MAO Legendary Albums | Fats Navarro Memorial Album (HU)

The significance of the Blue Note record label can hardly be overstated. After 1945, the albums bearing the famous blue note label captured the pioneers of bebop and, later, the defining small-ensemble recordings of the hard bop era—these have become timeless highlights of jazz. Drawing on recordings from that first great era, the soloists of the Modern Art Orchestra evoke the moments captured on those blue-and-white-labeled records.

This Blue Note album was compiled from Theodore “Fats” Navarro’s recordings from 1947–49, following his death at age 26 due to illness and addiction. He played with the greatest of the bebop generation: alongside Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Tadd Dameron. People loved not only his full-bodied trumpet sound, which carried on the tradition of the previous generation, but also his clear and precise phrasing and his modern improvisations, which rivaled those of the greatest. On the tribute album, he performed in mixed lineups with trumpeter Howard McGhee and pianist Dameron, yet with the same dynamism and cheerful, communicative attitude. The compilation features virtually the entire great, innovative generation; from these, the MAO soloists now present their own interpretations of the quintet’s songs.