Pee Wee Moore should not be confused with Sol Moore.
Numa Smith "Pee Wee" Moore (March 5, 1928 – April 13, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist.[1]
Moore was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and attended Washington High School in Raleigh and the Hampton Institute in Virginia,[2] where he switched his major from pre-med to music after one semester. He joined the Royal Hamptonians and toured on a USO circuit. While traveling back to Hampton from New York, Pee Wee, while asleep in the backseat of his friend’s car, lost his left eye in an accident.[1]
Moore played with Lucky Millinder and Louis Jordan in 1951, and played with R&B musicians such as Wynonie Harris early in the decade. He worked with Illinois Jacquet in 1952 and James Moody in 1954-56, then played with Dizzy Gillespie in 1957, recording with him on several albums for Verve Records. He also worked with Mary Lou Williams in 1957 and Bill Doggett in 1965.[3]
Moore moved from New York back to Raleigh in the 1970s to care for his mother and recover from alcohol addiction. There, he earned a living as a handyman while playing regularly at a variety of venues in the Raleigh-Durham area.[1]
With Dizzy Gillespie
With James Moody