Roy Campbell Jr.


Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career.

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York City. At the age of fifteen he began learning to play trumpet and soon studied at the Jazz Mobile program along with Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan and Joe Newman. Throughout the 1960s, still unacquainted with the avant-garde movement, Campbell performed in the big bands of the Manhattan Community College. From the 1970s onwards he performed primarily within the context of free jazz, spending some of this period studying with Yusef Lateef.
In the early 1990s Campbell moved to the Netherlands and performed regularly with Klaas Hekman and Don Cherry. In addition to leading his own groups, he performed with Yo La Tengo, William Parker, Peter Brötzmann, Matthew Shipp, and other improvisors. Upon returning to the United States he began leading his group Other Dimensions In Music and also formed the Pyramid Trio, a pianoless trio formed with William Parker.
He died in January 2014 of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at the age of 61.

Discography

As leader

with Other Dimensions in Music
with The Nu Band
with Joe McPhee, William Parker & Warren Smith
;with Billy Bang
;with Peter Brötzmann's Die Like a Dog Quartet
; with Peter Brötzmann Tentet + 2
; with Rob Brown
; with Whit Dickey
;with El-P
; with Ehran Elisha
; with Exuberance
;with Garrison Fewell
; with Yuko Fujiyama
;with Dennis Gonzalez
;with Burton Greene
;with William Hooker Trio with Dave Soldier
; with Khan Jamal
; with Adam Lane
; with Steve Lehman
; with Maneri Ensemble
;with Jemeel Moondoc
;with New Atlantis Octet
; with Kevin Norton
; with William Parker
;with Marc Ribot
;with Saheb Sarbib
; with Matthew Shipp
; with Alan Silva
;with Stone Quartet
; with Steve Swell
;with Charles Tyler
; with Yo La Tengo