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Roger Ingram

Roger Ingram, musician, educator and author, is one of the most sought after and prolific jazz lead trumpet players of our time, with more than thirty-eight years of professional experience to his credit. Well known for his dynamic sound and solid upper register, as well as his hard driving sense of swing, Roger's musical legacy is embodied by his respect and regard for artistic integrity. Ingram's definitive voice and performance mastery undoubtedly place him among the lineage of great lead trumpeters in the history of jazz music.

Roger began playing the trumpet in 1965 at the age of eight. He was fortunate to grow up in Los Angeles, and become associated with some of the finest Hollywood trumpet players of the time. Many of these introductions came through his association with the band director at Eagle Rock High School. In addition to being an inspiring high school band director, John Rinaldo was also a gifted and working trumpet player on the LA scene. Through Mr. Rinaldo, Roger was able to meet and study with Laroon Holt and Bobby Shew. Other teachers he studied with include Bud Brisbois, Mannie Klein, Roy Stevens, Bobby Findley, Carmine Caruso, Reynold Schilke, James Stamp, Uan Rasey, Mel Broils, and Dan Jacobs.

John Rinaldo spearheaded one of the most fertile and successful high school jazz programs in the country. From that jazz program came such great musicians as drummers Carlos Vega and Sam Wiley, bassists Scott Colley and David Stone, guitarist Larry Koonse, and saxophonists Doug Rinaldo, Brian Mitchell, and Gary Hypes. Also from that program emerged trombonists Arturo Velasco and Luis Bonilla, pianist Guy Steiner, and trumpeters Bobby Muzingo and Buddy Gordon.

At the age of sixteen, Roger toured with the great Louie Bellson Big Band, sharing his section duties with Blue Mitchell, Bobby Shew, Cat Anderson and Frank Szabo. After his stint with Bellson, Ingram joined the Quincy Jones Big Band for a summer. Immediately following that tour, Roger spent a year touring with the Connie Stevens show, playing lead trumpet for the first time with a "pop" act.

Starting at eighteen, Roger played first trumpet with the international pop star Tom Jones, remaining with him for six years. After his tenure with Jones, Roger moved to Las Vegas, where for two years he gained invaluable experience playing production shows and star acts on the world renowned Las Vegas Strip.

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Liner Notes

Josie Falbo: You Must Believe in Spring

Read "Josie Falbo: You Must Believe in Spring" reviewed by Howard Mandel


The first moments of Josie Falbo's You Must Believe in Spring sweep us into a lush soundscape, through a cinematic introduction, up close and intimately to her marvelous voice. Her voice is full, rich and pure top to bottom, fluid and shapely as anything imaginable, imparting true faith into lyrics valuing a lifetime's experience, acceptance, appreciation and hope. Josie Falbo gives voice to a heartening message, that like all 13 selections here issue sincerely from the glorious musical gifts she ...

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Album Review

The Justin Haynes Jazz Collective: In a Funk

Read "In a Funk" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In a Funk is the second recording as leader by Illinois-bred composer / arranger Justin Haynes, the first by his eighteen-member Jazz Collective. As was true of his debut album, Shoeless in Georgetown (2015), the most impressive cards are Haynes' splendid charts, ably performed by an ensemble of accomplished and purposeful musicians from the Chicago area. Haynes wrote five of the session's enticing themes and arranged all of them, raising the curtain in a hard-swinging groove with ...

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Album Review

The Pete Ellman Big Band: The Twelve Grooves of Christmas

Read "The Twelve Grooves of Christmas" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


As we enter the Holidays, the airwaves and digital streams flow with seasonal fare of all types of genres. And, once we ring in the New Year, said music heads back into hibernation until the next Thanksgiving and December roll around. The Pete Ellman Big Band's The Twelve Grooves of Christmas is such a fine recording that it might not be surprising for listeners to listen to it year around. The effort is that good. This high-energy ...

