You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Instrument Spotlight: The Trumpet - #113

Episode Date: May 22, 2018

In this episode, Adam and Peter put the spotlight on one of jazz' most acclaimed instruments: the trumpet See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin and you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast Today we're going to shine the instrument spotlight on the trumpet Now this is the third attempt we've had at starting this episode So I'm not sure if we know what we're doing here with this trumpet spotlight Well a little disclaimer that it's the third time Okay the first time we were thrown so much shade we felt bad It was too negative too, we went negative too fast

The second we went a little too positive We went too positive We got to hit a middle ground on this one I think that's why I called this out because I think we're going to hit just the right note That's right. I feel good about it. Unlike most trumpet. I'm just kidding. I already went there. I already went there.

No, the trumpet is such an iconic instrument of the music just physically, you know, how it looks. A trumpet player in front of the band, of course, where they always want to be. But it's fun, you know, we're both from St. Louis or both grew up in St. Louis and live here now, and this is a great trumpet town. Actually, most of my life I've spent St. Louis, New York, and New Orleans. And, you know, certainly New Orleans, St. Louis, big trumpet towns. Yeah, we, you know, Miles Davis, Clark Terry, and then folks like Russell Gunn later, I mean, just amazing. Keon Harold. Keon Harold.

Yeah. Unbelievable people from here. So, yeah, we have this tradition. And the trumpet is, I mean, it deserves the spotlight. It is an amazingly expressive instrument, you know, with the help of Lewis Armstrong, helped make jazz what it is. And became this iconic sound of what. And King Oliver before that, I mean, that was like a real bridge to the music. And I think, you know, we, I mean, it's just, it's a very difficult instrument to play.

I mean, when you hear a great player, this is true for any instrument, but it's, I think, a little bit more so for the trumpet. When you hear it played well, it still seems hard because, you know, the physicality of it is definitely there. And I think, you know, combined, well, you know, the piano or the guitar, anyone can sit down and just play a note or even a chord. You can learn in a few minutes. Yeah. The trumpet, you can take weeks just to learn how to play a note. there's such a physical limitation. I mean, you have to build up those muscles in your umbyshire before you can do anything. Right. Oh, I know you spoke French. Ambosur.

Yeah. No, but you, you, you just, you know, and you can't put it down for too long, or else you lose those muscles. Even professional trumpet players have to stay on the horn all the time. There's some trumpet players I wish would put it down for a little while, but those aren't pros. Luckily, we've got a bunch of good ones that... It's definitely one of those instruments that if you're not good at it, it's very obvious. Yeah, it's kind of hard to slide on that. Well, I mean, I think that's more trombone if you want to slide. But the thing

is, too, like the trumpet, you know, we would say as pianists, we'd be like, okay, the physicality's hard, but then the range isn't that big compared to the piano, and you can only play one note at a time, so that makes it easier. But that that's actually difficult, you know? I mean, we like to say that is, oh, the piano

is so much harder because we could do all these different things. But that's also a crutch for us that horn players don't have in that they have to create, you know, if they want to play a line with a sense of harmony, it really has to have a sense of harmony. For us, we can play a line, and if it doesn't have a sense of harmony, just throwing a little chord in the left hand and make it seem like we know what we're doing with our right hand. I do that all the time. Hey, oldest trick in the book. It works. Hashtag works.

That's why I like Joey D. Francesco, he's got the trumpet in one hand, he's got the organ in the other. Yeah, he knows how to cover that. Best of both worlds. Yeah, play the bass with his feet. Yeah. Exactly. So let's talk about, yeah, let's talk about some great trumpeters. And I mean, we can certainly start with the obvious ones, but they certainly need to be mentioned right here in St. Clark Terry. One of the best. Yeah, one of the great players,

great vocalists, just great educator. You know, he's not as well, I mean, I guess he was known as an educator, but I mean, he was such an inspiring,

you know, inspiring to so many different generations, all the way up until when he died just a few years ago, was still teaching, you know, high school kids would come by. Yeah. When he was bed,

you know, bed stricken and, and, I think he's just like a classic, mentor. He's a great mentor to young musicians. Yeah. So it's amazing. And then of course, you know, if you go a little bit further back to people like Clifford Brown, you know, Miles Davis, that era, amazing things done with the trumpet.

Amazing, Dizzy Gillespie can't Overlift is and all this. And then there's some others that are not as well known that I love to, you know, mention because it seems like, I'm surprised, sometimes young players or, it's sort of like when we talked about different records than when we're surprised, they're not known as like deep tracks, or even known, you know, because they go in and out of fashion. Fats Navarro.

I was this Fatsnavado. Yeah, no, amazing. Fats Navarro, yeah, he was just classic tracks, very influential on Clifford Brown, I believe. Certainly on Miles Davis, I know. Yeah, yeah, totally. Fats Navarro, who is that? Well, you know, Lee Morgan's definitely known,

but sometimes he's not heralded as much as a great trumpeter, per se, you know, great bands, groovy blue-note stuff, but really great player. Amazing, yeah. Kenny Dorham. Kenny Dorham. Donald Bird. Donald Bird.

