Fats Navarro

Jazz musician

• Born: September 24, 1923
• Birthplace: Key West, Florida
• Died: July 7, 1950
• Place of death: New York, New York

Although he was overshadowed in popularity and commercial success by his contemporary Dizzy Gillespie, Navarro forged his own considerable reputation as a trumpeter. In the 1940’s, Navarro developed a style that was smooth and rich in melodic content and development, precisely articulated in its delivery, and always beautiful in sound.

Early Life

Theodore Navarro was born September 24, 1923, in Key West, Florida. He began his study of music playing piano and tenor saxophone. By the time he was seventeen years old, however, Navarro had taken up the trumpet and developed enough technique and style to earn a living in territory bands. These bands toured much of the time, and their intense working environment provided a proven training ground for jazz musicians. By 1943, Navarro was playing in Andy Kirk’s band, which had built a national reputation; several alumni of the Kirk band went on to achieve considerable success. In early 1945, Navarro joined the trumpet section of Billy Eckstine’s big band, succeeding Dizzy Gillespie. Eckstine’s band served as a crucible for many young jazz musicians interested in the emerging bebop style.

Life’s Work

In the fall of 1946, Navarro left Eckstine’s band and devoted most the remainder of his career to working in combos. Navarro became a fixture in the New York City bebop scene, working in clubs such as Minton’s and the Blue Note as a sideman, in jam sessions, and occasionally as a leader. During this time, Navarro worked with bands led by some of the biggest figures in bebop, including Kenny Clarke, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell.

Gillespie’samazing range, bright sound, and outgoing personality assured him a front seat in just about any musical environment. Navarro understood this, and while he learned much from Gillespie, Navarro went in a different stylistic direction. While Gillespie showered the audience with screaming high notes, blistering runs of sixteenth notes, and a bright sound, Navarro preferred to work within the middle register, the trumpet’s most beautiful range. He concentrated on note placement, developing a very clean and precise articulation, and his dexterity was surpassed only by Clifford Brown, a hardbop trumpeter who rose to prominence in the decade following Navarro’s passing. An analysis of a Navarro solo often leads to more comparisons to saxophonist Parker than to any other trumpet player. In “Symphonette,” recorded with Dameron in mid-1948, Navarro handles the chord changes with great skill; his incredible dexterity is displayed, and the improvisation is rich and varied in melodic content. Included in a session he recorded in mid-1949 with Powell, the uptempo “Wail” reveals Navarro at his best. His solo is a flawless presentation of ideas, including streams of perfectly timed sixteenth notes, exquisite motives that undergo creative modification and extension, and a smooth, yet precise articulation.

Navarro died in 1950 of tuberculosis exacerbated by heroin addiction. His small bronze grave marker was taken or lost shortly after the funeral, and Navarro’s grave remained unmarked until 2002.

Significance

Although some other bebop trumpeters were able to escape Gillespie’s shadow, Navarro’s impact was narrower, limited to those players who were interested in following his very precise, well-articulated, and more subtly virtuosic style. His style was a major influence on musicians such as Art Farmer, Lee Morgan, and especially Clifford Brown.

Bibliography

Davis, Miles, with Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1990. Although he differed from Navarro in both personality and musical style, Davis provides considerable insight into the New York City jazz scene of the second half of the 1940’s, the time when Navarro reached stylistic maturity. Davis also discusses the widespread use of heroin among jazz artists of the time.

Deveaux, Scott. “Conversation with Howard McGhee: Jazz in the Forties.” The Black Perspective in Music 15, no. 1 (Spring, 1987): 65-78. McGhee and Navarro shared somewhat similar experiences in their careers, and they occasionally worked together in New York. In addition to providing anecdotal information on the formative years of bebop, the interview contains information on the progression of McGhee’s career, what it was like on the road as an African American musician in the 1940’s, and the stylistic gap between the bebop generation and its predecessors.

Peterson, Leif Bo, and Theo Rehak. The Music and Life of Theodore “Fats” Navarro: Infatuation. Vol. 59 in Studies in Jazz. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2009. This is an excellent comprehensive treatment of Navarro. It provides a detailed biography, with information on his early years, the big band “apprenticeship,” his years playing with combos and jamming in New York, and the last months of his life. This book also contains detailed information on Navarro’s recording activity, includes numerous transcriptions, and presents a very astute analysis of his style, including interesting comparisons of Navarro’s playing with that of Charlie Parker.

Yanow, Scott. Bebop. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000. Navarro worked with a great many musicians during the last half-decade of his life. This book provides concise biographical and stylistic information on Navarro’s contemporaries, as well as reviews of their recordings and information on reissues.