Posts made by Dr GO

@Tobylou8 said in A little humour:

Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?

Because they lactose!

THAT is what I call milking a pun!

@Shepherds_Crook said in The One:

you might need a 2nd Harmon/Bubble mute for that Committee ... because adjusting the cork fit it will make the fit totally different on the Recording.

I agree. I have 2 Harmon mutes, one for my Committee and one for my Olds trumpets, with different cork thicknesses for this same reason.

Here is the youtube video I sent. It is quit beautiful:

Youtube Video

I remember a call out to TM members a year and a half ago for how to succeed in getting the nod to play an Easter Service for a Lutheran Church in a nearby city after I got the third degree series of questions by church members as to my prior experience in playing Lutheran services. I must admit, that service would have been my first. Got a lot of suggestions of songs, and performance styles within the Lutheran tradition, of which Barliman's suggestions were most rewarding.

I got the gig, and just as Barilman prophesized, once getting in, they will keep you in their graces thereafter. He was so right, as since that first Easter gig, they hired me to perform last year's Christmas Service, then this year's Easter Service and yes again, this Christmas Service.

The new organist sent me an email in the traditional staunch Lutheran doctrine suggesting services overview: "...let me know if you have descant trumpet parts for Christmas songs and what keys. Let's be sure we have the same musical language, so please be clear whether you are speaking about your trumpet key (assuming you have a B flat trumpet, your part will be written a step higher) or actual pitch, which I'd be playing from the keyboards. ...It would be nice to do a couple numbers featuring trumpet - no singing - in the prelude, like O holy night or Gesu Bambino."

So here is what I did, I went way out on a limb that Barilman warned me against and cautioned "stay with tradition". So boy did I stray. I suggested playing Thad Jone's "A Child is Born" and sent the chart and a YouTube recording to the organist (and cc'd it to the Pastor - An original German Lutheran Pastor).

Here was the organist's response to my recommendation: "Most of my church experience is with the Roman Catholics. "A Child is Born" is lovely, but would definitely raise eyebrows in the Catholic church. I will let Pastor Holst decide about that."

Then it came, straight from Pastor Heidi Holst: "Dear Musicians, I just had the opportunity to listen to the A Child- piece. It is beautiful but it is a quite jazzy arraignment...." So I may have just cracked the traditional Lutheran glass ceiling, and just perhaps this will come off in the honor of Saint Thad Jones!

What are your performance plans for Christmas Services TB Members?

@tjveloce said in The One:

@Dr-GO

While we're on the subject of the Committee's design, do you have any problems with your harmon mute in it?

What is your experience?

-tj

I use a 1960's vintage Harmon. The cork is worn down significantly. This makes for an exceptional fit and really mellows the tone of the Committee to a dark richness that matches the quality of Miles. LOVE IT WITH A PASSION!

Another memory was triggered after reading Kehaulani's brush with celebrity.

During the time I was playing lead trumpet for the Statesmen at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, there was a golf tournament that the wanted the Statesmen to play for during an opening night celebration. Arnold Palmer was the MC of the event. We were there again to play at a luncheon, when Arnold came up to me and asked me if I could get the trumpet section together to play the opening to Maynard's arrangement to "The Theme from Rocky" and he would pay us each $50 to play the opening (in 1979 $50 was good money). I said no problem, and were would we meet. Arnold told me in front of his manager's motor home.

We met soon in front of the manager's motor home and Arnold greeted us at the door and told us to come in. There on a sofa was the manager, totally passed out from the excesses of the prior evening. Arnold the cued us and said, "Play that opening". We did, at full volume. The manager did not even flinch. I was not a physician at that time but I said, " I pronounce the manager as dead". Arnold payed us on the spot and we moved on to our regularly scheduled program.

@Rapier232 said in Professional musicians on this board question:

Sorry Doc. You are a Doctor, who plays trumpet. You are not a trumpeter that plays doctor.

No I am a trumpeter that IS a doctor. Trumpeter, Doctor... Both are non-mutually exclusive professions, that is the exact same context that includes Eddie Henderson.

@Rapier232 said in Professional musicians on this board question:

Sorry Doc.,, You are not a trumpeter that plays doctor.

You sir have not seen me when dating my girlfriends from the past (prior to getting my MD)!

@Rapier232 said in Professional musicians on this board question:

...a professional musician, I’d think that was their job. The only source of income.

