Fats Navarro

One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Fats Navarro had a tragically brief career yet his influence is still being felt. His fat sound combined aspects of <a href="spotify:artist:3z4qqrJqPWfTl9CSUNxb93">Howard McGhee</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4RvXA7BDgqNgGDjsSSJnPc">Roy Eldridge</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy Gillespie</a>, became the main inspiration for <a href="spotify:artist:1HJHwWck1EY096ea2iPAHO">Clifford Brown</a>, and through <a href="spotify:artist:1HJHwWck1EY096ea2iPAHO">Brownie</a> greatly affected the tones and styles of <a href="spotify:artist:38C3okxv3fyyOIQUVPCdGX">Lee Morgan</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0fTHKjepK5HWOrb2rkS5Em">Freddie Hubbard</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0yvEf1tqWWPiZu4ZbjyKGs">Woody Shaw</a>. Navarro originally played piano and tenor before switching to trumpet. He started gigging with dance bands when he was 17, was with <a href="spotify:artist:6lDzuLTyt5ewY3FLfX1smg">Andy Kirk</a> during 1943-1944, and replaced <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy Gillespie</a> with the <a href="spotify:artist:6htazaFMy8zs0f3sMtM2Pt">Billy Eckstine</a> big band during 1945-1946. During the next three years, Fats was second to only <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy</a> among bop trumpeters. Navarro recorded with <a href="spotify:artist:7xwlN7fhoOwNgDmRTwYZOa">Kenny Clarke</a>'s Be Bop Boys, <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Coleman Hawkins</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0gNn3uUyIEErdQthThI51i">Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6HzzZqLS76PGbKaw6dIMHZ">Illinois Jacquet</a>, and most significantly <a href="spotify:artist:4w8eKJO83kKgKRLbMKM2zB">Tadd Dameron</a> during 1946-1947. He had short stints with the big bands of <a href="spotify:artist:2PjgZkwAEk7UTin4jP6HLP">Lionel Hampton</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1pBuKaLHJlIlqYxQQaflve">Benny Goodman</a>, continued working with <a href="spotify:artist:4w8eKJO83kKgKRLbMKM2zB">Dameron</a>, made classic recordings with <a href="spotify:artist:570vCzcespB48HIQyTbDO6">Bud Powell</a> (in a quintet with a young <a href="spotify:artist:1VEzN9lxvG6KPR3QQGsebR">Sonny Rollins</a>) and <a href="spotify:artist:3VNcUMHgwEgTgsT2Shy143">the Metronome All-Stars</a>, and a 1950 Birdland appearance with <a href="spotify:artist:4Ww5mwS7BWYjoZTUIrMHfC">Charlie Parker</a> was privately recorded. However, Navarro was a heroin addict and that affliction certainly did not help him in what would be a fatal bout with tuberculosis that ended his life at age 26. He was well documented during the 1946-1949 period and most of his sessions are currently available on CD, but Fats Navarro could have done so much more. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi