- Wardell Gray was born on February 13, 1921 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. Wardell died on May 25, 1955 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
- Clarinettist, tenor saxophonist and composer. Worked regularly with Dexter Gordon on the West Coast from 1945, subsequently with Benny Carter, Count Basie and Benny Goddman's short-lived bebop band. He was known to have a drug addiction. His death remains a mystery to this day: his body was found on May 26 in the Nevada desert with a broken neck. An autopsy ruled 'accidental death', but there were also suggestions that he was in fact murdered, citing a possible association between Gray and Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky.
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