One of the finest trumpet players alive today, Jon Faddis, talks about how your stance is extremely important when approaching the upper register. He states, that you should stand as tall as possible, as if someone had a string pulling your head up. I couldn’t agree more, if I try to play in any other stance, my range and endurance suffer. My thought on why this is so has to do with how our breathing apparatus functions. My approach also involves pulling the chest up high and the feet placed a bit further than shoulder width apart, with a slightly squatty stance as well. Jon also stresses the importance of being able to hear in your head what it is you want to play in the upper register. Moreover, he emphasizes listening to other masters of the stratosphere, such as Maynard Ferguson and Dizzy Gillespie. Of course, the TrumpetDude strongly suggests you listen to Jon Faddis!

The great teacher, Arnold Jacobs added to this aspect of playing by focusing on the size of the air column too. He said in almost every instance when players came to him wanting help with their embouchure, he would end up pointing out that they simply were not supporting the embouchure with enough air, that the air column was too thin. This brings me to my other aspect of playing well. Our throats must be open WIDE!! An open throat is imperative to achieving the large air column necessary to play well in any register, to have endurance, and of course, to be able to play high notes. Much of this, of course, is MENTAL. Trumpet playing is a physical sport but one that is done with more mental energy than say weight lifting. If the mind is not right, the body will NOT follow. Sometimes we are just too tired to concentrate properly, other times we are just too UPTIGHT. When we are uptight, because of performance anxiety or just because we are stressed about whatever, our throats close up, it’s just a natural bodily reaction to the stress. So, one approach that Arnold Jacobs taught was to think and ingrain in your head OH for inhalation and TOH for exhalation without any hesitation in between. OK, what do the chops do? They vibrate and the mouthpiece captures the vibrations. Nothing more. Nothing less.

In sum, to play trumpet well, you must have your MIND right, your AIR full and unrestricted and your CHOPS vibrating! Sounds easy enough, but of course some days you just want to throw the horn out the window because you just can’t get it right. Well, perhaps it’s good that I delayed the writing of this article. Because, what I came across may help all of us with achieving the sweet spot in our playing everyday!

A trumpet player named Glenn Bengry wrote a brief piece on TPIN putting forth his distillation of what his friend Emil Gowatch gleaned from the infamous Raphael Mendez. Mr. Bengry says, ‘the chops come to the mouthpiece, not the mouthpiece coming to the chops.’ I think that is so very true, although, invariably, as impatient people we confuse this.

I believe the warm up approach that Mr. Bengry describes has a great deal of merit and should be tried in anticipation of implementing the other notions of playing issues I have presented above.

Glen says, “Blow gently through the mouthpiece, lips in a general mmmmmmm position but very loose, mouthpiece very lightly touching the lips (barely) NO SOUND YET, all you impatient trumpeters, WAIT. You don’t want to get a sound until you’ve blown in this fashion probably between 10-20 times give or take a little. (Mendez says to blow 2-3 minutes just air) You want the air to FLOW THROUGH the mouthpiece as easily as any exhalation Repeat this step with a VERY SMALL increase in air speed. Hold the lips together a LITTLE more firmly. Each time, you will be a little faster and firmer. the lips will gradually begin to gently “grip” the mouthpiece with somewhat equal contact around the whole circle of the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece does NOT hold the lips in place (our biggest hurdle perhaps). The mouthpiece “catches” the vibrations. So the chops come TO the mouthpiece, not the mouthpiece TO the chops (and usually too much against the chops). The trumpet beast makes us press too hard. The horn is only a resonator and amplifier essentially. It amplifies what it catches from the lips. At some point as you make these tiny adjustments the speed and firmness will be at the point where a vibration will spontaneously happen. It may only be a short vibration, which will disappear right away. You are now extremely close to a balance/efficient point. Now speed up your air a little more and you will likely get a longer buzz (it’s tempting to abandon your perfect spot and immediately go back to the “old way”. Resist if you can. Once you get here, you are real close to YOUR magic spot. You should now be real close to being able to maintain this easy, flowing, light pressure sound as a long tone. See if you can maintain the balance between air speed, embouchure firmness and mouthpiece contact/pressure. This is the basis for your own tone production balance (you have to find that spot every day).”

Keep jamming fellow Trumpeters!!

