader [[Lionel Hampton]]'s 1939 recording of "Hot Mallets", and later recalled: "I heard this trumpet solo and I thought it was me. Then I found out it was Dizzy."<ref>Eldridge, quoted in Wilson, "Roy Eldridge's Ambition".</ref> A careful listening to bebop standards, such as the song "Bebop", reveals how much Eldridge influenced this genre of jazz. Eldridge also claimed that he was not impressed with Dizzy's bop solo style, saying once to bebop trumpeter [[Howard McGhee]] after jamming with Dizzy at the Heat Wave club in Harlem: "I don't dig it...I ''really'' don't understand him."<ref>Eldridge, quoted in Deveaux, p. 73.</ref> Although frequently touted as the bridge between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, Eldridge always insisted: "I was never trying to be a bridge between Armstrong and something."<ref>Wilson, "Roy Eldridge: Jazz Trumpeter for All Decades".</ref>

Other significant musicians influenced by Roy Eldridge include [[Shorty Sherock]] of the [[Bob Crosby]] Orchestra,<ref>Oliphant, p. 294.</ref> and bebop pioneers Howard McGhee and [[Fats Navarro]].<ref>Deveaux, p. 66.</ref>