It is sobering that in this high-tech world where even your washing machine is computerized, an unknown event for one person can take down an entire community that evolved over a lengthy period of time.

Please note that "Spam" is a trademarked brand name and the fine folks at Hormel have only requested that the internet scourge be denominated as "spam".

Sorry. I used to love cars. Now I hate cars. They are a necessary evil, but I just want ones that start and run reliably and drive comfortably.

@masterwannabe Print out (or link to) this thread, send it to the parent, and ask him/her to send it to the teacher. Everyone here is an experienced trumpet player. Some are professional, semi-pro, or music teachers. I think it is fair to say the consensus of this group is that a like-new 1971 Ambassador is far better for a middle school student than a worn out Bach Mercedes II or equivalent Yamaha. Furthermore, a like-new 1971 Ambassador can be acquired for a very small fraction of the cost of a new Bach TR300 or Yamaha YTR-2330 and, if taken care of, can probably be re-sold at break-even later on.

I liked it, too. I saw it the night it opened. They gave out souvenirs on opening night: old-timey fans like they used to use in theaters and churches before air conditioning. I still have mine lying around....

@bigdub The real Florence Foster Jenkins was so bad that they had to make the movie version a little less bad than real life to make the movie tolerable.

I'll try it one time. It will be interesting to see how many other cornetists show up with this restriction in place...

Yeah, one of my other bands practices outdoors in a church parking lot. Nobody has died, yet.

Well, so one of my bands starts up again on Monday evening after a year-and-a-half hiatus. Since we meet in the band room of a local high school, THIS is required (in addition to bell covers). Not sure if I can tolerate this or not......

Why not a Recording?

I remember Doc saying in an interview somewhere that he was able to hire all of the top studio musicians for the Tonight Show Band, because it was a great job. It was steady work every weekday with every weekend off, so they could play freelance gigs on the weekend. And there were no exhausting road trips full of one-nighters. That doesn't take away from their terrific musicianship, but it does help explain how he got the top players.