Posts made by barliman2001

@thornybob THANK YOU for coming out and being so open about it. Very much appreciated.

Dangerous musical exploit: BANJO JUMPING!

@barliman2001 here shown with my new Brand 1C winter mouthpiece and the Thomann Warm-Up Mute (really excellent as a practice mute does not change resistance too much and does not affect intonation at all. Am using it daily here in rehab, and no one has yet complained in three weeks of use.

AND HERE ARE THE PICS:

A year or two back, I discovered an almost-like-new LA Olds Recording in Votruba's in Vienna. Had been there for quite some time... they were only too happy to take my UMI Benge 7 for it (decent horn, but I somehow never got to grips with it), because the Benge was normal style and the Recording's Balanced style just did not catch on in Vienna... now, it's my main big band axe. Serial # 1018xx, dating it to approximately to 1954... so far, I always played it with a Bach Megatone 1C, but yesterday, I ordered a Swiss Brand Turbo 1 1/2 C in blue transparent plastic. got it today, delivered directly into my room in the rehab clinic - Thomann are great! - and it went from wonderful to spectacular... the new mouthpiece somehow released another half octave in range... and it does sound great, even though it is rather lightweight. And it's so warm on the lips - I am due to play with a local brass group on New Year's Eve, outside, and that mouthpiece was ordered for that purpose - in the hope that Thomann would only deliver it in the New Year, giving me an excuse to back out... great service!
Would love to post a few pics, but my phone is not on speaking terms with my laptop just now...

and of course there is the transposing method of liesering...

The only thing I did at Christmas was to tag round the rehab clinic with the local ruffians (officially "students of logopaedia nd music therapy")... a four-part choir that managed to sing at least nine parts in three different keys, two guitars that had not been tuned to each other, a mouth organ and five recorders... I am really ashamed to have been seen with those...

Any list of "top trumpet players of all time" that does not include Maurice André, Guy Touvron, Carole Dawn Reinhart or Alison Balsom and Tine Thing Helseth is just a list of randomly selected jazz trumpet players.
If you include players most successful outside the US - Dusko Goykovich, Derek Smith-Watkins and Sergey Nakariakov.
If you include those who were perhaps not in the 1A* class of players, but even more influential as motivators or teachers - Adolf Scherbaum, Pierre Thibaud, Timofey Dokshizer and Adolf "Bud" Herseth come to mind.
And if you include those historical figure who made trumpet playing what it is today - Anton Weidinger (inventor of the keyed trumpet), Jean Baptiste Arban and of course Herbert Clarke come up.
That's another fifteen names for you.

Living in Austria means that I have some experience of playing outside in cold weather...
several hints as to survive and produce something that is not horrible to hear...

1. Dress warmly, in several layers, keeping care that you remain mobile

2. Outermost layer should be water- and oil-proof.

3. Double gloves are useful - finger gloves with no fingertips, then a nice mitten all over to keep warm during long intervals

4. The Swiss "Brand" turbo mouthpieces are just as warm as Delrin, but produce a nicer sound.
   https://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_GK_blbmbt.html?shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1&manufacturer[]=Brand&gk=BLBMBT&cme=false&filter=true

5. Zip-tie a hand-warmer to the valve block (not a coal-burning one - if they come undone, they will set fire to your gig-bag):

@Vulgano-Brother those were violas!!

@administrator I got to hear MF when a young child - badgered my stepfather into driving me to the annual local jazz festival... and many years later I attended a master class by Al Porcino, Stan Kenton's lead trumpet...

@dr-go the doctors here call it an infarctus cerebelli. i had masive vertigo ans explosive vomiting, combined with a slowing of speech and some ataxy of the arms. the emergency doctor attending me did nothing on scene, and I got into hospital two hours after the incident (the fire sevice gad to get me out of the house via a 2nd storey window), and my first exam was a Catscan eight hours later. Even though I described all the symptoms very clearly, they thought I just had post-Corona ear infection, and I got high IV doses of cortisol despite the fact that my right eye is sightless due to glaucoma and the working eye is at risk from same... after four days and a second catscan, they diagnosed the stroke... now I am trying to get transferred from this Austrian hospital to my home clinic near Munich...

Hi there,

please don't be huffed if you want to reach me and can't - I am in hospital after a mild stroke.

@j-jericho As I do have a derby mute, but no derby hat, I think I'll settle for the mute...

Now normally, I am the guy advising others about mutes and stuff. But sometimes, fate throws things across your feet where you are stumped...