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Album Review

Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Lockdown

Read "Lockdown" reviewed by Jack Bowers


After taking a pleasant and romantic Midnight Stroll in 2019, trumpeter/composer Joshua Jern's Chicago-based Jazz Orchestra (like almost everyone else) began a coronavirus-decreed Lockdown but has emerged two years later from that self-imposed hiatus swinging harder and more often than ever. As before, most compositions and all arrangements are by Jern; and as before, the orchestra performs them with ardor and panache. This time around, however, there is a formidable new “weapon" on two tracks ("A Stretch ...

5
Album Review

Pete Ellman: For Pete's Ache

Read "For Pete's Ache" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Long a fixture throughout Chicagoland, the Ellman name is synonymous with all things musical. No “ache" at all, this album is a fun big-band romp. There is some outstanding ensemble and solo work and the various terrific arrangements bring the best out of a superb, engaged ensemble. The opener, “High Speed Pursuit," is a whirlwind burner which demonstrates the swing, muscle, and solo talent of this fine ensemble. Think “Naked Gun" on speed. The swing spirit is ...

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Album Review

Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Midnight Stroll

Read "Midnight Stroll" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One can only imagine how difficult it must be, especially in such uncertain times, for any musician to decide that the time has come to assemble a big band and usher it into a recording studio, let alone one whose name and reputation are, more than likely, scarcely known outside his own neighborhood. Thumbing his nose at the odds, Joshua Jern, a Chicago-based trumpeter and educator with impressive talents, has done exactly that, escorting his remarkably well-groomed ensemble on a ...

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Album Review

Roger Ingram: Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway with the Jim Stewart Orchestra

Read "Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway with the Jim Stewart Orchestra" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


In 1960, there was a forgettable little movie titled Visit to a Small Planet (1960, Paramount Pictures) starring comedian Jerry Lewis (with an uncredited cameo by drummer, Buddy Rich). In the flick, all sorts of Lewis-looney shenanigans occur. Recently, trumpeter Roger Ingram landed his craft in Niantic, Connecticut and recorded a half-dozen neat cuts live with this superb local unit. No Looney Tunes here, the mission's result is a swinging and satisfying first encounter of the most enjoyable musical kind. ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Marissa Mulder, Jazz St. Louis Benefit Gala, Hamiet Bluiett and George Sams, Roger Ingram, and More

Jazz This Week: Marissa Mulder, Jazz St. Louis Benefit Gala, Hamiet Bluiett and George Sams, Roger Ingram, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's Mardi Gras weekend in St. Louis, and though the “official" Mardi Gras events in recent years have tended to feature rock cover bands and DJs rather than jazz and blues, there will be plenty of jazz and creative music around town this week, if you know where to look. For the Funky Butt Brass Band, St. Louis' best known exponents of the New Orleans brass band sound, the next few days are the equivalent of the week before Christmas ...

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Education

Roger Ingram to Present Master Class Saturday, March 3 at UMSL

Roger Ingram to Present Master Class Saturday, March 3 at UMSL

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Trumpet player Roger Ingram will be in St. Louis to present a trumpet clinic and master class at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, March 3 at the Villa Annex on the South campus of the University of Missouri—St. Louis (UMSL). Ingram is a noted jazz educator and clinician whose performing resume includes tours and recordings with the big bands of Louis Bellson, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick Jr. as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The ...

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

Chicago

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

http://www.rogeringram.com/lessons.php Roger has been dedicated to music education for decades and has been on faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University since 2004. Many of Roger’s students have gone on to become very successful performers throughout the music industry. Ingram is credited as a private instructor and has also presented hundreds of clinics and masterclasses at schools and universities around the world.

Clinic/Workshop Information

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In a Funk

Self Produced
2022

buy

For Pete's Ache

One Too Tree Records
2021

buy

Lockdown

Self Produced
2021

buy

Midnight Stroll

Self Produced
2020

buy

You Must Believe In...

Southport Records
2020

buy

A Night in Tunisia

From: You Must Believe In Spring
By Roger Ingram

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