Gregory Charles Royal, also known as Chuck Royal, is an American musician, trombonist, composer, writer, co-founder of The BeBop Channel Corporation, the former 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]
Early life and education
As a student at
Howard University,[6] he received the 1982 DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for Jazz Vocal Group: Graduate College Outstanding Performance in the Jazz Instrumental Soloist Category.[7] He graduated from Howard University with a Master of Music in Jazz Studies.[5]
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.[15]