Moore was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and attended Washington High School in Raleigh and the Hampton Institute in Virginia,^[2] where he switched his major from pre-med to music after one semester. He joined the Royal Hamptonians and toured on a USO circuit. While traveling back to Hampton from New York, Pee Wee, while asleep in the backseat of his friend’s car, lost his left eye in an accident.^[1]

Moore played with Lucky Millinder and Louis Jordan in 1951, and played with R&B musicians such as Wynonie Harris early in the decade. He worked with Illinois Jacquet in 1952 and James Moody in 1954-56, then played with Dizzy Gillespie in 1957, recording with him on several albums for Verve Records. He also worked with Mary Lou Williams in 1957 and Bill Doggett in 1965.^[3]

Moore moved from New York back to Raleigh in the 1970s to care for his mother and recover from alcohol addiction. There, he earned a living as a handyman while playing regularly at a variety of venues in the Raleigh-Durham area.^[1]

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Dizzy Gillespie at Newport (Verve, 1957)
• The Greatest Trumpet of Them All (Verve, 1957)

With James Moody

• Moodsville (EmArcy, 1952)
• Moody (Prestige, 1954) also released as Moody's Workshop
• James Moody's Moods (Prestige, 1954–55)
• Hi Fi Party (Prestige, 1955)
• Wail, Moody, Wail (Prestige, 1955)
• Flute 'n the Blues (Argo, 1956)
• Moody's Mood for Love (Argo, 1956)

• Images from the Pee Wee Moore Memorial Concert (June 2009) in Flickr
• Jazz Archive at Duke University
• Pee Wee Moore Papers, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University