The youngest of three children, Ingram was born November 13, 1957, in Pasadena, California. His mother ran the household and worked as a tailor and dressmaker from their home in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles; his father was a freelance artist, actor, and musician.[1] His father worked as a staff animator on early Popeye cartoons and several early Disney animations, including the movie Fantasia.[2][page needed] He hosted a radio show in Los Angeles in the 1930s, singing and playing ukulele. During the 1940s and 50's he worked in Hollywood as a singer and actor and was in over thirty movie and TV shows, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Superman, and Titanic.
Ingram began playing the trumpet at age eight. Growing up in Los Angeles, he became acquainted with Hollywood session trumpeters. Many of these introductions came through John Rinaldo, his band director at Eagle Rock High School. Rinaldo's jazz program included others who went on to become professionals, such as drummers Carlos Vega and Sam Wiley, bassists Scott Colley and David Stone, guitarist Larry Koonse, saxophonists Doug Rinaldo, Brian Mitchell, and Gary Hypes, trombonists Arturo Velasco and Luis Bonilla, pianist Guy Steiner, and trumpeters Bobby Muzingo and Buddy Gordon. Through Rinaldo, Ingram was able to meet and study with Bobby Shew and Laroon Holt. Ingram's teachers included Bud Brisbois, Mannie Klein, Roy Stevens, Don Raffell, Bobby Findley, Carmine Caruso, Reynold Schilke, James Stamp, Uan Rasey, Mel Broiles, and Dan Jacobs.[1][3]
Career
Early performing
At sixteen, Ingram toured with Louie Bellson, sharing section duties with Blue Mitchell, Bobby Shew, Cat Anderson, and Frank Szabo. His first international gigs were with the group during the 1974 Belvedere King Size Jazz Festival Tour at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, and the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. After his stint with Bellson, he graduated from high school and then joined Quincy Jones on a fall tour. After that tour, he spent a year touring with Connie Stevens, playing lead trumpet for the first time.[3]
At eighteen, Ingram played first trumpet with singer Tom Jones and toured with him for six years.[5] After that, he moved to Las Vegas, where for two years he gained experience playing on the Las Vegas Strip.
With Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson
In 1985, Ingram joined the Woody Herman Orchestra as lead trumpet. Ingram's friend Ron Stout held the jazz trumpet chair and helped get him in the band.[6] He remained with the band until Herman's death in 1987. He recorded three Grammy-nominated albums with Herman: The 50th Anniversary Tour,[7]Woody's Gold Star,[8] and The Concord Years.[9]
He is the last lead trumpeter to play with the "original" Woody Herman Orchestra.[10] Ingram returned to Los Angeles after Herman's death, founding and co-leading his big band with saxophonist Steve Elliott. The Ingram-Elliott big band featured Bobby Shew, Till Brönner, Bill Watrous, and Gary Foster.[11]
In 1988, he worked with the WDR Jazz Orchestra in Cologne, Germany. While in Germany, he recorded works by Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely with Mel Lewis on drums. During this time, he recorded with saxophonist Loren Schoenberg and pianist Django Bates.[1] Later that year, Ingram joined the orchestra of Maynard Ferguson and recorded three albums with him. In October 2004, he performed as a featured artist at Stratospheric, a four-day festival honoring Ferguson. In September 2006, he performed as a featured soloist at the Maynard Ferguson Tribute Concert in St. Louis, Missouri, with many other trumpeters, including his long-time friend and colleague Wayne Bergeron.[12]
After three years as lead trumpeter for Ferguson, he moved to Florida, where he was a teaching assistant and private instructor at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. While in Miami, he collaborated with his friend and colleague, Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, recording the Grammy Award-winning album, Danzon.[13] He also did commercial recording work, performed and toured with the New Xavier Cugat Orchestra, and worked on a consistent basis with the Peter Graves Orchestra.[3]
With Harry Connick Jr. and Lincoln Center
In 1990, Ingram joined the newly formed big band of pianist Harry Connick Jr. He recorded three albums with Connick, working with him until the orchestra disbanded in 1993. The following year, he toured with singer Frank Sinatra. Later in 1994, he moved to New York City, joining Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He recorded three albums with Wynton Marsalis, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields.
In 2009, Ingram designed a B♭ trumpet for the Jupiter Band Instrument Company. This trumpet is the XO Series 1600I model, known as the I-horn, and is the trumpet he uses exclusively. He also performs with the Jupiter XO Series professional flugelhorn and the Jupiter XO Series professional 4-valve B-flat/A piccolo trumpet (Jupiter 1700RS). For fun, he also plays the Jupiter 528L valve trombone.[1]
From 2011–2014, manufactured by Pickett Brass of Lexington Kentucky, Ingram's line of six professional mouthpieces for B-flat trumpet (the V-cup, the Lead, the Studio, the Jazz, the Be-Bop, and the Instant Chet) arrived on the market. Two additional models (the Lead-2 and Studio-2) were added in 2016.[18][19]
A line of classic mutes designed by Ingram and manufactured by Warburton USA[20] was launched at the Midwest Clinic in December 2016.[21] These accessories for trumpet and cornet are the Ingram-MuteMeister Cup, ShowTone, and Straight mutes.[22]
Solo work and writing
Ingram's debut solo album, Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway, was released and reviewed in 2014.[23] His second album, Skylark, was released in 2015. Both were on his One Too Tree Records label.
Ingram's textbook, Clinical Notes on Trumpet Playing, was published in 2008. In December 2015, Ingram wrote his first article for The Brass Herald and became a regular columnist for the magazine.[24]
Induction into Kentucky Museum Instruments of American Excellence Collection, 2012
Lead trumpet on two Grammy winning recordings: Songs I Heard (Columbia/Sony) by Harry Connick, Jr. and Danzón (Milan) by Arturo Sandoval
Lead trumpet on five Grammy nominated recordings: Your Songs (Sony) and Come by Me (Sony) by Harry Connick, Jr.; 50th Anniversary Tour (Concord), Woody's Gold Star (Concord), and The Concord Years (Concord) by Woody Herman
Lead trumpet on the Pulitzer Prize winning recording, Blood on the Fields (Sony) by Wynton Marsalis
