Posts made by SSmith1226

This 2 1/2 hr concert will give you something to do during social distancing time:

I stumbled across this today on line from the Tribune Chronicle of Warren, Ohio and thought it might be of interest:

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of a series of Saturday profiles of area residents and their stories. To suggest a profile, contact features editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com.

Warren native Sean Jones is one of the most celebrated trumpet players in the world. At the age of 10, his gift had already become apparent to established musical mentors who would foster his career. But ask Jones how he feels about that, and he’ll deny that it’s a gift at all.

“I never thought of it as a gift,” he said. “Everybody has something that they’re supposed to do, right? I thought ‘OK, I can do this. So that must be what I’m supposed to do.’ I didn’t think of it as a big deal. I still don’t.”

Jazz greats like Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Marcus Miller and Herbie Hancock — with whom Jones often collaborates — might not concur with that. When they selected Jones to fill in for late Miles Davis on their 2011 tour in tribute to the master, it was a very big deal.

The St. James Church of God and Christ in Warren, which the Jones family attended, served as the foundation of Jones’ humility.

Jones explained, “When you grew up in a Pentecostal church, man, and everybody can play an instrument or sing like a bird, you’re not special. Our organist was Eddie Howard, who was one of the great organists of all time. He was special.

“I was given this thing to do so I did it. If more people thought like this, we would have happier people in society. So many people chase after a dollar thinking, what do I have to do to get that dollar? And it never makes them happy. Doing what you were meant to do — that’s what makes you happy.”

Born in 1978, Jones grew up during a disquieting time for the Valley. He remembered as a child watching its decline.

“I saw things begin to change as a kid. Early on, people were still working. My mother worked at Packard Electric. Fortunately, she retired before it collapsed.”

After his mother and father separated when he was 6, his mother assumed responsibility not only for their own children, but also for his children from a previous marriage. Jones’ household at that point included four brothers, two sisters, an aunt and uncle, a cousin and a grandmother, all living in one house on Williamsburg Street.”

“I did not know that we didn’t have a lot. We had what we needed — shelter, food and clean clothes for church. My mother worked overtime all the time. But I never understood her struggle until I walked into her room one day to see her crying. I didn’t know why, and she didn’t tell me. But I knew then that something was going on that I didn’t understand.”

Jones displayed his own unique vision early on when his personal interests diverged from those of his classmates.

“I was a nerd when I was growing up. Other kids made fun of me because I wanted telescopes and microscopes and things like that. I never wanted toys.”

While in fifth grade, Jones’ teacher brought in a music store owner to demonstrate musical instruments to the class. While all the girls wanted to play flutes and clarinets and all the boys wanted to play drums, Jones gravitated to the trumpet.

“Nobody really wanted to deal with that trumpet. When I tried to play it, I understood why. It took me a month just to get a sound out of it.”

One Jones’ earliest mentors was Tony Leonardo of Youngstown State University, who recruited Jones on a visit to Jones’ music class at Harding High School. Leonardo arranged for Jones to study with Esotto Pellegrini. “That totally turned my world around,” he said.

It was around that time that Jones’ father re-entered his life. “We began to reconcile a bit. Then he died. That was a big blow. I got depressed and started doing drugs and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I was just trying to figure everything out.”

It was Leonardi and Kent Inglehart of YSU who helped Jones get back on track.

“They knew I needed them in that capacity. These cats cared about humanity and they cared about me. I didn’t take that for granted. This is the greatest thing about the Steel Valley. When things get tough, politics don’t mean anything, religious stuff doesn’t mean anything, black or white doesn’t mean anything. At the end of the day, we come together, and we fight together.”

So, with the emotional support of friends and family, Jones won his fight against the demons of addiction and self-doubt.

A local recording studio owner named Dennis Reynolds befriended Jones and launched him on his recording career.

“He was a spiritual father to me in high school and college.” Jones said. “I would go to his little studio downtown Warren, right above Mickey’s Army-Navy Store, and practice all night. He would let me listen to his records. He taught me that although music is what you do and who you are, it is not the most important thing. Your life informs your music. But your music is not your life.”

Jones learned another important lesson in life years later while on the Miles Davis tribute tour in France. During one grueling drive, Marcus Miller asked Wayne Shorter, “What is the important thing in the world to have?”

“Imagination,” Shorter replied.

Jones asked him, “What about family? What about love? Why would you say imagination over those things?”

“Because,” Shorter replied, “without imagination, you could never appreciate those things in the first place.”

Jones’ subsequent career achievements are well-documented. Suffice it to say within this story, they are considerable. He is now the Chair of Jazz Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

He also has a brand-new baby girl, born just two weeks ago. Still in his 40s, his already-spectacular career is just beginning. But he knows already how he would like to be remembered long after he is gone. He has already written his own obituary:

“The call on my life has been to do the hard things — the painful hard things — with grit and determination, in the spirit of love, connected to the eternal consciousness that gave me the fight to endure and enjoy it all.”

Corona Virus Bowling Alley Etiquette

@GeorgeB
I would add “Fever” to your list. I posted a YouTube play along Trumpet version two days ago on the topic, “Covid-19 Closing Down Music Venues” that you might like.

@Dr-GO said in A Trumpet Cover I Did. Would love some tips/advice!:

My guess is a single chamber cardiac pacer for standard rhythms and a duel chamber biventricular for resynchronization.

And an AICD to jolt you back into rhythm.

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/trumpet/quarantined-italian-musician-imagine-solo-balcony/

@barliman2001
Barliman2001 hit the nail on the head! “Here is the rest of the story”, which I will title, “If only the pocket trumpet could talk.”
An email from my friend, after he was sent Barliman2001’s post said, “Thanks Steve. I know a little about my Uncle and what he told me about the cornet. He was born in 1885. When he was about 17 or 18 I think he was conscripted into the Russian Army. He was a musician. He played in the band. I’m guessing he might have been stationed in Harbin while the Russian army was building the Siberian RR. There was a significant Jewish population in Harbin with a symphony and a Yiddish Theatre. After the Russo Japanese war broke out in 1904 He thought they would send him to the front. He defected. Not sure if he ran from or to Harbin. The only things he brought with him to America was this trumpet which he said he played in the army marching band and two gold Russian coins which I have 1 of them. When he came to America he connected with a former friend musician from Russia ( perhaps Harbin) Jacob Jacobs and composed Yiddish music for the Yiddish theater under the name Yasha Kreitzberg. Not sure why he changed his name from Jack Saxonsky( Saxon). He also was friends with another musician who I read spent time in Harbin Alexander Olshanevsky. He became fairly well known and his works are in the Yivo museum in NYC. The story and dates are hazy. I Interesting story. I guess if the pocket trumpet could talk ????”

@flugelgirl
I posted this on TH and a TH Member pointed out that the engraving transliterated to “Harbin”, from the Cyrillic. Harbin is a city in China that many Russians and other Europeans moved to over many centuries, especially the 19th The mid 20th centuries.

Does anyone have any idea about what this trumpet is, what the origin is, and its potential value? It belonged to a friend of mine whose uncle passed away and left it to him. I have no idea whether it functions fully, partially, or not at all. Thanks in advance for any input!

@Newell-Post
Three of the five that I am involved with at various times of the year did the same. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other two do the same in the next few days.

@Dr-GO

Somehow sex and a Brooklyn, Jersey accent would NOT get me to home base.

Would you like to reconsider? Watch at 1:25

Or was this what you were referring to?

An old lady is rocking away the last of her days on her front porch, reflecting on her long life, when all of a sudden a fairy godmother appears in front of her and informs her that she will be granted three wishes.

“Well, now,” says the old lady, “I guess I would like to be really rich.”
Instantly, her rocking chair turns to solid gold.

“And, gee, I guess I wouldn’t mind being a young, beautiful princess.”

She turns into a beautiful young woman.

“Your third wish?” asks the fairy godmother. Just then the old woman’s cat wanders across the porch in front of them.
“Ooh… Can you change him into a handsome prince?” she asks.

And suddenly there before her stands a young man more handsome than anyone could possibly imagine. She stares at him, smitten. With a smile that makes her knees weak, he saunters across the porch and whispers in her ear: “Bet you’re sorry you had me neutered.”

A man goes into a bar and asks the bartender, “If I show you the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen will you let me drink for free tonight?” The bartender says, “Let me see and I’ll consider it.”

So the man reaches into his bag and pulls out a miniature piano and a hamster. The hamster sits in front of the piano and starts playing, and not just chopsticks but Chopin, some ragtime and even some rock’n’roll.

After a few minutes the bartender says “Okay, I’m impressed, you can drink for free.” As the bartender is pouring the man a drink the man says, “Hey, if I show you something even more amazing will you let me drink for free for a month?”

The bartender says, “Okay, but this had better be spectacular.” So the man reaches into his bag and pulls out a microphone and a frog. The frog sits in front of the microphone and begins singing along with the hamster playing the piano.

The bartender says, “Okay, you can drink here for free for a month.”

Another customer at the end of the bar has been watching. He walks over and says, “I’m a theater producer and I’d like to buy that frog and put him in a show. Will you sell it to me for $500?” The man says no, so the producer offers to buy the frog for $5000, and the man agrees.

As the producer leaves with the frog the bartender says, “I can’t believe you sold the frog! It was worth more.” “Not really” the man says, “The hamster is a ventriloquist.”

@Brian-Moon
@Kehaulani
Thanks for your comments!
There is a pretty good physical resemblance to Osho, the Sex Guru. The dialect of the one I posted could be West Virginian. Osho on the other hand sounds like he is from Brooklyn, Jersey or Mumbi.

I can’t take it no more.

A band director was having a lot of trouble with one of his drummers. He talked and talked and talked with the drummer, but performance didn’t improve.

Finally, in front of the whole orchestra, he said: “When a musician just can’t handle his instrument and doesn’t improve when given help, they take away the instrument, give him two sticks, and make him a drummer.”

A whisper was heard from the percussion section: “And if he can’t handle even that, they take away one of his sticks and make him a conductor.”

A great interview with Adam Rapa: