Fats Navarro

Theodore “Fats” Navarro was born September 24, 1923 in Key West, Florida. Navarro began playing piano at age six, later taking up the trumpet (the instrument he would become known for) at age thirteen. By the time he graduated from Douglass High School in Key West in 1941, he was desperate to leave, so he took a job playing with a traveling dance band that was headed to the Midwest.

Navarro spent the next few years touring with various bands, including, Andy Kirk's and Billy Eckstine's, which is where he was given the nickname “Fats”. Like most of the modernist trumpet players, or beboppers as they would later be known, Fats was heavily influenced by Roy Eldridge. But it was while in Eckstine's band, playing alongside Howard McGhee, that he began to fall under the influence of bop which enabled him to develop his own style.

After years of touring, Fats settled in New York in 1946. A new style of jazz had begun developing during the late 1940's. Lead by the great innovators, Charlie “Bird” Parker, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, the Swing and Big Band music that got America through the Depression and World War II was replaced by the highly demanding and improvisational music the critics would dub BeBop. The new music was perfect for Navarro's talents and it was at this point that his career finally took off and Fats became an in demand player and could command a high salary.

During his time in New York, which sadly only lasted a few short years, Navarro played mostly in small combo bands which was ideal because it gave him a chance to explore the full range of his musical ideas. Besides playing gigs in all the hottest spots in Harlem and 52^nd Street, Fats recorded over 150 sides. Some of them under his own name, but most as a sideman. Navarro appeared on recordings with some of the greats of modern jazz including, Kenny Clarke, Dexter Gordon, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, and Charlie Parker.

By 1949 Navarro's health was in serious decline. Plagued by a serious heroin addiction and tuberculosis, his musical activity was fading fast. Fats did manage to go out on the road one last time for seven weeks (February and March), playing on the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour.

Then after playing a gig with Charlie Parker on July,1 1950, Fats was hospitalized and would eventually pass on July 6. Navarro was only twenty-six years old and was survived by his wife Rena and daughter Linda.