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FATS
NAVARRO
trumpet
LIFELINE
1923-1950
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1923
Theodore Navarro is born in Key West, Florida,
third cousin of trumpeter Charlie Shavers. At 13 he is given a trumpet
but receives little formal musical training.
1945-46
After working alongside Howard McGhee in the
Andy Kirk band in 1943 and 1944, Fats replaces Gillespie,
on Dizzy's recommendation, in the Billy Eckstine band. He then settles
in New York where he plays with, among others, Coleman
Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Lionel Hampton and Benny
Goodman. Navarro practises incessantly. His first session as
a bandleader is in January 1947, although he
was more at home as a sideman.
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1941
Navarro's apprenticeship is in the travelling
territory bands as a teenager: Sid Allbright's band in 1941, then,
after a sojourn in Cincinnati for some tuition, as a featured soloist
with Snookum Russell's band.
1948-49
He works with Bud Powell
and, to great acclaim, Tadd Dameron
in various sized groups. His health deteriates.
1950
After a spectacular broadcast with Charlie
Parker from the Birdland club on June 30th, Navarro dies one week
later: his tuberculosis is exacerbated by narcotic addiction. |
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"Fats
was the best all round trumpeter of them all. He had everything
a trumpeter should have: time, ideas, execution and reading ability."
Dizzy
Gillespie
Fats
Navarro was one of bebop's very major
voices in the late-1940s, although as a trumpeter his name
is not as well known in the public mind as, say, Dizzy
Gillespie or Miles Davis. In
contrast to Gillespie, Navarro played with a full tone and brassy
attack, was rhythmically not as dynamic, and his lines were more melodic,
more eveny phrased and less chromatic. Fats was a precursor
of Clifford Brown, whom he befriended
and encouraged before he died. |
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