Barbara Grizzuti Harrison and "Jazzman"?

[sgcim]

I was reading her "Accidental Autobiography", and didn't expect anything about jazz to come up in it, but she gets to her early 20s, and she talks about going into Minton's (approx.1958) and seeing this Black horn player playing there. She had just left The Jehovah's Witnesses, and decided this was the guy she was going to lose her virginity to, so she buys him a drink, and next thing you know they're living together (while he remains married) for three years. He had fooled around with actresses such as Ava Gardner.

She never identifies him by name, but she said he had a trumpet player in his group, so he;s probably a sax player (or maybe trombone player?). He introduces her to Ben Webster, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra(?) at the clubs he's playing at, one of which is the Village Vanguard. He appears to be a famous player, because he's always going on tour or playing at clubs like the Vanguard. She said he had a strong disdain for heroin, so he never got involved with that drug. His wife lived in Chicago, but he lived at the Hotel Arthur, right across the street from Birdland. Then he moved to an apt. on Grace Ave. in the Bronx. He was 32 years old when they met, and he had two sons. He attempted suicide, because his wife was cheating on him, so BGH went to visit him in Boone Grove Indiana where his mother lived. He decided to go back to his wife Janine, and BGH didn't see him again until they got back together 33 years later, the early 90s, when he was 64.

He had given up playing, doing a few day gigs such as managing a jazz club, then working as a house inspector, but getting back with her made him want to play again, and he did a gig at Fat Tuesdays, but they split up again, and she doesn't mention him again.

He recorded some records as a leader, which she threw away.

That's all I got. Does anyone know who he was? BGH never revealed his identity.