If you have a job, but get paid for musical performances that, to me, doesn’t make you a professional musician...

Let me give you an example of a performer that is near and dear to my heart: Eddie Henderson. He is a well know and respected professional jazz musician (Roy Hargrove references him as a mentor and refers to him as "Doc").

Eddie Henderson is also a psychiatrist and as I recently have read is still practicing psychiatry, which is recognized as a medical profession.

That makes him a dual professional, musician and physician. I consider myself the same, as some of us (As Old School Euph) has noted have "other lives" as well to our musical lives. As I noted above, some years I made more as a musician, some years as a clinician. In so doing you do not turn one profession off then turn the other on. Both flow at the same time just as hot and cold water from separate handles can be turned on at the same time to run through a common spicket to produce the same, but warmer result that is still called water.

@Rapier232 said in Professional musicians on this board question:

...I’m definitely no professional. I’m not even a good amateur.

Don't let that get you down in the pits!

@FranklinD said in Eugene Blee's Flexibility Exercises:

...do you really need written notes for this? Or do you have problems with the very unusual and adventurous harmonic progression?

Only the first time you use them. Then they are fairly rote and committed to memory as they are maintained fingered patterns. No fancy change in harmonic progressions. They are what they are intended, just to get the blood flowing and muscular dexterity initiated to the lips.

@J-Jericho said in The One:

@Dr-GO said in The One:
I solved that problem. I don't use it. Removed it from the horn..... Must be so for Miles and Chris Botti, as if you look at many of the pics of them playing, there is no third valve slide on their Martins.

Oops. Thought it was a 3rd valve ring. Yep you kinda need that slide.

@Shepherds_Crook said in Eugene Blee's Flexibility Exercises:

Wow ... those look familiar. I never took lessons with EB, but did for 6 years with CSO section mate Michael Denovchek.
I particularly like the measures of rest ....

Eugene taught a lot of musicians with the CSO including Marie Speziale. Perhaps he too was a Eugene Blee student and used his warm ups as well. They work amazingly well with little time and effort at preparing a trumpeter for the performance that lies ahead.

@tjveloce said in The One:

@Dr-GO

I do have a bit of a hard time with the third valve slide as I have to use a band on it to keep it from falling out when doing plunger stuff, and I'm just not great at moving it like I am my other horns. It slides very freely, just something about the way my left hand fits in it.
-tj

I solved that problem. I don't use it. Removed it from the horn. I'ts not needed from my experience as the 1,2,3; 1,3 combinations are in perfect tune on my horn. Must be so for Miles and Chris Botti, as if you look at many of the pics of them playing, there is no third valve slide on their Martins.

I told my psychiatrist that I had been hearing voices. He told me that I don't have a psychiatrist.

After I finished the surgery, she laughed so hard, that I left her in stitches!

@tmd said in Professional musicians on this board question:

Quack vs hack ... your words, not mine. (Just kidding) I've been called worse.

Let me know the next time you'll be in DC. Let's get together.

Mike

So this Wise Quacking Hack will be in the DC area on December 8, 9 and 10 (Sunday through Tuesday). I will be in meetings all day the 9th and 10th, but arrive in late morning at National on the 8th. Perhaps meeting somewhere on the 8th for lunch or dinner would work, as long as it is near the Metro line.

By the way, this will be the last time I am in DC for awhile as I will be rotating off the Center Committed for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation after working with the organization in this capacity over the past 8 years. So not sure when I will have another chance to get into the DC area again.

Looking forward to meeting with you though to discuss trumpet and late in life career changes with you! -Gary

@Trumpetsplus said in Professional musicians on this board question:

Let's throw the cat in!

The conventional opposite of "professional musician" is "amateur musician".

"Amateur" is from the latin root: amare - to love (Fr. amour, It. amore, Eng. amorous) which would suggest that an amateur musician is someone who loves being a musician?

As love is at the other end of the scale from hate, is it not then the implication that the professional musician is someone who hates being a musician?

I would say the professional is an individual that pro-fesses the art, which is a hard thing to do with hate in the heart.

And finally, this is no joke, there was a residency in one of the hospitals in New York City, where working conditions were so poor for the surgical residents, that they were looking for a union to represent them so they could legally go on strike against the hospital. One union came forward to represent the surgeons...

you all ready for this... again... no joke

The Meat Cutters Union!