Al Naylor

2013

Al Naylor is the trumpet teacher at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He plays with his own brass quintet, The Cedar Edition, and with the Coe Faculty Brass Trio and Quartet. As a soloist, he performs in both concert and jazz venues. His teachers have included Keith Johnson, Arnold Jacobs, Thomas Lisenbee, Randy Grabowski, and Roger Wood.

As a jazz performer, Al has played with many great artists including Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, Dick Oatts, Bobby Shew, Victor Mendoza, Jerry Niewood, Ernie Watts, Paul McKee, Bill Frisell, Ray Anderson, Corey Christiansen, Bob Sheppard, Brian Lynch, John Fedchock, Conrad Herwig, Wycliffe Gordon, Chris Vadala, and Steve Turre. Al has also performed with Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Buckinghams, the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and was a founding member of the popular area group, Orquesta Alto Maiz. He has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival twice.

Locally, Al performs with his own small jazz ensembles, Bob Dorr and the Blue Band, the Rod Pierson Big Band, and the CR Jazz Big Band. Each year, Al records the trumpet audition etudes for both the concert band and jazz all-state bands, making these available on his website for student reference.

As an educator, Al taught in the Iowa public schools for 28 years. Along with his duties at Coe College, he has a large private trumpet and jazz studio. Al maintains a busy schedule of guest soloing and working with middle school and high school bands throughout the state. He is a former president of the Iowa Chapter of International Association of Jazz Educators.

Al's compositions and arrangements have been performed by many high school and middle school jazz bands. From 1995 to 2009, he was the orchestrator and arranger for the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and its Discovery Chorus.

Al is the co-editor of "Spoon River," by Percy Grainger, which has been published by Southern Music. Grainger’s concert band version of "Spoon River" had never been published, but parts for this piece were discovered in the Coe College Music Library. "Spoon River" has recently been recorded by the President’s Own Marine Band and the Dallas Wind Symphony.

Al's recording credits include soloing on the CD, Rain or Shine, by blues artist, Joe Price. This album was awarded the best blues album of the year in 2010 by the prestigious international program, the Independent Music Awards. He is on three albums with Bob Dorr and the Blue Band, New Year’s Eve Pimento, Happy Blue Year and Blue Moon Honeymoon. Al is featured on many albums with Orquesta Alto Maiz, many of which can be found on CD Baby and Tunes. His first CD as the leader, Legacy, has just been released.