Age of Diagnosis: In His 20’s

Tom Harrell is an American composer and arranger and a jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist born in 1946.

Harrell has won awards and grants, including multiple Trumpeter of the Year awards from Down Beat magazine, SESAC Jazz Award, Broadcast Music Incorporated Composers Award, and Prix Oscar du Jazz. He received a Grammy nomination for his big band album, Time’s Mirror. Harrell’s success is quite a story given that he is a famous person with schizophrenia. His disability profoundly affects his life when off stage. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, which affects every aspect of his life. On stage he stands away from the microphone, off to the side, his head bowed and his hands clutching his trumpet. When called upon to play, he walks slowly to the microphone, head still lowered, raising it only to play. When finished, he bows his head and resumes his original place. He has been recorded on over 260 albums and continues to compose, record and tour around the world, all in spite of his Schizophrenia diagnosis.

Tell us what you think of Tom Harrell, his music, and his challenges in the comments below the discography.

Discography