Fats By Navarro
The story begins in Key West, Florida where
Theodore "Fats" Navarro
was born of mixed Cuban-Black-Chinese parentage on
September 24, 1923. His
musical training began early with piano lessons at
age six, but he did not start
taking music seriously until he took up the
trumpet at age thirteen. He became
good during his high school years. He also
played tenor saxophone and played
briefly with Walter Johnson's band in
Miami. Apparently Fats did not care much
for Key West. He was once quoted as
saying "I didn't like Key West at all.
I'll never go back." So, after
graduating high school, he joined Sol
Allbrights's band in Orlando, so
Fats traveled with him to Cincinnati, and took
further trumpet lessons from
an Ohio teacher. He then went on the road with
Snookum Russell's
Indianapolis orchestra. Russell's group, a band well known in
the area in the
1940s, proved to be very good for Fats. It was a place where he
developed,
experimented, and made mistakes that no one would remember before
heading on
to the national stage. Fats stayed with Russell for about two years
(1941-42)
and became their trumpet soloist. Fats worked next with Andy Kirk and
his
Kansas City "Clouds of Joy." Here he made a friendship with
trumpeter Howard
McGhee. Fats role in the Andy Kirk band explains this story
retold by Billy
Eckstine describing how Fats moved over to his band. Dizzy
Gillespie left
my band in Washington, D.C. He told me to go over to hear Andy
Kirk,
because there was a fellow with Kirk named Fats Navarro. 'Take a listen
to
him,' said Dizzy, 'he's wonderful!' So I went out to the club, and the
only
thing Fats had to blow was behind a chorus number. But he was wailing
behind
this number, and I said to myself, 'This is good enough this'll fit.'
So I got
Fats to come by and talk it over, and about two weeks after that
he took Dizzy's
chair, and take it from me, he came right in ... Great as Diz
is ... Fats played
his book and you would hardly know that Diz had left the
band. 'Fat Girl' played
Dizzy's solos, not note for note, but his ideas
on Dizzy's parts and the feeling
was the same and there was just as much
swing. Eckstine's band was very
successful, due to Eckstine's romantic
vocals, and the most musically advanced
voice. Besides Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie, the band included at one time
or other during a four year
span a lineup of future stars that is very well
known in all of jazz: Kenny
Dorham, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray,
Gene Ammons, Lucky
Thompson, Bud Johnson, Frank Wess, Charlie Rouse, Sonny Stitt,
Leo
Parker, Cecil Payne, Tadd Dameron, Jerry Valentine, Tommy Potter, Art
Blakey,
and Sarah Vaughan were some of the more famous to pass through the
band. The End
Comes Somewhere along the way, Fats contracted
tuberculosis, which is usually a
slow developing malady. The combination of
his drug habit, and the TB led to a
sharp decline in his health and a
decrease of his musical activity over the last
seventeen months of his life.
He nevertheless went on the road one last time
with the Jazz at the
Philharmonic tour for about seven weeks in February and
March of 1949.
Fats had been described as coughing uncontrollably and appearing
physically
drained during this period. Theodore "Fats" Navarro died on
July 7, 1950
in a New York City hospital.