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Fats Navarro would be 99 today


Gheorghe

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Fats Navarro was born on 24.09.1923 in Key West, FL. 

Imagine, around 2000  I even visited Key West to walk on the earth where this genius trumpet player was born. 

When I first heard him on record on "A Night at Birdland" (with Bird and Bud and Art Blakey) and read that he was only 26 years old when he died, I was shocked and thought right now he would be in his early 50s. 

Though I´m a piano player I learned very very much from the lines he played, so great ! 

I had heard that tragedy struck also some of his family members, his wife died quite early and his daughter who was a lawyer also died early. Maybe some surviving family members coincidally would read this . 

 

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2 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Thanks for the link.

 

3 hours ago, Quasimado said:

Link to Stuart Varden’s fine site dedicated to Fats:

 

https://csis.pace.edu/~varden/navarro/navarro.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must have seen this side some years ago , because I remember I read the article about "Fats Navarro Day" which is beautiful. I would have liked to know if some from the photo were close relatives of Fats who had traveled to the event, maybe his daughter Linda and his grandson, maybe others from Key West ? 

About the discography , well I´m not that kind of collector in a way that "session index" helps me much to buy and album.
 

One thing is sure: 

The first Fats (and the first Bud) that I heard in my live was on that wonderful double LP "One Night at Birdland" 1950, and Fats´ solos on all that great tunes, his own feature on "Night in Tunisia" and that long solos on "Streat Beat" (where someone shout´s "play Fats !" so he plays one more chorus, and those incredible fast "Dizzy Atmosphere" and "Little Willie Leaps" ......... well more verbally emphatic persons would write "changed my life"....., at least to learn to be able to play stuff like this and build up on that knowledge......

Others was one italian album with most of the Savoy sessions, one from Musidisc with Tadd Dameron at the Royal Roost 1948, and of course the 1949 BN session with Rollins and Bud, which is my idea of a perfect bop recording.

Oh yeah, and that strange 1947 all star jam with "High on an Open Mike" and "Sweet Georgia Brown". 

So I think I have enough to know and love his trumpet and his music.  

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On 9/25/2022 at 11:14 PM, Gheorghe said:

Yes i guessed that since I read with much pleasure some of your impressions of him, you really know his stuff.

That's very kind. I still remember the first time I heard him. I'd just bought this BYG LP (a French issue of some Savoy stuff). I put it on, and his trumpet just exploded out of the speakers of my old little portable stereo record player. I've been a fan ever since!

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12 hours ago, gmonahan said:

That's very kind. I still remember the first time I heard him. I'd just bought this BYG LP (a French issue of some Savoy stuff). I put it on, and his trumpet just exploded out of the speakers of my old little portable stereo record player. I've been a fan ever since!

Yes, in the 70´s such bootleg releases/reissues of name bop musicians where widespread, especially here in Europe. In my case, the next country to Austria is Italia and they were "famous" for cheap records of previously Savoy isssued material, also for some broadcasts. 

Here is three examples, at least what I had or still have: 

The italian "Lineatre" Series, and the "Kings of Jazz" Series with the subtitle "At their rare of all rarest performances". 

The French "Musidisc", with wrong recording dates 

They were cheap and usually costed 101 shillings instead of the usual 163 shillings for legit LP´s from name Labels like CBS or Atlantic and so on.....

 

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fats-navarro-featuring-bud-powell-.-kenny-clark-fats-navarro-memorial-19461947.jpg

Edited by Gheorghe
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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Late said:

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Boperation ...

Yeah, they are fantastic. Disc one is the so called "Onyx Band" from 1947, which recorded also for Savoy, and Vol. II is the "Royal Roost" band on Side 1, and Side two has Bud´s Modernists (IMHO one of the best bop sessions ever ) and that fascinating Fats Navarro-McGhee "Double Talk" and so on. I think McGhee also became a BN artist then. 

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On 28.9.2022 at 7:08 PM, gmonahan said:

That's very kind. I still remember the first time I heard him. I'd just bought this BYG LP (a French issue of some Savoy stuff). I put it on, and his trumpet just exploded out of the speakers of my old little portable stereo record player. I've been a fan ever since!

 

On 29.9.2022 at 7:32 AM, Gheorghe said:

Yes, in the 70´s such bootleg releases/reissues of name bop musicians where widespread, especially here in Europe. In my case, the next country to Austria is Italia and they were "famous" for cheap records of previously Savoy isssued material, also for some broadcasts. 

 

Just for the record (literally :D): The late 60s/early 70s French BYG reissues of Savoy material were no bootlegs but the REAL DEAL. BYG was the license holder for Savoy masters at that time and thankfully reissued a lot (though sometimes in obscure combinations and often with shoddy cover artwork - but they were there and must have filled a lot of gaps before the arrival of the much more comprehensive twofers and singles in the Arista period of Savoy from the late 70s onwards).
(Musidisc incidentally also reissued a number of Savoy records and sessions - apparently after the BYG period, and sometimes with the original Savoy cover artwork, under the Savoy-Musidisc label  - licensed from Savoy, according to the fine print on the back cover).