I am to play 2nd trumpet in Wood Notes by Willam Grant Still; very interesting composer, very interesting piece.

And several times, the composer calls for "soft hat mute"... now, how is that to be done? I'm not going to wave a trilby before the trumpet, that's for sure!

CALL FOR HELP
Many years ago, I was an unofficial sales promoter for Hermann Ganter in Munich... as a thank you, he made me a special Bb cornet (yellow brass, lacquered) for my birthday, with a special engraving mentioning my name on the side of the bell.
Couple of years later, I fell onto hard times and had to sell lots of things to eat and survive. Amongst these things was that special cornet... which I sold to a fellow cornet player in the Munich Brass Band, an English lady called Alison (did never know anything more...), in the hope of recovering that cornet later, on the assumption that my tenure in that band would last many years... but I got an unexpected job quite far away and lost all contact with the band; when I returned to the band about 12 years later, it had completely re-formed and no one knew anything about a cornet player called Alison...
Now, I am in the position of having not only got my life back on track after a long period of... well, no details needed... but playing in a brass band again (www.pfw.at).
AND I WOULD LOVE TO FIND THAT CORNET AND BUY IT BACK, WHATEVER CONDITION IT IS IN NOW.
Details: Hermann Ganter Bb cornet, more or less medium bore, based on a Jupiter valve block. Yellow brass, lacquered; Maker's engraving on bell, dedicatory engraving mentioning my name, Elmar Eggerer, on the side of the bell.
Please feel free to share this around!

Don't know whether to file this under "humour" or "horror"... imagine a band that consists solely of accordions, banjos, saxophones and violas...

HERE IT IS. The Joseph A. Ferko Band of Philadelphia.

www.instagram.com/reel/CxyZvSWPaj7/embed/?autoplay=1

@austinmckenzie Apps can be very helpful indeed; but why don't you try some good, old-fashioned choir singing as well? That is just as effective, and fun as well.

At this point, I think I just have to chip in with the story of how I got hooked into big bands... 1993... I was a fairly competent amateur player with lots of experience in brass bands and wind bands, some orchestral stuff and already a vast repertoire of church stuff. No jazz experience whatsoever. Then, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call... a very Bavarian, very bearded voice at the other end...
"I've heard you're a trumpet player." -
"Yes?" -
"We are a big band." -
"Yes?" -
" You have a red shirt?" -
"Yeees??" -
"Free this afternoon?" -
"Yyeees?" -
"Be at the Saint Florian Restaurant at three." CLICK.

Spoof or truth? Well, the place was not too far away, so I collected everything I thought I might need... rotary Bb, rotary C and picc, black jacket and bow tie... (my usual church gig outfit) and went there.

In my innocence, I thought it might be just a short gig, with probably a third or fourth trumpet awol, possibly an hour's sight-reading of easy stuff, cash in and get out... "otherwise you don't hire a guy you don't know anything about four hours before a gig"...

What I found...

an Austrian wedding, and the band scheduled to play for the afternoon coffee break, then provide dinner music and continue to play for the dancing until dawn... the guy who had gone awol was the 1st trumpet, and they expected me to fully replace him for a whopping 16 hours or so... with a repertoire I had never seen or played before... I had to come clean about my big band experience so far, so trumpet #3 stepped up and I filled his place and managed to muddle through somehow... interestingly enough, they did not throw me out afterwards with catcalls and rotten eggs, but invited me in as full replacement for the now promoted #3. I stayed with that outfit for a full eleven years, playing another 196 weddings with them, 40-50 balls, and smaller gigs, numerous... have never been without a big band ever since.

Time now to retell the story about a Vienna counterfeiters gang... the boss, on his way out, orders the gang to "make hundred fifties". Accordingly, the two slushers on duty give it their best and produce a wonderful sample banknote for 150 Euros... proudly show it to their boss for approval and the go-ahead for more of the same... the boss goes berserk saying, "you utter numbskulls, there are no 150s!! What are we going to do with this? You wasted your and my time on this!! Next time, I'll have you fitted with concrete boots!" - "No fear, boss, we can get rid of this one in extra quick time... we just go to Burgenland and there we'll have it in circulation in a sec." - "Then go!!"
Accordingly, they get into their car and drive off. Shortly after Eisenstadt (the capital of the Austrian province of Burgenland), they stop at a small village tobacconist's, and conterfeiter #1 gets out to "buy a lighter for one euro, and pay with the 150 euro note". Gets out, disappears in the shop, returns beaming. "Went a treat. She gave correct change - two seventies and a nine!"