Billy Lee Tipton was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and talent broker. Tipton lived and identified as a man for most of his adult life; after his death, friends and family were surprised to learn that he was transgender.

Trumpet is the debut novel from Scottish writer and poet Jackie Kay, published in 1998. It chronicles the life and death of fictional jazz artist Joss Moody through the recollections of his family, friends and those who came in contact with him at his death. Kay stated in an interview that her novel was inspired by the life of Billy Tipton, an American jazz musician who lived secretly as a transgender man in the mid-twentieth century.