Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. The winner of the fourteenth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….fabulous Boston trumpet player, Jason Palmer. Nice work, Jason. Check out Jason here and here and plenty of stuff on YouTube.

The correct answer to last week’s contest is Ingrid Jensen. The tune is called Transit and it’s from the NYC-based big band, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society debut record “Infernal Machines.”

Ingrid Jensen is a monster trumpet player and her solo on this tune is a great example of her playing. To my ears, Ingrid has a really individual sound though it is definitely rooted in a lot of Miles Davis and Woody Shaw. And again, for my ears, that’s a good thing. I’ll be honest though, I have only heard a few of Jensen’s own records as a leader and I wasn’t super crazy about them. I tend to like her more on other people’s projects. There are a bunch of really amazing players I feel that way about. No shame in that game.

So last week I mentioned that this track would feature something different. Well, the difference is the gender of the featured trumpet player. I realized that I was featuring all men and that’s just not that cool considering the fact there have been and continue to be many great female jazz trumpet players (Clora Bryant, Valaida Snow, Pam Fleming, Laurie Frink, Jamie Dauber, Lina Allemano, etc.). This ain’t just a man’s world. And great female trumpeters don’t just “play pretty good…for a girl.” They are every bit the musicians of their male colleagues. To illustrate that point I wanted to highlight a woman. Not because I feel like I don’t want to look sexist, but because I think it should be emphasized that great trumpet playing knows no gender, no skin color, no age. Great trumpet playing only knows passion and thousands of hours of hard work. Period. Check out Ingrid Jensen – she is a monster trumpet player.