Wow, yeah. My sister actually, a little side and family note, she took a jazz history course when she was at Oberlin School of Oberlin College. She wasn't even the school of music, but kind of an elective chorus with Donald Bird. And she said he was super dark the whole semester about how Miles Davis stole all his spotlight. That gives you a little bit about the trumpeter mentality. It is competitive. Yeah.

There's not a lot of trumpet gigs. Yep. you know and how like miles stole because you know when herbie hancock first went to new york he was actually playing with donald burr's band that's right and miles kind of stole him well speaking of that whole generation there's freddie hubbard oh fred you know unbelievable yeah musician uh and mentor again to young musicians yeah um not always the best example to the young musicians not always the best absolutely yeah yeah musically is great well and then we kind of get into i mean obviously there's winton is sort of the modern

Winton Marsalis, sort of the modern, you know, a towering figure of the trumpet still to this day. Yep. And then sort of that generation,

you know, morphs into like people like Nicholas Peyton. Yeah, you get to a lot of modern New Orleans players, Terrence Blancher. Randy Brecker is in that category of players.

He's a little older than those guys. A little older, yeah, but of that level of like, incredible. And, you know, I think with Winton, the thing that always amazes me, is what an icon and idol he is to just the trumpet and brass world beyond jazz.

Like he's really, he's like a trumpeter's trumpeter. He, I mean, the classical players, orchestra players geek out, even if they don't play jazz or even no jazz. We saw this last week here. We did. He was here in St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra playing. His swing symphony. And, you know, the classical players who in general, in my experience of classical players,

their technique is superior to all other styles of music. And it usually... In their mind, at least. If not in real life. They spend so much time on it, especially the trumpet players. They can sniff out bad tone a mile away. And they're also in awe of Winton. Yeah.

I mean, they were like slobbering little babies. It was kind of weird. But I mean, that just goes to show what he actually has. I mean, that doesn't happen a lot with classical pianists to jazz pianists. You know what I mean? No, you got to go back to like Tatum and Oscar Peterson. I think even like Herbie, who was a really good classical play. Like, you don't hear the classical players, unless they're into jazz.

Then, of course, you know. But just on a technical level, I think Winton, I'm trying to think who else in the jazz world. That would be a fun little list. You know, great jazz player. The only jazz players, the classical players respect. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, Winton's definitely, I mean, for all brass, too, like trombone players. I guess his, actually, Chris Bodie was explaining to me.

Chris Bode is another great trumpeter that's not as associated with jazz, but he's actually a very good player. Yeah, yes. And, you know, he was explaining that, like, Winton's, and I don't want to paraphrase too much, which I'm about to do. But basically, the general gist was that Winton's technique on every level is so perfect that any trumpet player would just love it. Even if they didn't like his style or thought he played sharp or whatever,

they're just like, like the way he holds the instrument, the way he fingers, his ambershersture, his sound, his, you know, just everything. And then what he can do with it. And he's not even like known as definitely not as like the highest trumpet player. That's not his thing. No, he's not like a Maynard Ferguson style guy. No, no. But just in terms of his general, you know, and then also those classical recordings that he's made over the years,

which were mostly quite a bit earlier in his career, I believe. You know, Haydn' Trump, trumpet concerto, Hummel, trumpet concerto, Fasch, and those things. They're like the gold standard for those pieces. They're not recorded a lot or played a lot. I mean, there was, I remember Maurice Andre before, and then, like, those are kind of the, recordings. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, and then, so then we can get even more, a little bit more modern with people like Roy Hargrove. Oh, yeah. You know, Keon, our friend Keon, Harold, here from St. Louis. And I would say Roy, you know, talking about Keon, like Keon definitely, you know, a little younger

than Roy and coming. I mean, he's not, it doesn't sound like Roy, but I think he was influenced, he would probably say most by Roy. And actually, that whole generation, the generation of Great Trumpeters now, I think Roy has had the biggest influence on. I mean, I think Winton has had a big influence on the kind of the whole scene. Yeah. But with trumpet players, I don't know, the way I hear them play. You talk about guys like Christian Scott and cats like that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Roy really has a huge, and rightfully so, just an amazing musician. Yeah. Yeah. And not necessarily known as like this classic great, not classical, but just like Trump, I mean, very good trumpet player,

but just an amazing musician. I mean, you hear him play piano, his writing, his understanding of different styles, very organic and interesting and just a consummate player. Yeah. player. And like in the tradition of like a jazz musician who really has a great style about him, who not just, I mean, in his music, but also just personally, like he brings something to the music that I think is needed sometimes. You know what I mean? That like showmanship. And man, he's him and Kevin Hart are representing for the stylish short guys, which is something that I'm very interested in. So Roy's always been great for like the five foot six guys, you know, like to represent out here. So I was going to say, are we missing anyone? Yes. We're

missing a ton of folks, which we'd love to hear from you guys. But it's just fun to talk about the lesser instruments, anything but the piano, basically. It's good exercise for us, right? That's right, yeah. So maybe tomorrow we'll do us, we'll put the spotlight somewhere. Yeah. But you'll have to tune in so that you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast.

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