Trumpetdude

The three-day event will feature performances by Terence Blanchard, Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Marcus Belgrave, the UArts Jazz Ensembles and many others. The Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra will premiere a new John Fedchock composition dedicated to Clifford Brown. 

“Brownie Speaks: A Video Documentary,” produced by UArts School of Music faculty member, composer, pianist, and recording artist Don Glanden, will premiere at the symposium. Brown’s son, Clifford Brown Jr. will serve as the symposium’s master of ceremonies. Participants will include Nat Hentoff, Lewis Porter, Don Glanden, Rick Lawn, Alan Hood, Nick Catalano, Phil Schaap, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Geneva Griffin, and others.  There will be daily performances by jazz ensembles from The University of the Arts School of Music, Marc Dicciani, Director. 

Schedule of Events

For people interested in attending symposia events or evening concerts they have provided an online registration form and invitation providing further details regarding concert tickets and so forth. There is no cost to register for daytime symposia events!

Just kidding. But until I came across Dennis Gonzales’ video a few weeks ago, I hadn’t thought about cornets since High School, some thirty plus years ago! I also forgot about the pretty sound you can produce on them. Well, it started me to thinking I needed to add a cornet to my arsenal. In the process I came across a real gem that I wanted to share with you all.

There’s this guy named Nick DeCarlis, who started to play as a kid, quit, and later, while in college, taught himself how to play. Well, since that time, he’s become a collector/restorer, gifted cornet player and avid promoter of jazz music. There is some really neat stuff on his web page ‘vintagecornets’, including an article and photos of cornets with two bells. I have placed some of the links to Nick’s sites below. Check these sites out and find out what the ‘Cornet Conspiracy’ is all about. Also, if you haven’t listened to the Dennis Gonzales video, please do!

TD

http://vintagecornets.com

http://www.jazzcor.net/

http://www.pocketcornets.com/index.html

http://www.decadesign.com/scptest/classicjazzbrochure.pdf

Festival of New Trumpet Music is a two-week celebration of the diverse contemporary music scene, including its international contributors. Through a series of commissioned works, concerts, master classes and panels it focuses on the multitude of ways the trumpet is being sounded, and in the most grassroots sense it brings players and communities together in an embrace of creative culture. This year’s festival will open with their first award of recognition. The award will be presented to Wadada Leo Smith for his visionary musical and cultural analysis, his revolutionary approach to composition and of course his brilliant brass playing. In addition, FONT Music 2008 is commissioning new music from three extraordinary players: Chris DiMeglio, Nabaté Isles, and Reut Regev. Participants will also witness a host of new collaborations amongst trumpeters of varied persuasions, including performances by Dave Douglas, Ralph Alessi, Avishai Cohen, Ingrid Jensen, Jeremy Pelt, Ambrose Akinmusire, and many others. FONT asserts that, “far from an exhaustive survey, these two weeks are but a small sampling from the vast ocean of current practice – how it has changed the world of brass and been changed by it.” FONT Director, Curator and Trumpeter, Dave Douglas says, “the sea change here is in the radical, dangerous proposal for the coexistence of all music, a dismantling of all the institutional barriers erected to preserve the separation of genres and communities. Our mission in brass is to proclaim this all over the city, with a clear tone and a pure sound, as a font of inspiration: that all music is one.”

Trumpet players and fans, this is one festival you don’t want to miss!

This has always been one of my favorite jazz genres. I mean it was the first sort of rock I heard. Although my mother was a very capable singer with a beautiful voice, the music available in the household was fairly limited, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole. Soft stuff, you know. No Elvis or Beatles or anything close. When I started playing the trumpet, I gravitated to the trumpet records by Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt, and of course the old ‘Echoes of an Era’ Maynard Ferguson Orchestra stuff. So, when my friends showed up one day with the Bill Chase ‘Pure Music’ album, I was completely blown away. Mind you, I was all of 12 years old at the time. To this day, that is still one of my favorites. Although, I now find myself listening to Bill Chase’s ‘Ennea’ album more than the others. Strange what age will do to you! I mean if you want a practice work out, start transcribing and playing some of that stuff. Four highly skilled trumpet players playing just absolutely amazing. Songs like Poseidon and Zeus. Oh yeah!

