Arthur Stewart Farmer, August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999.

 I would like to say a special Happy Birthday to one of my personal mentors, Art Farmer. Art began performing as a jazz trumpeter in the 1940’s and 50’s. He, along with Clark Terry, was influential in bringing the flugelhorn into the sounds of jazz. He also later played what I just learned was called a Flumpet, a combination trumpet and flugelhorn designed for him by David Monette.

In the mid 40’s he started playing professionally in Los Angeles, California with the bands of Johnny Otis, Roy Porter, Benny Carter and Jay McShann and others. Many of these groups also featured his identical twin brother and bass player Addison Farmer. In 1953 he joined the Lionel Hampton orchestra, playing alongside trumpeters Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones. During his career he played with many of the jazz greats, including Gigi Gryce, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Golson and McCoy Tyner, among others. Art played in a trio with Jim Hall and Steve Swallow during 1962-64. In 1968, Art moved to Vienna where he joined the Austrian Radio Orchestra, worked with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band and toured Europe with his own groups. In the 1980s Farmer began to visit the United States more often and remained greatly in demand up until his death on October 4, 1999.

Art played beautifully lyrical and inventive passages that really produced a unique complimentary quality to his bop oriented music. Art left us with a large number of quality recordings to enjoy.

Mouthpiece and horn selection can and should be quite personal based on the individual player’s physical makeup, playing style, type of music and the setting they play in. While I love my chosen horns and consider myself a very loyal type, there are several horns available that I would love to get my hands on!

The Trumpet Superstore carries a complete line of trumpets, flugelhorns, mouthpieces, carrying bags and accessories all at the best prices you can imagine.

You’ll find horns by Amati, Bach, Blessing, Conn, Dynasty, Getzen, Giardinelli, Jean-Baptiste, Jupiter, Kanstul, King, Schilke, Selmer, and Stomvi. The trumpet line includes a good selection of student, intermediate and professional level horns. I chose my line of student horns rather prudently and chose only the ones I considered to add value to the student’s playing endeavors. My student selection includes horns by Amati, Conn, Dynasty USA, and Jean-Baptiste.

Mouthpiece makers include Asymmetric, Bach, Blessing, Bob Reeves, Curry, Denis Wick, Giardinelli, Holton, Jet Tone, King, Laskey, Marcinkiewicz, Rudy Muck, Schilke, Stork, Warburton, and Yamaha. The selection includes mouthpieces that are silver plated, gold plated and even a few that are solid silver! You will also find mouthpiece boosters and mouthpiece pouches.

The Superstore also carries a complete selection of mutes for trumpets and flugelhorns, mute holders and mute carrying cases.

The bags and accessories section includes trumpet-carrying bags of all makes and models, mouthpiece pouches, instrument stands and more.

The valve oil and slide lube section was devised for easy access for those quick need purchases. In addition to the valve oil and slide lube, this section has cleaning equipment too.