Lester Rallingston "Shad" Collins (June 27, 1910 – June 6, 1978)[1] was an American jazz trumpet player, composer and arranger, who played in several leading bands between the 1930s and 1950s, including those led by Chick Webb, Benny Carter, Count Basie, Lester Young, Cab Calloway and Sam "The Man" Taylor.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States,[1] the son of a clergyman, he acquired the nickname of "Shad" in his teens, and by the late 1920s had joined Charlie Dixon's band.
[1] In the mid-1930s he played in Teddy Hill's band, with whom he toured in Britain and Europe, before joining the Count Basie Orchestra.
[3] He also worked in the late 1930s in bands led by Benny Carter, Lester Young and Don Redman, among others.
In the 1950s, he played in Jimmy Rushing's band, and with Sam "The Man" Taylor, when he developed a style more suited to the rhythm and blues music then popular.