Ernest Andrew Royal (June 2, 1921 in Los Angeles, California – March 16, 1983 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter. His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).
He began in Los Angeles as a member of Les Hite's Orchestra in 1937. In the following 20 years he would work with Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Wardell Gray, Stan Kenton and recording as a member of the Charles Mingus Octet, with Teo Macero, John Lewis and Kenny Clarke, among others, in 1953. He led ten albums, most of them recorded in Paris. In 1957 he became a staff musician for the American Broadcasting Company. He went on to play in The Tonight Show Band and can be heard on the Miles Davis albums Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), and Sketches of Spain (1960).
A resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, Royal died of cancer at age 61 at Mount Sinai Hospital on March 16, 1983.
1953: Portraits on Standards, The Kenton Era – Stan Kenton
1954: Afro, Dizzy and Strings – Dizzy Gillespie
1955: Jazz Recital – Dizzy Gillespie
1955: Accent on Tenor Sax – Coleman Hawkins
1955: Another One – Oscar Pettiford
1955: Introducing Jimmy Cleveland and His All Stars – Jimmy Cleveland
1955: Sonny Stitt Plays Arrangements from the Pen of Quincy Jones – Sonny Stitt
1955: Top Brass – Ernie Wilkins
1956: The Hawk in Hi Fi – Coleman Hawkins
1956: In the Land of Hi-Fi with Julian Cannonball Adderley – Cannonball Adderley
1956: The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi – Oscar Pettiford
1956: The Drum Suite (RCA Victor, 1956) – Manny Albam-Ernie Wilkins and their Orchestra
1956: Salute to Satch – Joe Newman
1957: Miles Ahead – Miles Davis
1957: Phineas Newborn, Jr. Plays Harold Arlen's Music from Jamaica – Phineas Newborn, Jr.