The Italian budget LP labels were a differeent matter, and not limited to Savoy.

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I must say I was not very aware of the French BYG Label. As for French labels, I remember Vogue and America (mostly Mingus). I was just a "consumer" and bought what I could find. Especially in the case of Fats Navarro, listening to his solos I learned very very much about phrasing and producing "flowing lines" in playing bebop. With all due respect to Dizzy and his main contributions in creating the style, for a starter it was more easy to follow Fats. 
So weird his personal live might have been so organized was his music. Even if he played ultra rapid things like "Dizzy Atmosphere" or what it might be, there was that very organized element in his solos, and not to forget his quotes of other songs, like in the mentioned "Dizzy Atmosphere" where he quotes "All of Me"....you must not be a musician to hear it clearly, it´s very very clear. All stuff he played had such a balance. And he brought some more lyrical element into that usually fast played music, "Bebop in Pastel" as they called one tune if I my memory is right. 
 

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3 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Especially in the case of Fats Navarro, listening to his solos I learned very very much about phrasing and producing "flowing lines" in playing bebop. With all due respect to Dizzy and his main contributions in creating the style, for a starter it was more easy to follow Fats. 
So weird his personal live might have been so organized was his music. Even if he played ultra rapid things like "Dizzy Atmosphere" or what it might be, there was that very organized element in his solos, and not to forget his quotes of other songs, like in the mentioned "Dizzy Atmosphere" where he quotes "All of Me"....you must not be a musician to hear it clearly, it´s very very clear. All stuff he played had such a balance. And he brought some more lyrical element into that usually fast played music, "Bebop in Pastel" as they called one tune if I my memory is right. 
 

I THINK I understand what you are getting at.
As a non-musician, what always strikes me about Fats Navarro's recordings is how there are catchy little melodies and riffs here and there and elsewhere woven into the tunes, and they make the music flow and somewhat "easier" to follow, regardless of how "frantic" bebop may sound to the uninitiated or beginners. Of course a good deal of the tribute for these "melodies" must go to Tadd Dameron (on those sessions where he was involved or actually the leader) but still they also sum up the Fats Navarro "style" IMO.

P.S. According to the usual (source) suspects,"Bebop In Pastel" is the original title of a tune later recorded by Bud Powell (feat. Fats Navarro) under the title of "Bouncing With Bud". But when "Bebop in Pastel" (recorded by the "Be Bop Boys" under the nominal leadership of Sonny Stitt) was first recorded (3 years before "Bouncing with Bud" but released later) it had Kenny Dorham on trumpet, not Fats Navarro.

 

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19 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

I THINK I understand what you are getting at.
As a non-musician, what always strikes me about Fats Navarro's recordings is how there are catchy little melodies and riffs here and there and elsewhere woven into the tunes, and they make the music flow and somewhat "easier" to follow, regardless of how "frantic" bebop may sound to the uninitiated or beginners. Of course a good deal of the tribute for these "melodies" must go to Tadd Dameron (on those sessions where he was involved or actually the leader) but still they also sum up the Fats Navarro "style" IMO.

P.S. According to the usual (source) suspects,"Bebop In Pastel" is the original title of a tune later recorded by Bud Powell (feat. Fats Navarro) under the title of "Bouncing With Bud". But when "Bebop in Pastel" (recorded by the "Be Bop Boys" under the nominal leadership of Sonny Stitt) was first recorded (3 years before "Bouncing with Bud" but released later) it had Kenny Dorham on trumpet, not Fats Navarro.

 

You are definitly right ! 

So you have been listening very very closely to Fats Navarro. I can read how much you understand and enjoy it !

Well those catchy little meodies here and there are referenzes to other songs, or quotations. That´s one of the humorous aspects of jazz, but only if a musician knows how and where to interpolate them. Bird did it, Fats did it, almost everybody from that generation did it and you still hear it. 
Some had trademark quotations like Dexter with "Let´s Fall in Love" or "Mona Lisa" and so on, others did it spontaniously really as little surprises. 
And yeah, Tadd Dameron somehow made some of the bop music a bit more smooth, with a very rich broad sound. You hear it in his arrangements for Diz and Mr. B, everywhere. 
P.S. "Bouncing with Bud" is one of my favourite tunes of bop or compositions of Bud, especially for group performances....

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There are two photos of it in the Biography, and I´m sure I read somewhere that it was in Philly and that Brown stated, that he got a lot of help and inspiration from Fats. 
And though Ira Gitler describes the playing of Fats in Birdland 1950 in February as weak and that he coughed a lot, he still played fantastic only few weeks or even days before he died. His long extended solos with Bird and Bud demonstrate it. 

Obviously the gig in Philly was not recorded or not as a source that may have survived. In NY it was another situation, enthusiasts like Fred Hersch or Boris Rose documented a lot of broadcasts and they still are essential documents of bebop live. 

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