McLean was a musical bridge between post-World War II bebop and the progressive jazz of the 1960s.

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The musician was a leading hard-bop trumpeter - a jazz extension of bebop - in the mid-1950s.

BBC: Jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd dies at 80

And he was productive: He first worked in the trumpet sections of big bands, until he stepped forward and led the small-group revolution, creating fast, intricate new music known as bebop and pioneering Afro-Cuban jazz.

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Musically, his career blazed a long and brilliant trail from bebop with Charlie Parker to epoch-making cool jazz, orchestral suites with arranger Gil Evans and landmark quintets which launched such young stars as John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.

ECONOMIST: Jazz books: Swing that music | The

And that style helped propel jazz through its most important developments - from swing to bebop to the avant-garde.

NPR: Jazz Legend Max Roach Dies at 83

The trumpeter, whose given name was Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, rose to national prominence when he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers later that year, filling the seat in the bebop group held by his idol Clifford Brown.

WSJ: Innovative jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd dies at 80

Mingus mashed up bebop, swing and soul, all while leading an avant-garde excavation of the free-jazz latent in New Orleans group improvisation a sort of bluesy Charles-Ives-meets-King-Oliver approach.

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Dizzie by now was one of jazz's elder statesmen, whose trademark angled horn and bulging cheeks transformed his image from bebop rebel to beloved clown prince.

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