Bill was the godfather of Jazz Rock or Fusion as its now called. Nothing else has ever come close to the awesome sound he created with his group, ‘Chase.’ Speaking of the ‘godfather,’ Bill Chase’s original family name is a true Italian one, Chiaiese (key-ah-tze). His father, however, decided to simplify it to Chase. Prior to forming ‘Chase,’ Bill paid his dues playing lead with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson and Woody Herman. Trumpet was not Bill’s first instrument. Rather, he started as a drummer. Sometime in the middle of High School, Bill decided he had had enough of carrying a heavy bass drum in parades. His father had played trumpet and so he started playing his father’s horn and took to it quickly.

Bill was truly an innovator both as a lead player and of course with his own group. His creations were legendary. Unfortunately he was taken from us too soon. He died in a plane crash between gigs in August of 1974.

So, when I discovered recently that all three of his albums are available in a cd set through Amazon I was euphoric, to say the least. Check this out, this is an absolute must have for trumpet fans.

Trumpet Dude salutes one of the best today, Happy Birthday Kenny! Yes, Kenny Dorham was one of the best voices to ever travel the trajectories of a trumpet. While his playing voice was incredible, he never received the accolades he should have from the jazz establishment, always overshadowed by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro. Perhaps this is simply because he didn’t have a flamboyant personality like the others. I can only speculate, but in fact, he was referred to as ‘quiet Kenny.’ Regardless, his playing has stood the test of time and is now considered some of the best and a must listen for any aspiring jazz trumpeter today. I myself had not heard of Kenny until trumpeter Dave Scott turned me on to him some years ago, asserting that Kenny was his favorite. To this day, I am utterly amazed and challenged by the music that Kenny composed in his improvisations.

Kenny grew up in south Texas and began to teach himself piano and trumpet during High School. During High School he also spent a lot of time on the school boxing team. He studied chemistry and physics in college and was drafted into the Army in 1942. By 1945 he was playing in the first Dizzy Gillespie big band. Thereafter, he played with other great jazz players and leaders including Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Mercer Ellington and also the BeBop Boys (aka 52nd Street Boys).

Kenny was a wonderful composer. He composed and arranged several great pieces including, “Okay for Baby” for Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter, and “Malibu” for Cootie Williams. He also did ghosting arrangements for the infamous Gil Fuller that were sold to several name big bands, including Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, and Gene Krupa. He is also remembered for writing the jazz standard, ‘Blue Bossa.’

In late 1948, Kenny replaced Miles Davis in the Charlie Parker quintet where he continued to play for a year or so. This group played together at the Paris Jazz Fair in 1949. Following that gig, Kenny did free lance work in New York playing alongside many greats including the brilliant players and composers Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.

Twice in his playing career Kenny replaced trumpeter Clifford Brown. First, for Art Blakey’s group the ‘Jazz Messengers,’ in 1954, when Clifford formed the infamous quintet with Max Roach (Brown/Roach Quintet) and then replacing him in that same group in late 1956 when Clifford tragically died in an auto accident.

Kenny also headed several of his own groups including a group he named the ‘Jazz Prophets.’ A notable player that joined one of Kenny’s groups was a young tenor saxophonist, Joe Henderson, who was 26 when he teamed up with Kenny in 1963. They formed a long lasting friendship and were quite prolific producing many fine pieces for Blue Note and Prestige, including my favorite, ‘Una Mas.’ This documented period also reveals Kenny playing with up and comer, Herbie Hancock.

During his short life, Kenny also wrote several great and insightful reviews for the jazz magazine, ‘Downbeat.’

Happy Birthday, Kenny!!

Disc two includes: ‘MacArthur Park,’ and ‘Meet a Cheetah.’

Maynard Ferguson was truly one of the greatest trumpet players ever! He was not only the best trumpeter to ever master the stratospheric register of trumpet playing, he was also a talented soloist and multi-instrumentalist. He began playing music when he was quite young, and by the age of 15 was playing in a group with Oscar Peterson. Maynard was an internationally famous big-band leader, one of the world’s great brass players, an instrument designer, record producer, composer, arranger, producer of film soundtracks, and a truly dedicated teacher. He also studied yoga extensively, lived in India and was cited as being at a house gathering in Connecticut where Timothy Leary was present.
For those of you who would rather purchase the CD versions of this project, you can purchase them directly from Sleepy Night at http://www.sleepynightrecords.com/