About
About Trumpet Dude
Hi there, welcome to Trumpet Dude, a site created to celebrate and further the art of trumpet playing! As your editor, host and moderator, it is my intention to provide you with a variety of content about trumpet playing and other related topics in order to educate, stimulate and entertain. My goal at the outset is to develop and cultivate an audience that is quite diverse in age, background and geographical setting. In this regard, while my background and focus is mainly in the idiom of jazz playing, I will also seek to present material with an international and classical flare whenever possible and hope that we all learn from this adventure.
At Trumpet Dude, trumpet players and connoisseurs will be able to enjoy articles about various artists, available cd’s and books, discussions on trumpet playing technique, creativity, player well being, and equipment. I will also be providing you with listening and viewing samples from various cd’s and dvd’s. Moreover, I will be decorating your reading and listening areas with a variety of my art pieces produced in the air of what I call, ‘life on jazz.’ I hope they contribute to other creative ideas, musically and otherwise.
As you might imagine, my passion for trumpet playing is quite strong. It began many moons ago, when as a youngster I was provided recordings of Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt, both of which are still two of my favorites. I became a student of the trumpet at the young age of 8. Being from a somewhat poor family, I began playing on a used Wallace Cornet. For the first few years, I essentially taught myself. My first real teacher was a retired gentleman that had played in the NBC Orchestra, Harry Talley. As I proceeded to middle and high school and beyond, I was fortunate to be taught by some of the best - Jack Thompson, Frank Lisanti, Betty Desario, Luther Didrickson and Dave Scott. While my road to playing well was a long and hard one, I wouldn’t have made it without the support and encouragement of fellow classmates and players along the way. In that regard, a special thanks to Cindy Scaruffi, Michael Manthey, Dan Ward, Michael Ridgway, Walter Cazalas and Rusty Bosarge.
The trumpet, in historic times, was quite the regal instrument, one for royalty and privilege. In fact, trumpet playing in the medieval period was a guarded craft, its instruction occurring only within highly selective guilds. The trumpet players during this period were often among the most heavily guarded members of a troop because they were relied upon to relay instructions to other sections of the armed forces. Of course, in comparison to what we now know as trumpets and the like today, the horns in these settings were quite primitive. The production and manufacture of the trumpet has surely come a long way since its earliest form somewhere in the period of 1500 BC. Today we have access to beautifully designed and engineered horns and mouthpieces, access to instructional guides, and ample listening examples of trumpet legends of our time and before, including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, among others. However, the stature of the trumpet in our society seems to have drifted somewhat in modern society and its adopted sounds. In these new styles, with the advent of synthesisers and guitars, trumpets are notably lacking.
Thankfully, there are still numerous and capable players who are blazing trails in a host of arenas from traditional to post bop and beyond. While I hope to expose the younger set to the legends. I also intend to discover and promote as many modern day and up and coming artists as possible. Trumpet players unite, let’s regain our rightful position at the top of the music hierarchy and enrich the listening palette!!
