Early performing At sixteen, Ingram toured with
Louie Bellson, sharing section duties with
Blue Mitchell, Bobby Shew,
Cat Anderson, and Frank Szabo. His first international gigs were with the group during the 1974 Belvedere King Size Jazz Festival Tour at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, and the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. After his stint with Bellson, he graduated from high school and then joined
Quincy Jones on a fall tour. After that tour, he spent a year touring with
Connie Stevens, playing lead trumpet for the first time. After that, he moved to Las Vegas, where for two years he gained experience playing on the Las Vegas Strip.
With Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson In 1985, Ingram joined the
Woody Herman Orchestra as lead trumpet. Ingram's friend Ron Stout held the jazz trumpet chair and helped get him in the band. He remained with the band until Herman's death in 1987. He recorded three Grammy-nominated albums with Herman:
The 50th Anniversary Tour, ''Woody's Gold Star
, and The Concord Years''. He is the last lead trumpeter to play with the "original" Woody Herman Orchestra. Ingram returned to Los Angeles after Herman's death, founding and co-leading his big band with saxophonist Steve Elliott. The Ingram-Elliott big band featured Bobby Shew,
Till Brönner,
Bill Watrous, and
Gary Foster. In 1988, he worked with the WDR Jazz Orchestra in Cologne, Germany. While in Germany, he recorded works by
Bob Brookmeyer and
Jim McNeely with
Mel Lewis on drums. During this time, he recorded with saxophonist
Loren Schoenberg and pianist
Django Bates. After three years as lead trumpeter for Ferguson, he moved to Florida, where he was a teaching assistant and private instructor at the
University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. While in Miami, he collaborated with his friend and colleague, Cuban trumpeter
Arturo Sandoval, recording the Grammy Award-winning album,
Danzon. He also did commercial recording work, performed and toured with the New
Xavier Cugat Orchestra, and worked on a consistent basis with the Peter Graves Orchestra.
Instrument design In 2009, Ingram designed a B♭ trumpet for the
Jupiter Band Instrument Company. This trumpet is the XO Series 1600I model, known as the I-horn, and is the trumpet he uses exclusively. He also performs with the Jupiter XO Series professional
flugelhorn and the Jupiter XO Series professional 4-valve B-flat/A
piccolo trumpet (Jupiter 1700RS). For fun, he also plays the Jupiter 528L
valve trombone. A line of classic mutes designed by Ingram and manufactured by Warburton USA was launched at the
Midwest Clinic in December 2016. These accessories for trumpet and cornet are the Ingram-MuteMeister Cup, ShowTone, and Straight mutes.
Solo work and writing Ingram's debut solo album,
Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway, was released and reviewed in 2014. His second album,
Skylark, was released in 2015. Both were on his
One Too Tree Records label. In February 2010, after 36 years, he "retired" from the tour bus and being a sideman. Since 2005, he has been an
Artist in Residence of the Music Conservatory at the
Chicago College of Performing Arts at
Roosevelt University. ==Awards and honors==