Bobby was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He told me that he became an alcoholic playing at Portuguese weddings there in his early teens.
In the 40’s after a concert, a few members of the Boston Symphony decided to walk a couple of blocks to the Savoy for a drink and persuaded Roger Voisin — the first trumpeter — to go with them. Hackett was playing.
Some time later George Poor (a Hackett admirer, a cornetist himself) asked Voisin what he thought of it and he replied, “I do not much care for jazz, but Bobby Hackett – he is an artist.”
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I love that first photo. The horn looks super-sized held by those short, pencil-thin wings of his. So much for what looks tell us about a player’s sound…