5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet- New York Times
-
The New York Times today had an article written from multiple points of view, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet”. There were 16 short essays by music critics, reporters. Trumpet Players, composers, musicians, conductors, etc. Each short essay was accompanied by a recording that illustrated the point of the essay. The link to this article is below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/arts/music/classical-music-trumpet-jazz.html
An example of an essay and accompanying recording by Terence Blanchard is below. It is very timely with Hurricane Ida making landfall in Louisiana. I know that I am “preaching to the choir”, but it is a great article. You should be able to access it by opening a free New York Times account.
◆ ◆ ◆
Terence Blanchard, trumpeter and composer:
Here is my impassioned clarion call to understand the trumpet! See that exclamation point? That’s what a trumpet does. It punctuates emotions. My trumpet teacher Bill Fielder would always ask, “What is the trumpet?” I would ponder for a moment and offer an encyclopedic answer like “A metal instrument with … blah, blah, blah.” To that Mr. Fielder would say, “It is a mirror of your mind.”
Ordinarily, I would invite you to listen to Miles Davis’s “Porgy and Bess,” a classic collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans. This album set the stage for people thinking differently about the orchestra and jazz. But as I write this, yesterday was the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My song “Funeral Dirge,” from the album “A Tale of God’s Will,” originally composed for the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s first Katrina documentary, “When the Levees Broke,” still haunts me today. Actually, I don’t feel like I composed it. I feel like it was being screamed at me: my personal clarion call to hear and weep with my hometown, New Orleans.
Dead bodies floating. Dead bodies on top of cars. Dead bodies in the grass. Dead bodies in places I knew. Dead bodies in neighborhoods I grew up in. I saw these bodies in the raw footage of Spike’s documentary. One dead body I didn’t see in the video was that of an old neighborhood friend who died trying to help people stay on their roofs while floodwaters raged beneath. I never cried so much, shedding tears for the many bodies I saw, and the many, many more I didn’t see. This dirge is my tribute to those brave, valiant, fallen heroes. God bless those souls from Katrina — and, today, those souls from Ida.
-
I spent 5 years studying the trumpet at a collegiate level, let alone 5 minutes.
-
@administrator said in 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet- New York Times:
I spent 5 years studying the trumpet at a collegiate level, let alone 5 minutes.
The article was aimed at the general public, not individuals who play the Trumpet. Just the 16 recorded examples that the 16 essays are based on alone will take over an hour ho listen to and the essays probably another 30-40 minutes. The entire project is actually very informative. This is part of a series of music appreciation related articles.
“ In the past we’ve chosen the five minutes or so we would play to make our friends fall in love with classical music, piano, opera, cello, Mozart, 21st-century composers, violin, Baroque music, sopranos, Beethoven, flute, string quartets, tenors, Brahms, choral music, percussion, symphonies and Stravinsky.
Now we want to convince those curious friends to love the trumpet. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy; leave your favorites in the comments.”
-
Here are two more examples:
Mark Stryker, critic and author of “Jazz From Detroit”
Kenny Dorham (1924-72) did not command attention with Gabriel-like power and bravura technique. A favorite of jazz connoisseurs, he seduced listeners with the soulful warmth, colorful wit and understated wisdom of the hippest bon vivant on the scene. Everything about his approach to the trumpet and improvisation was expressive, relaxed and personal. The dappled smears of his crepuscular tone and the flirty bounce he brings to the standard “I Had the Craziest Dream” in 1959 make a beeline for your heart. His improvised phrases, delivered with nonchalant charm, enchant you with clever melodic and rhythmic rhymes and piquant note choices. He’s telling a story, inviting you into his dream — where you not only fall in love with the trumpet, but also the man with the horn.Leonard Slatkin, conductor
In 1958 my father, the conductor Felix Slatkin, commissioned the composer Leo Arnaud to create pieces that would demonstrate the then-new audio format of stereo. Utilizing various military fanfares as well as original tunes, “Bugler’s Dream” included what would become known as “The Olympic Fanfare.” The track was featured on a Capitol Records album called “Charge!” and has been reissued several times.With trumpets of all sizes and the musicians separated into two different studios, there was simply no better way to show off not only the new technology but also the incredible skill of the 26 players. If you do not love the trumpet after listening to this, I suggest the track that contains the 12 bagpipers.
Steve Smith
-
@ssmith1226 - just a couple of random thoughts -
I've almost never lusted after the trumpet, per se. To me it was a means to an end, which is namely the music.
Kenny D - one of my best friends in the 60s was in a rehearsal band in N.Y. that Kenny led. I learned about Kenny through him. BTW referring to music as a business, at the time Kenny was working at a music store "giving out reeds" as my friend characterised it. What a waste.
Those are some nice selections, thanks.
(p.s. although I do have a problem with the assumptive nature of one of the titles.)
-
As a youngster I clearly remember the voices , the big bands and most of all, those trumpet solos. Without those solos, I don't think I would have loved music as much as I do. So I guess maybe I was one who did lust after the trumpet.
