Search - Fats Navarro :: Goin to Minton's

This 22-track collection is a nearly comprehensive view of trumpeter Fats Navarro's recordings for the Savoy label in 1946 and 1947. Because he died in 1948 at age 26 (of tuberculosis compounded by heroin addiction), Navarro's influence is often overlooked today. But, along with Miles Davis, he was one of the primary disciples of bebop trumpet avatar Dizzy Gillespie, and was the more technically polished player of the two. Navarro's first recording session follows the trail blazed by the Charlie Parker-Gillespie group, with Sonny Stitt on alto sax and Bud Powell on piano. In his next session, Navarro is somewhat miscast as a foil for "hollerin' and screamin'" tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. His personal voice emerges in a series of 1947 sessions with pianist-arranger Tadd Dameron, where Navarro's strong tone and immaculate phrasing define him as the first link in a thoroughbred chain of modern jazz trumpeters that extends through Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard. -- Rick Mitchell