Ernie Royal

Ernie Royal
Birth nameErnest Andrew Royal
Born(1921-06-02)June 2, 1921
Los Angeles, California, United States
DiedMarch 16, 1983(1983-03-16) (aged 61)
New York City, New York, United States
GenresJazz
OccupationTrumpeter
InstrumentTrumpet
Years active1937–1983

Ernest Andrew Royal (June 2, 1921 in Los Angeles, California – March 16, 1983 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter. His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).

Career

He began in Los Angeles as a member of Les Hite's Orchestra in 1937. In the following 20 years he would work with Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Wardell Gray, Stan Kenton and recording as a member of the Charles Mingus Octet, with Teo Macero, John Lewis and Kenny Clarke, among others, in 1953.[1] He led ten albums, most of them recorded in Paris. In 1957 he became a staff musician for the American Broadcasting Company. He went on to play in The Tonight Show Band and can be heard on the Miles Davis albums Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), and Sketches of Spain (1960).

Death

A resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, Royal died of cancer at age 61 at Mount Sinai Hospital on March 16, 1983.[2]

Discography

References

  1. ^ Charles Mingus Catalog at Jazzdiscog
  2. ^ Staff. "Ernie Royal, Trumpeter, 61; Played in Many Jazz Bands", The New York Times, March 18, 1983. Accessed September 21, 2011. "Ernie Royal, a trumpet player who was featured in a number of major jazz bands and who also played in the pit bands for several Broadway musicals, died of cancer Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital. Mr. Royal, who was 61 years old, lived in Teaneck, N.J."