Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. It had been a while since I posted a contest. We got some guesses but only one person correctly identified the mystery trumpet player. The winner of the twenty-fourth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is……. talented Philly trumpet player, Adam Hershberger. Nice work, Adam!

And the correct answer is….Terell Stafford. Well, I wasn’t surprised that Adam readily identified Terell – Adam was Terell’s student at Temple University where Terell is Professor of Jazz, Director of Jazz Studies, Chair: Instrumental Studies. The featured song was “If I Perish” off of Terell’s 2000 Nagel Heyer release, “Fields of Gold.” The whole album is truly great from start to finish – not something I can say about many recordings. Terell plays with a swagger and confidence that is almost frightening. He can be incredibly powerful, almost bullying his way through the progressions, but he can also play light and delicate with a real romantic feel. He always swings and his lines are very well-crafted. Harmonically there’s nothing super crazy going on. The music isn’t especially adventurous, but thoroughly within the tradition. But there’s absolutely no BS-ing going on. Terell and his band came to play and they play their tails off. It’s straight ahead jazz at its best. Very enjoyable.

I haven’t yet purchased Terell’s latest MaxJazz release, “This Side of Strayhorn” but I have the feeling that I will perhaps like this new one as much as I enjoyed “Fields of Gold.” I am a fan of Billy Strayhorn’s tunes. And the band Terell has assembled is awesome. How do I know this? Because I heard them Live at The Village Vanguard via NPR and WBGO. Do yourself a favor and listen to this live recording (there’s an interview in there too which you might enjoy). When Terell left the stage that night he had burned a hole through all of the furniture in the place. And, no doubt, burned a hole through people’s minds. An extremely talented trumpet player.

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to last Friday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. I thought that this week’s player was pretty easy to identify and sure enough, the correct answer came rather quickly – from someone who really knows her trumpet players. The winner of the twenty-third edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….my mom! Nice work, Mom.

So the tune is the title track off of Lee Morgan’s 1964 (though it was posthumously released in 1981 – why the wait? It’s a killing record!) Blue Note record “Tom Cat.” Morgan was one of the best. Period. He’s been one of my favorites since I first started listening to jazz back in high school. He’s funky, bluesy, ballsy, romantic, gritty, dirty, beautiful, evil, saucy. The Sidewinder, The Cooker, The Rumproller, The Gigolo, The Procrastinator, The Rajah, Morgan the Pirate, Howdy Doody. One of the baddest ever. And “Tom Cat” is a lesser-known record in Morgan’s discography, but it is really well worth picking up. Swings all the way through – as if that’s a surprise.

I never really knew much about Lee Morgan as a person until I read the excellent 2008 biography by Jeff McMillan entitled "DelightfuLee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan.” The book was meticulously researched and compiled. If you like Lee Morgan and/or enjoy reading about the lives of musicians/artists, this is a great read. Morgan was a mess of a human being after he got hooked on junk while playing with Art Blakey’s band. He was so young then. Only twenty when he first started with Buhaina. And if you want to read an excellent account of his death, check (via trumpeter Jason Palmer’s website) out the story of the woman who shot him: Helen Morgan.

Lee Morgan made some amazing music. He was an incredible talent on the trumpet. He was a gifted if under-appreciated composer. He was a giant. Oh yeah, he was also a Philadelphian.

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to last Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. There were less guesses than normal this week, but no one came up with the correct player so…the winner of the twenty-second edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….no one!

Well, if you heard the tune and made it past the first three minutes of solo ring modulated trumpet, then you know that the Beatles tune was McCartney’s classic “Hey Jude.” But this is one crazy version of the tune – complete with a bizarre circus-on-hallucinogens verse and a screaming trumpet section climax with more ring modulated trumpet soloing over top! So who was the trumpet player? Don Ellis! Live at the Fillmore. The whole record is great, but this Hey Jude makes me laugh every time. I won’t get into much about Ellis because I already did – back when I first started this blog. As corny as Don Ellis can get, I still really enjoy his music. 

And now, here is real proof that not only did Don have a great band (although the sax solos here get on my nerves), but they were also all impeccable dressers (like Sun Ra in Vegas) – and dig the “telephone cord” coming out of Don’s proto-electric trumpet:

 

Indian Lady – 1968 Part One

Indian Lady – 1968 Part Two

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

First things first – sorry for the absence of posts. I was camping all weekend and I’m also painting my living room and dining room. Not much free time so this will be a light week. I have some larger, more in-depth posts in the works including a first for Outside Pants: a musician interview. Now, back to today’s post…

Thanks to all who listened to last Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. Nobody guessed who this trumpet player is so…the winner of the twenty-first edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….no one!

And the correct answer is….Cuong Vu. And this tune is the title track off of Vu’s latest record “Leaps of Faith.” Now when I posted this track I knew that some people were going to dig it and others were going to find it a little hard on the ears. From the responses that I received, that turned out to be pretty much right on. Since Vu came out with his 2000 debut album as a leader, “Bound” (Omnitone), he’s been documenting an ever-developing sound, one that involves a whole lot of texture. He uses lots of delay and reverb and sometimes some distortion. But really it’s his ability to create his own natural effects that makes him unique. He plays with a dry, flat sound with no vibrato when he uses a “straight” sound; and he has a huge arsenal of splatty sounds, gurgles, choke-tunes, and split buzzes (something I’d really love to learn how to do – ever heard Peter Evans do this? Ridiculous!). Vu uses these sounds to develop and highlight his melodic themes, many of which evolve into grand, almost epic statements. He’s not playing bebop – or jazz even. Chord changes are not the focus. His music has a pop sensibility but it’s steeped in some avant-garde music too. But really it’s just sound and noise. Melody and rhythm are important, but for me, Vu’s sound and approach to the trumpet is what makes him unique.

I have four of Vu’s records and honestly, I don’t like everything on all of them. There’s something in his rhythmic approach that leaves me a little flat even if it is very unique to him. Too stilted (is that really a word?). I do really like this new album though. “Leaps of Faith” has an interesting instrumentation. Trumpet, two electric basses (which often times are played like and sound like guitars), and drums. And he does some standards on this record – “All The Things You Are,” “Body and Soul,” “My Funny Valentine,” George Harrison’s “Something.” These standards are not the versions you are used to but I think that’s why I enjoy them so much. They are re-imaginations of the tunes. Almost unrecognizable sometimes. And the original tunes are all uniformly good too. But the thing that really struck me when I listened to this album is the influences I heard in Vu’s playing; influences I have never recognized before. The chromaticism of Miles Davis and Tomasz Stanko and the melodic nature of Bill Dixon’s playing. Never heard these guys in Vu’s playing before, but I think they are definitely there. And this is a good thing, I think. At least in my mind it is. So if you like your music a little adventurous, a little spacey but also a little chaotic, and if you like weird trumpet sounds, this might just be the record for you. It’s my favorite Vu album thus far. Check it out.

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 twentieth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….the winner of last week’s contest, Philly trumpet player Adam Hershberger. Nice work, Adam!

And the correct answer is….Jesus Alemañy.  The band he leads is called ¡Cubanismo! and this tune is called “Pa'Que Gozen” and it was written by the Cuban Maestro Arsenio Rodriguez.

I am not a huge fan of high note trumpet playing. I admire the skill and technique that is required to play up in that register, but it just doesn’t move me all that much. When it’s used sparingly but to great effect then yeah, I really enjoy it. But high notes just for the sake of high notes, no, I’m not into that. But there’s something about the upper register of Jesus Alemañy that I really, really like. He has a crazy fire up there. His sound sizzles and it’s as big as a house, never getting thin like some players when they push the limits. His articulation, phrasing, and time are perfect. And his band ¡Cubanismo! is smoking! I really like Cuban music and this band is just a lot of fun. Check out Jesus and the crew playing “Mambo UK” (if this doesn’t get you moving, then I just don’t know what will):

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. Because of the short solo that isn’t immediately identifiable, I had thought that this would have been a slightly tricky one, but the correct answer came in right away. The winner of the nineteenth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….ultra-busy and talented Philly trumpet player Adam Hershberger. Nice work, Adam!

And the correct answer is….Dizzy Gillespie. The track is called “Evil Gal Blues” by the Don Byas Swing Seven featuring vocalist Albinia Jones. The recording comes from 1944 and it’s part of a really great three disc compilation, Savoy Blues 1944-1994.

I’ve been waiting for a while to feature Gillespie, waiting to find the right tune. I had one picked out (maybe I'll pull it out sometime down the road) and then I remembered about this track and decided to go with this one instead. The reason why I picked “Evil Gal Blues” is because of its uniqueness in Dizzy’s catalogue of recordings: Dizzy is a sideman, it’s a blues, it’s a pivotal point for the evolution of jazz, and because it’s very early in his career and his style is not yet solidified.

After stints with Cab Calloway and Billy Eckstine and Earl Hines, Dizzy was ready to go on his own; he was about to start recording with Charlie Parker; he was close to starting and recording with his own big band; the music was changing – mainly under the influence of advanced players and thinkers like Dizzy, and Bird, and Monk, and Bud Powell, and Kenny Clarke. The feel of the beat, the harmonic choices when making a melody were evolving, growing more sophisticated. But “Evil Gal Blues” marks a point right in the middle of this period of change. Diz is still playing a sideman role – this time for Don Byas, a fellow compatriot in the experiments with the new music. And more importantly, Dizzy’s sound and style are not yet all his own. Everyone comes from somewhere. I wrote a couple weeks ago about so many trumpet players developing under the influence of Harry James. Well Dizzy had a daddy too. And it was Roy Eldridge. Recordings from the late 30’s show Dizzy sounding very much like Eldridge. The style of the swing and even the tone is very much rooted in the swing style; the bebop phrasing, language, and even the minimalization of vibrato had yet to develop. But by 1944, when this recording was made, bebop had really started to develop. And you can hear these changes even on a straight up blues record like “Evil Gal Blues.” Sure the feeling is a standard blues feeling. The rhythm is four on the floor. The vocalist is really singing in the tradition of a Bessie Smith. There’s no new ground broken here. That is until Dizzy takes his one chorus solo. Though his sound is not yet what it would evolve into, Dizzy is already playing with a tone that is removed from the swing sound. But it is his choice of notes that really identifies him here. This is what Adam heard when he picked Dizzy as his answer. These notes aren’t notes that a straight blues player would play. They aren’t notes that most players at the time would have played. Some would have said that they were wrong notes. These are bebop notes. They aren’t wrong, but they are new. Something was changing, and Dizzy was one of the galvanizing forces of this change. And it’s happening right here in this track.

I also picked this tune because I really like the way Dizzy plays this blues chorus. As much as I like Dizzy’s playing – and I really do; I have loads of his recordings – I’ve honestly never really loved his playing on a blues. Most of my favorite musicians have a really personal and intimate relationship with the blues – Coltrane, Rollins, Miles, Jimi, Woody Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Bird, Monk, Lester Young – they all have their own personal language and style with the blues. Now it’s going to sound stupid and a bit naïve to say that Dizzy isn’t a great blues player – especially since most of his live sets throughout his career usually featured a blues number – but for my tastes, no, I don’t think he’s a great blues player. Not like those other guys. Maybe that’s why I like this track then: I really enjoy Dizzy’s playing on this. Maybe it’s because of the timing. He’s not yet fully-formed. He’s still got one foot in the past. The style is not quite yet the modern style that he would help to create. This is a transitional moment for Dizzy – and therefore, for all of 20^th Century music. And it’s awesome. The shape of things to come.  

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. A few of you guess the correct trumpet player but only one answer came in quick enough to capture the prize. The winner of the seventeenth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….my mom. And the coolest thing is that not only did she guess the correct trumpet player but she even knew the name of the tune! And the answers: Harry James performing “Memphis Blues” from the 1952 live album “One Night Stand.” I’ll get more into Harry in tomorrow’s post, but if you didn’t get a chance to listen to this track, go back and give it a listen. It’s some (perhaps) deceptively brilliant and virtuosic trumpet playing. And the blues feeling is there full force, not some kind of pastiche. Harry James was truly one of the baddest of the bad. Again, more on that tomorrow.

For today, I want to put in a few plugs for gigs I am playing this week:

On Wednesday, May 18^th, I’ll be performing at Tritone (1508 South Street) as part of the Avant Ascension series. I’ll be playing duo with one of my favorite Philly musicians, guitarist Tim Motzer. Tim and I really enjoy our duo collaborations, but it has been a couple of months since we have played so we are really looking forward to this show. Tim will have just returned from a European tour and I will coming from a rehearsal so yes, we will be warmed up and ready to create some soundscapes and compositional improvisations. There are two other bands on the bill (both guitar-centric I’m told, but I don’t know their music). Tim and I start our set at 10pm – just two dudes with loop pedals and effects boxes. Hope you can make it.

On Friday, May 20^th, I will be back at Philly’s newest jazz spot, Little Bar (8^th and Fitzwater), this time with Matt Davis’s Aerial Photograph. Aerial Photograph has been around for six or seven years or so, I believe. The genesis of the group came out of Matt’s undergrad experience of writing for a guitar trio plus a string quartet. The band soon added a saxophone and then a five piece wind section. The music is all Matt’s. Kind of a chamber jazz vibe. Beautiful, quiet, moody, elegant, sometimes simple, sometimes complex music. I’m very excited to hear how Aerial Photograph sounds in Little Bar. Plan to arrive early, the parking stinks in that part of South Philly – might take you a few times around the block to get a spot. Our set starts at 9:30pm.

On Saturday, May 21^st, I will be playing in Wilmington, DE at the brand new World Café Live at the Queen venue down there with Philly Bloco, a 22-piece Brazilian Carnival band. This band is a blast to play with. Crazy high energy party band. All covers – about half Brazilian tunes and half a mix of New Orleans tunes (Dirty Dozen, Dr. John, Meters, etc.) and American pop/R&B tunes (some Stevie Wonder and some Otis Redding) that get a samba treatment.  If you like to dance this would be a good show to come to. And the new venue is supposed to be amazing. If you are in that neck of the woods, please come out and dance. Show starts at 8pm.

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. A couple people knew before even listening. I guess my hint was a dead giveaway for some. Well, the winner of the sixteenth edition of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….my mom. Good work, Mom! The correct answer is Jack Sheldon and the tune was “On Green Dolphin Street” off of the 1958 album “Jack’s Groove.”

Millions of people have heard Jack Sheldon’s voice and his trumpet although most don’t know the name Jack Sheldon. He was one the main voices behind the legendary kids educational series Schoolhouse Rock.

But by the time the 70’s rolled around and Jack was a Schoolhouse Rock-star, Jack had already had a long and colorful career. He was one of the key “West Coast Jazz” players and recorded on tons of albums both as a leader and as a sideman. He was also a comedian and an accomplished actor – movies and lots of television. He was legendary at making people laugh, often with some seriously crude humor. But while everyone else was laughing, Jack was fighting some demons. Drugs, alcohol, family tragedies. His life appeared to be amazing but inside he was a wreck. If you want to see a good movie, check out the 2008 Jack Sheldon documentary “Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon.” It’s a really well-done look into Jack’s life and celebrity. Jack is honest in his words and even more honest in his music. Really worth watching.

But the point behind picking Sheldon for last week’s contest is to highlight his trumpet playing which really is excellent. I get the feeling that, at least for the first part of his career, Jack Sheldon found himself often in the shadow of Chet Baker. Chet was prettier. Chet got more ladies. Chet didn’t have to work to be a great jazz trumpet player. Chet had that natural, effortless sound. Jack had to work hard to get to the level he had attained. I actually like Jack’s playing more than Chet’s. Jack has more junk and dirt in his sound (although, as he got older, I feel like his sound got more clear and focused and he actually got a more big band kind of sound). Jack plays hipper lines than Chet (Jack knew much more harmony than Chet who played totally by ear). Jack was, at least for the first part of his career, more reliable than Chet. If you hired Jack as a sideman, he’d show up and play great. This didn’t always happen with Chet. Jack could really burn on uptempo tunes and he could melt you with a ballad. And he could play some blues too.  He was the full package and it really would not be fair or accurate to just call him a “West Coast” trumpeter. You could pin that on Shorty Rogers maybe, but Jack had more to offer than that. He was a really multi-dimensional showbiz figure.

As for this recording, it features a mini-big band with arrangements, I am guessing, by Lennie Niehaus. Check out this transcription of Jack’s solo. It’s not the most badass solo of all-time but it fits with the arrangement and it has some tasty and sneaky lines in it. But the key to the solo is Jack’s sound. It’s kinda dirty and spitty but at the same time his tone is open, big, and warm. It’s not easy to get a balance like that. Jack was a master.

He’s still alive, but I don’t think he plays much in public anymore. At least we have his records. And Schoolhouse Rock DVDs.

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. No one came up with the correct trumpet player which kinda surprised me. There were a few guesses of Nicholas Payton which was probably because of the New Orleans-ish shuffle beat the drummer played, but no, this was not Nick. So the winner of the fifteenth of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….no one.

The correct answer is Roy Hargrove and the tune was of course, Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” and the track came from Roy’s 1991 album “The Tokyo Sessions” (Novus). When this album came out I was a Junior/Senior in high school just starting to listen to a little jazz and some jazz trumpet players. I would usually go to my local library to check out some records which is where I heard my first Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. There was a girl in my school who was really into jazz. She made me some tapes of Cannonball Adderley and Charlie Parker. My trumpet teacher played me some Clifford Brown and a few other kids would play some Maynard Ferguson for me. I’m not really sure where I first heard of Roy Hargrove but soon I had a couple tapes of his. “The Tokyo Sessions” was the first one I bought. I bought it because the Japanese guys on the cover looked cool. But I also bought the album because it had a version of “Straight, No Chaser” and that was one of the only jazz tunes I knew (because my high school jazz band would play the head and warm up on that tune in our class).

Roy’s version of the tune has a real nice shuffle, almost Second Line-feel to it. It’s a got a bounce to it that I really enjoyed. Kinda funky. And the solos were all excellent. Antonio Hart had a kind of Cannonball fire to his playing (he's since moved on from sounding so Cannonball-influenced - that was twenty years ago, after all). And honestly, I always thought that Roy himself had some of the fire that Cannon’s brother Nat had on the cornet. Nat Adderley is a really underrated player (an upcoming contest trumpet player???) and he always played with a blues feeling that could light up at any second. Roy Hargrove has that power and sense too. It’s always simmering under the surface.  It doesn’t show all the time. He saves it for the right moments. And when that moment comes he lets it go. Then look out. Badass, fiery, bluesy, smokin’ hot stuff comes out of his bell. He’s a really exciting player. And the kicker is that Roy was only 22 years old when he made this record!

I like all eras of Roy. The early, Young Lions-staying-close-to-the-tradition Roy. The experimenting-with-larger-ensembles Roy. The RH Factor-D’Angelo-R&B Roy. He’s always got a gorgeous tone. He always sounds confident. His ideas are hip. He plays the stuff out of the instrument on all tempos. A pretty special cat. That said, I haven’t been crazy about his last two “straight ahead” albums. Part of me wants him to quit playing jazz and go back to the RH Factor stuff which feels like more of where his heart wants to be. But I also love his straight ahead jazz playing so if he wants to continue in that vein I’m cool with that too (and honestly who gives a crap what I think – it’s his career to do whatever he wants). So much promise and talent and attention at a young age can be difficult though. I do hope his path will include many more great records.

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.

Guess The Trumpet Player Winner

Before we get to the answer of last week’s contest, I want to offer a preemptive apology for the light blogging this week. It looks like it’s going to be a really busy week of writing (music and otherwise) deadlines, gigs, rehearsals, and work stuff. Ok, now that that’s said…

Thanks to all who listened to Thursday’s track and to those who ventured a guess. Like last week, no one guessed who it was, so the winner of the thirteenth of the Outside Pants Guess The Trumpet Player contest is…….no one. And that’s…ok.

The correct answer is Hugh Masekela. The tune is called “Bajabula Bonke” (which means, I think, The Healing Song) and it’s from Hugh’s 1965 live at the Village Gate (NYC) recording “Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga.” The second track is a fun trumpet overdub one called “Fuzz” (the police, people!) and it’s from the unfortunately rather hard to find 1968 album “Masekela” which looks to have never been released on CD (that’s a huge crime!). This is a vinyl rip, thus the crackles and pops.

Hugh Masekela is a special musical figure. He escaped Apartheid South Africa, made it to England with his horn, then he made it to New York, and later Los Angeles, then finally, once Apartheid had ended, he returned to South Africa. He is not a jazz player. I think maybe he wanted to be, but because of his background, he had so much more to offer. Apparently Miles Davis felt the same way. Back around the time of these recordings Miles encouraged Hugh to quit trying to play American jazz and focus on his own music which was informed by his South African roots. Hugh heeded the advice and these two albums are great examples of the music that Hugh chose to make. His music was successful, and, for some time in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Hugh was something of a pop star in America. He also was married for a while to the great Miriam Makeba – that’s a serious Power Couple! For what it’s worth, “Masekela” is one of my all-time favorite records. Awesome songs, powerful vocal performances and great Masekela trumpet playing - the licks and lines on this record are classic Masekela trumpet. If you listen to his playing from a jazz perspective then you’ll be missing the point. If you listen from a music perspective you’ll be more likely to be moved by the power of what he is saying. Oh, and his singing voice is singular, raw, and emotional. Get yourself some Hugh Masekela!