Category: Trumpet Inspirations

Our featured trumpet player this week is Clark Terry, one of the greatest jazz trumpet players ever. His playing is always swinging, soulful, and improvised with great musicianship and excitement.

In the first video below (Mack the Knife), he is playing on a flugelhorn. This instrument is very similar to the trumpet — the range and fingerings are the same. Its wider and rounder shape gives it a slightly warmer tone.

In the second video (Brotherhood of Man), he uses a plunger to create the WAH effect in his sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjruI-f_IjQ

Happy New Year! Our featured trumpet player this week is Rafael Mendez, arguably one of the greatest trumpet soloists of all time. Mendez was alive from 1906 to 1981. Younger listeners will notice the sound quality on these older recordings is different that what we are used to today, but the level of performance is still incredible.

Mendez was born in Mexico and moved to the United States when he was 20. He performed frequently as a soloist and worked in recording studios in Hollywood. He is best known for his vibrant tone and precise double tongue technique. Because of his clear tone and technique, he is able to perform in a way that is exciting and musically expressive.

Several of my high school seniors are currently preparing for college auditions, and many of them are working on the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Kent Kennan. This has always been one of my favorite trumpet sonatas, and this particular recording by Ray Mase (trumpet) and David Pearl (piano) is one of my all-time favorites.

Ray Mase currently teaches trumpet at the Julliard School, and he was a member of the American Brass Quintet for 40 years! He’s always been one of my favorite classical trumpet players because of the variety of colors he can create with his sound and the excitement of his musical interpretations.

As you listen to this recording, notice the musical interplay between the trumpet and piano. Both instruments play an exciting and interesting role in this piece.

A note to younger trumpet players: This piece was written in the atonal composition style, which means it doesn’t use traditional scales and chords. It might sound a little different to new listeners (almost like hearing a new language for the first time). I urge you to give the piece a chance! Your ears will get used to it and understand the music better each time you listen to it.

Our last holiday-themed video is a full hour of big band Christmas arrangements by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6nKzMHBV8Y

This video is a short Christmas medley by the German Brass. They have A LOT of other great videos on YouTube, so please look them up!

The trumpet players in this video are using rotary trumpets (they look sideways) and a piccolo trumpet (the little one playing the highest notes).

This week’s video features Wayne Bergeron with the Tom Kubis Big Band performing a jazz arrangement of the Christmas classic Oh Holy Night. Bergeron plays a beautiful flugelhorn solo at the beginning of the chart and a screaming feature at the end that goes up to a double high D!

Wayne Bergeron is one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the recording studios in Los Angeles. He has recorded on countless soundtracks including The Incredibles, Despicable Me, and Toy Story 3.

Today we are featuring Tine Thing Helseth, a virtuoso trumpet soloist from Oslo, Norway. Here she is performing Libertango by Astor Piazzolla, perhaps the most important composer in the Tango repertoire. His music has been performed by a wide variety of artists on many different instruments. The performance featured here is exciting, technically demanding, and beautifully played.

This week we are featuring Sinfonietta by Czech composer Leos Janacek. Premiered in 1926, this orchestral work features a massive trumpet section that performs an exciting fanfare at the beginning and end of the piece. In the video below, the opening fanfare lasts from the beginning to 2:20, and the ending fanfare starts at 22:50 and goes until the end. Sinfonietta is performed here by the Halle Orchestra based out of Manchester, England and is conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

Today’s featured trumpet player is Roy Hargrove, who unfortunately passed away recently at the age of 49. He was unquestionably one of the greatest jazz trumpet players of this generation and an undeniable influence on so many other artists.

His soulfulness, tone, and versatility put him on another level. Check out some of these albums to start to comprehend the scope of his playing:

• Diamond in the Rough (1990) – straight ahead bop-influenced jazz
• Habana (1997) – collaboration with Cuban musicians
• Directions in Music (2001) – modern post-bop jazz with some of the heaviest players in history
• RH Factor Hard Groove (2003) – hip-hop fusion

The video below is one of my favorite and most grooving Roy Hargrove videos featuring his composition Strasbourg St. Denis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxeb0cwjE8U

Happy Veteran’s Day! To celebrate this patriotic holiday, here’s a video of Arturo Sandoval playing the Star Spangled Banner.

Arturo Sandoval was born in Cuba, but currently lives in the United States. He has established himself as one of the best jazz trumpet players of all time, and there are countless videos of him performing on YouTube.

The highest note he hits in this performance is a double C (one octave above high C)!!!