Booker Little was raised in a musical family. His sister sang with the London Opera Company, his father played the trombone, and his mother was a pianist and singer. When he was still a teenager, he was jamming with Phineas Newborn and would later play with Johnny Griffin and Walter Perkins Group. While he was studying at the Chicago conservatory, he was introduced to Max Roach by Sonny Rollins and joined Max Roach's group in June of 1958, replacing Kenny Dorham. Like Clifford Brown, a 23 year old Booker Little suddenly passed away while playing in Max Roach's group. By the time of his early death, he had become one of the most promising trumpet innovators of the 60's. Along with Eric Dolphy, he was moving away from the early influences of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown into a more complex, dissonance oriented style, somewhat related to the free jazz improvisation of the early 1960's. About this, Booker said: "Most people who don't listen often, say jazz is a continuous pounding and this is something I can feel too. I think there are so many emotions that can't be expressed with that going on. There are certain feelings that you might want to express that you could probably express better if you didn't have that beat. Up until now if you wanted to express a sad or moody feeling you would play the blues. But it can be done in other ways." A friend said, "There was some trumpet player around town back then who thought he could cut Booker and he was always bad mouthing him to everyone saying how stuck up he was. Well, Booker came to this guy's gig and spoke with him on the break. He told this guy that he really enjoyed his playing, in spite of the fact that he had heard how this guy disliked him. Booker then apologized for whatever he had done to the fellow and asked him if they could get together and practice sometime. Calvin said that was just how Booker was...full of love for everyone." | 
