Al Killian

Albert Killian (October 15, 1916 – September 5, 1950) was an American jazz trumpeter and occasional bandleader during the big band era.

Early life and career Killian was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 15, 1916.

Killian got his start playing with Charlie Turner's Arcadians (mid-1930s) and went on to play with big bands led by Baron Lee, Teddy Hill, Don Redman, and Claude Hopkins. In this, Killian and bandmate Paul Webster, both African Americans, participated in the audio recording of Charlie Barnet's orchestra for Monogram Pictures's Freddie Steps Out, but executives ordered that the subsequent filming of the band be done without them.

Gunther Schuller wrote in The Swing Era (1989):Killian was without a doubt the greatest of the Late-Swing-Era high-note lead trumpeters. Not necessarily an outstanding jazz soloist, Killian specialized in stratospheric trumpeting which was totally consistent and often defied belief. His death in Los Angeles at the hands of a crazed landlord in 1950 was a stunning loss to jazz.