There are legions of musicians whose small size earned them the common-day nicknames of "Shorty" or "Pee Wee," but trumpeter Clarence Brereton was so tiny his associates referred to him as "Minnow." Associated with the recordings of jazz giant Sidney Bechet and early sides by superb vocalist Lena Horne, the shrimpy Brereton first made a professional name for himself in 1929 in the band of drummer Ike Dixon. Reedman and friend Buster Bailey put in a big word for the little guy with bandleader Noble Sissle in 1932, a period when the latter bandleader was looking to beef up his brass section. This turned out to be a good match, with the miniscule Brereton swinging with Sissle until 1938, then coming right back to the band until the U.S. Army nabbed him in 1942, height-challenge and all. The trumpeter's recordings with Bechet date from the late-'30s period when the Sissle band was providing backup for the soprano sax and clarinet star, while a similar situation resulted in some of the first recordings by Lena Horne a few years later.

In early 1946, Brereton was back on the jazz scene in the John Kirby Sextet, with whom he recorded with Sarah Vaughan. He then evolved into a freelancer, quite often playing alongside drummer Henry Chick Morrison. Sometime in the early '50s, Brereton came down with the mumps, a disease that had a much more serious effect on him than the image of puffed-out cheeks associated with trumpeters such as Dizzy Gillespie. Complications from the disease led directly to Brereton's death in New York City in 1954. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi