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.

Cool Horns Are Cool But…

So yesterday’s post had a picture of Ibrahim Maalouf and his custom trumpet – a four valve horn that, when the fourth valve is depressed, allows him to lower a pitch by a quarter tone. According to Maalouf’s website, his father designed (“invented”???) the quartertone trumpet in Beirut back in the 1960’s. An interesting aside: Don Ellis had Holton make him a quartertone trumpet in 1965. Which came first? Who knows. Whatever. Maalouf plays a nice looking horn. I’m not sure who makes it. Might be Selmer of Paris where Maalouf has lived and studied since he was a boy (his family fled Lebanon when Maalouf was young because of civil unrest there).

Maalouf's horn:

Don Ellis' horn:

Checking out Maalouf’s trumpet (the fourth valve is at an interesting angle), I started thinking about other new designs for trumpets. A buddy of mine, guitarist Richard Somerville and I were having a discussion last week about guitars. Richard knows a lot about various makes, models, designs, etc. He asked me if there were any new developments in the design of trumpets. I immediately sent Richard some pictures of Dave Monette’s horns – in particular the Prana Decorated and the flumpet:

Then I thought about the horns that Edwards makes. They appear to be great horns too. Perhaps Monette rip-offs by appearance, but they are certainly a bit cheaper than the Monettes.

Then I remembered seeing a picture of Roy Hargrove’s trumpet and flugelhorn which are made by the Swiss company, Inderbinen:

I went to the Inderbinen website and checked out some of their trumpets. Some of these look pretty nice and some are starting to get a bit carried away. Check these out:
The Alpha:

The Studie:

The Toro:

The Inox:

And the blingy-est trumpet around, The DaVinci:

My buddy and bandmate in several ensembles, Adam Hershberger remarked/joked about Inderbinen’s descriptions of these horn: “the horn has a huge, dark sound, and a relaxed upper register. Lots of volume.” As if the horn can play itself! Another trumpet player friend, Chris Aschman also commented on the Inderbinen pictures I sent him: “why do they feel a need to keep reinventing the wheel?” A good point. Made me think a bit.

I didn’t even send them this crazy looking trumpet “The Mutantrumpet”:

Or this one – “The Shew Horn”:

All of these horns certainly look a lot cooler than my 1972 LA Benge:

But will I really sound any better if I played one of these as opposed to my horn? Would most people be able to tell a difference in a blindfold test? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. I guess if a horn feels easier to play, then perhaps the player will feel more comfortable and therefore perform at a higher level. But I still feel like the old adage must be true: it ain’t the horn (or the mouthpiece); it’s the player. So the good news is, it doesn’t matter that I cannot afford an Inderbinen Inox. I just need to practice more. And speaking of……