Fats Navarro
trumpet
Bebop trumpeter of the 1940s; Barry learned to solo from the record “Webb City”, which he remembers as Navarro and Sonny Stitt with Bud Powell, and counts him among the masters of the bebop era.
- mentions
- 2
- recordings
- 2
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
As a teenager on Detroit’s East Side Barry could chord but not solo, and the West Side pianists could. He set out to learn, and the record that started him was “Webb City”, with Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell and Fats Navarro.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶38Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶198Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶306
At 17 he borrowed a record player from Bess Bonnier that could play a record in any key all the way through, and the first thing he learned to play was “Webb City” with Navarro, Powell and Stitt.
Barry calls the bebop years a renaissance, the most musical period of the music, and names its masters as Bird, Bud, Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. Dexter Gordon, he adds, was there too but played a little differently.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶379Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶381
Remembering how hearing Bud Powell turned him on, Barry says all of them were devoted to bebop, and lists Navarro, Bird and Diz; Pres and Coleman Hawkins were there at the start, but Bird changed the rhythm and led the way.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10
In his own words
I had this record with Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, “Webb City,” and that sort of started me.
I heard “Webb City,” which was Sonny Stitt and Fats Navarro with Bud Powell. That’s how I started learning how to play.
The most musical period in the music was Bird and Bud and Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, you know they the masters.
it looked like we were ... devoted or whatever to the bebop. You know, Fats Navarro, Bird, Diz and the bebop was a lot of people.
Every mention
2 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Barry Harris Spanish TV
- 24:10
In a Spanish dub of his answer: Bird, Navarro and Diz never crammed every space with notes.
Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
- 39:42
A student
A guitarist who studied with Barry hears Navarro building lines from the same small pieces Barry teaches.
In the interviews and notes
Barry tells Panken that “Webb City”, with Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, was the record that got him soloing after he found the West Side pianists could solo and he could not.
Looking back on his start, Barry recalls high school stock arrangements, hearing Bird, finding Monk hard at first, and then “Webb City” with Stitt, Navarro and Powell as the record from which he learned to play.
Barry says the first thing he learned to play, on a record player lent by Bess Bonnier that could play a record in any key, was “Webb City” with Fats Navarro, Bud Powell and Sonny Stitt.
Barry places Navarro with Bird, Bud and Dizzy as the masters of what he calls the renaissance, the most musical period of the music.
Velez writes that when Barry wanted to learn to solo he listened to Bud Powell on “Web City”, with Sonny Stitt and Fats Navarro also on the record, and slowed the record down to learn from it.
Barry names Navarro alongside Bird and Diz among the bebop players he and his friends were devoted to while they all tried to learn to solo.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10
Arguing that Bud and Bird were different, a forum member asks whether Sonny Rollins, Fats Navarro or Dexter Gordon were really just speaking Bird’s language.