Gregory Charles Royal, also known as Chuck Royal, is an American musician, trombonist, composer, writer, co-founder of The BeBop Channel Corporation, the parent owner of JazzTimes.[1][2] founder of the New York Jazz Film Festival, a former judge on America's Hot Musician.[3][4] and the former artistic director of the American Youth Symphony (AYS) in Washington, D.C.[5]
As a student at Howard University,[10] he received the 1982 DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for Jazz Vocal Group: Graduate College Outstanding Performance in the Jazz Instrumental Soloist Category.[11] He graduated from Howard University with a Master of Music in Jazz Studies.[5]
Career
As a 10th grader, Royal caught the attention of drummer Art Blakey during Blakey's appearance at Blues Alley in Washington, DC.[12] Blakey invited Royal to live with him in the summer of 1978 at his 45th Street Manhattan apartment and join his band The Jazz Messengers.[13] Royal's association with Blakey was an indoctrination in the New York jazz scene and led to important engagements with the Collective Black Artist's (CBA) Ensemble. https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/art-blakey-praise-the-messenger/4/
Royal released the jazz album Dream Come True on the GCR Music Company label in 1979. It includes Clarence Seay on bass, Jeff Corbett on drums, Warren Taylor on flute and saxophone, and Geri Allen on piano.[19]
The Dreamer, written by Royal and performed by Sarah Loverock, was certified Gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA on November 4, 2009.[20]
Royal has written, acted and performed in the musical theatre production It's a Hardbop Life.[21][22] An early version of the show, co-written by Denise Bird, was performed in New York in 2001 and La Crosse in 2002. The story used a college basketball star seeking inspiration in jazz as the main character.[23]It's a Hardbop Life appeared as a special event at the New York JVC Jazz Festival in 2004.[22] Revised versions have been presented at a number of venues including Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC in 2010[21] and the Producers Club in New York in 2011.[21][22][24] The most recent version of the show connects a hip-hop artist to his jazz-era father. Royal has stated that "The mission of the (program) is to encourage the young hip-hop generation that instrumental music is integral and important today and not an ancient tradition of past decades."[22] Royal is vocal about his concern for the future of music. He advocates that "artistic elites" desiring to save jazz and classical music should try to connect with (and educate) a younger hip-hop and MTV audience.[25] Royal was commissioned by the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities to produce the documentary To Rap or Play on the subject.[26]
Royal wrote and appeared in the short film World's Not for Me, in which he plays a jazz musician who awakens from a near 30 year coma to find a world he no longer recognizes musically, culturally or financially. The film won the Harlem Spotlight Best Narrative Short Award at the Harlem International Film Festival in September, 2016.[29]
Royal along with his wife, Sue Veres Royal, is the co-founder and interim CEO of The BeBop Channel Corporation, ticker symbol BBOP, the first TV network focused solely on Jazz culture.[30] which later expanded its mission to include dance, theatre and festival offerings after veteran journalist Steven Clemons joined the company as CEO [31] Royal is also founder of the New York Jazz Film Festival.[32]
Most recently, The BeBop Channel acquired JazzTimes as part of its acquisition of Madavor Media on February 15, 2023.[33]
