Stacy Rowles, a trumpet-flugelhorn player and occasional vocalist based in Southern California, died on October 30, 2009. She was just 54 year old. Ms. Rowles was seriously injured in a car accident two weeks ago.

Rowles, daughter of the pianist Jimmy Rowles, grew up with jazz and first performed at a teenager with her father at the Monterey Jazz Festival. She also appeared on a few of his recordings. She went on to a long career of her own as a member of Ann Patterson’s Maiden Voyage band as well as The Jazz Birds, which was a small-group offshoot of that band. She also performed with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and other Los Angeles-based jazz groups. Her CD, Tell It Like It Is was released by Concord Jazz in 1984. Ms. Rowles appeared periodically on the jazz cruise and jazz party circuits. She was noted for her melodic and lyrical tone on flugelhorn.

Here is a statement from her web site:

“Stacy Rowles had the great good fortune to have a parent, pianist Jimmy Rowles, who was one of the Southland’s most admired jazz artists. More than that, she had the opportunity to share his music and the wisdom to receive his knowledge. Jimmy Rowles probably didn’t anticipate that his daughter would choose to become one of the rare female trumpet-fluegelhorn players. But their performances together afforded rare and memorable jazz pleasures. Rowles’ fluegelhorn playing, even more than her trumpet work, combines a warm, often sensuous sound with briskly swinging, melodically based improvisations. Although she is better known as an instrumentalist, her warm-toned vocals move confidently from sweetly intimate balladry to in-the-pocket, swinging grooves. And watching Stacy Rowles in action, masterfully displaying her craft, one could easily imagine Jimmy Rowles, somewhere, listening to the set and smiling proudly.”