Gregory Charles Royal

Gregory Charles Royal (born October 10, 1961 in Greensboro , North Carolina ) is an American jazz trombonist and author of jazz musicals .

Live and act

He is the son of one together u. a. African American biologist couple George C. Royal (* 1921), professor at Howard University , and Gladys W. Royal (1926–2001) about bone marrow transplantation research . He grew up in Washington, DC and played the trombone as a teenager in the DC Youth Orchestra Program and in clubs across town. At the age of 15 he studied at the Duke Ellington School of Arts. Fellow students were Wallace Roney and Geri Allen , with whom he played in the Howard University Jazz Ensemble. In 1978 Art Blakey invited him to the Jazz Messengers and in the same year he graduated from Howard University (Masters in Jazz Studies).

1979 saw his debut album Dream Come True with Geri Allen and Clarence Seay (also a fellow student). In 1982 he was tutored by Slide Hampton . He was a high school teacher himself and played semi-professional American football . In 1989 he moved to New York and joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington , where he remained until 2000.

Then he played in 2001 in the Art Blakey Jazz Messenger Revue in Birdland and processed this into his musical It's a Hardbob Life , which premiered as an off-Broadway piece at the 2004 JVC Jazz Festival. The performers were all professional jazz musicians, including Royal, Billy Harper , Chris Albert, Andy McCloud , Marcus Persiani and Ken Crutchfield. In addition, he worked as a studio musician for various television and film productions. In 2008 he was one of the judges on the TV casting show America's Hot Musician (on the cable channel Lifetime Real Women ), in which instrumentalists competed against each other.

In 2009 he was one of the plaintiffs against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for being reluctant to recognize Juneteenth (June 19) as a public holiday commemorating African American emancipation from slavery. In 2012, his off-Broadway play God Doesn't Mean You Get To Live Forever , which was themed on gospel , was released.

Web links

• Jazz times for Its a Hardbop Life