Editing Roy Eldridge (section)

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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>