TOM HARRELL

jazz trumpeter

“I think the first album I bought was ‘The Charlie Parker Story: Volume 1.’ It was an anthology on Verve with a really nice cross-section of styles. There were the things with strings, big band stuff and the quintet with Kenny Clarke. And also with Machito and his orchestra.

“I didn’t really understand what he was doing. His music wasn’t accessible to me right away. It took me a while to see the logic in his playing because it’s so complex. But at the same time, it’s so human. It’s just incredible.

“I think that before I bought that album, I had heard ‘Relaxin’ at Camarillo’ at home, and that was my first exposure to Charlie Parker.”