Category: Trumpet Inspirations

Maurice Andre is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical trumpet soloists of all time. Ask any professional trumpet player for a list of his or her favorite players, and Maurice Andre will appear on just about all of them.

Claude Bolling’s Toot Suite is a unique project that combines a classical trumpet soloist with jazz rhythm section. The composition masterfully brings out the best of those two worlds without making either side sound cheesy or uncomfortable. Each movement of the suite calls for the soloist to use a different type of trumpet. This first movement (featured here) is played on a C trumpet. Other movements use Bb trumpet, Eb trumpet, piccolo trumpet, and flugelhorn.

There are so many amazing videos of Wynton Marsalis, so it’s hard to choose just one! He is one of the few musicians who achieved world-class status as both a classical and jazz performer. He currently leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in New York City, an ensemble that includes several other outstanding trumpet players. He grew up in New Orleans in a very musical family — his father and brothers are also world-class musicians.

Here are two short videos that show his ability to perform jazz and classical music at the highest level. In the first video, he performs the jazz standard “Cherokee” with a harmon mute. The second video is the 3rd movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, performed on an Eb trumpet.

There are many other jazz and classical videos on YouTube featuring Wynton Marsalis. Feel free to browse on your own and look up others!

Our featured performers this week are the Mnozil Brass, a 7-piece brass ensemble from Austria known for their hilarious performance antics and incredibly high level of musicianship. This video is an arrangement of Rossini’s William Tell Overture. Several of my beginning trumpet students are currently learning the melody from William Tell in their beginner trumpet book. Enjoy!

This week’s trumpet video is one of my favorite classical trumpet recordings. I still remember it blowing my mind when I first heard this CD in college. The featured performer is Russian trumpet virtuoso Sergei Nakariakov.

He is playing Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Camille Saint-Saens, which was originally written for a violin soloist (not trumpet). Few trumpeters throughout history could pull off the technical and musical demands of this piece as well as Nakariakov does here.

Here’s a link to a great interview of Nakariakov from Trumpetland.com.

This week’s featured trumpeter is John Armstrong performing The Carnival of Venice by J.B. Arban with the United States Navy Band. Arban (the composer) was a great cornet soloist and author of one of the most important trumpet method books for high school, college, and professional players.

Cornet solos from Arban’s era feature beautiful melodies and virtuosic displays of technique. Double and triple tonguing are used extensively throughout the piece.

The Navy Band is one of the country’s premier military bands in Washington DC, and its members are world-class musicians. Congrats to great trumpeter (and friend!) John Armstrong on such an effortless and musical performance!

When I was in high school, one of my favorite brass recordings was this version of Amazing Grace by the Canadian Brass. It was the first jazz-style solo that I transcribed by ear (and played over and over). Ronald Romm is the featured soloist, and Fred Mills adds some excellent piccolo trumpet to this arrangement.

This week’s trumpet inspiration features 2 videos of the Duke Ellington classic Take the A Train. Several of my students who advanced to the 2nd round of the All-State Jazz audition here in Texas are learning to improvise over this tune. Both videos feature outstanding trumpet solos.

The first video is the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1962 and features trumpeter Ray Nance.

The second video is the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring trumpeter Ryan Kisor.

This week’s inspiring performance is the 4th movement of Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. The orchestra is a combination of members of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, currently the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Symphonie Fantastique is a 5-movement work inspired by a fantastical story imagined by the composer. The 4th movement — March to the Scaffold — depicts a crazy scene of the main character dreaming he is being led to his own execution. The music is a brilliant mixture of wild, solemn, and exciting melodies. Dudamel and the orchestra capture the musical insanity of Berlioz’s imaginiation in this wonderfully over-the-top performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXHrHQ5ZEHo

This week’s trumpet inspiration is an incredible performance of Kevin McKee’s Centennial Horizon by Kevin Gebo (trumpet) and Jessica McKee (piano). The piece contains slow and fast movements (with an interlude in between) that are inspired by the “beauty and adventure of what is truly an amazing place: Colorado (the Centennial State).”

The piece takes us on an epic musical journey that highlights so many different aspects of what the trumpet is capable of. Enjoy Gebo’s beautiful tone and inspired phrasing, and listen for the wonderful collaboration between trumpet and piano.

The musicians involved in this project are long-time friends of mine. Their compositions, performances, and collaborations have contributed so much to the classical trumpet repertoire.

First movement (beginning) Interlude (5:30) Second Movement (6:45)

Our trumpet inspiration for this week features Alison Balsom, a world-class trumpet soloist. This video shows her performing the 3rd movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, written around 1711.

Balsom is performing this violin concerto on a rotary piccolo trumpet. The rotary valves are similar to valves on a French horn, which is why they look different than the piston valves we typically see on trumpets. She is accompanied by a full string ensemble and harpsichord (the instrument that looks like a small piano).

Here’s a link to a recording of the same piece performed on violin (the 3rd movement starts at 6:00). Vivaldi also wrote music for trumpet, including his Concerto for Two Trumpets in C.

This performance not only displays incredible technical mastery, but Balsom also brigs a great deal of excitement and musical energy to a piece written over 300 years ago!

Listening guide questions:

1. How does the rotary piccolo trumpet look and sound different than the trumpet you normally play?
2. This piece was written in a different historical time period (1711). What images does it bring to mind?