Navarro, Fats

Navarro, Fats

 orig. Theodore Navarro

(born Sept. 24, 1923, Key West, Fla., U.S.—died July 7, 1950, New York, N.Y.) U.S. jazz trumpeter. Navarro replaced Dizzy Gillespie in the big band of Billy Eckstine in 1946, acquiring a reputation as a virtuoso player capable of executing complex phrases with rare grace. He participated in the burgeoning jazz milieu based around 52nd St. in New York City in the late 1940s, working with bebop innovators such as Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, and Tadd Dameron (1917–65). Addiction to heroin curtailed his activity, and he died of tuberculosis.