By The Landlord
“Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave! And either victory, or else a grave.” – William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3
“At the round earth's imagined corners, blow your trumpets, angels.” – John Donne, Holy Sonnet 7
“Milton, in his hand
The thing became a trumpet.” – William Wordsworth, Scorn Not the Sonnet
“My heart leaps at the trumpet's voice.” – Joseph Addison
“You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“Don't play what's there, play what's not there … I always listen to what I can leave out.” – Miles Davis
“It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.” – Miles Davis
“Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that.” – Dizzy Gillespie
“The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the backyard on a hot night or something said long ago … Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.” – Louis Armstrong
“Music was the one thing I could control. The answers lay no further than the bell of my trumpet and my scrawled, pencilled scores. Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool.” – Quincy Jones
“Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something.” – Wynton Marsalis
“I used to look at these pictures of trumpeters pointing their instrument to the ceiling. Stunning pictures, but if you play the trumpet and point it upwards, all the spit comes back into your mouth.” – Humphrey Lyttelton
Over the breakfast table this morning I casually mentioned that today I was doing trumpet solos. I was initially met with a confused look. Then I realised I needed to clarify – this was a musical challenge, not a gastric one.
But that, dear Song Bar punters, signals, with a clear note, that this topic can only get more elevated from here, as we explore the beautiful, warm, clear, timeless sound of an instrument that has been part of human civilisation for several thousand years, from the Oxus civilizations of the Middle East in the 3rd millennium BC, and around in 2000 BC, bronze and silver trumpets in Tutankhamun's in Egyptian tomb, bronze lurs in Scandinavia, and metal trumpets in China. The trumpet’s history blows a long and distant melody down the winds of centuries.
It's no coincidence then, that the trumpet feels like an alternative, and often purer expression of the human voice, and one that can contain a whole spectrum of emotions, reflections, memories, sadness, joy, anger, the sound of war and victory and despair, with a clarity a chatter, or a growl, capturing the express speed or the simmering slowness of existence. Of course it’s not just the notes, but very different souls expressing themselves. Playing the trumpet is a very physically strenuous instrument that takes enormous effort and skill to sound free-flowing and relaxed.
So this week it’s songs and pieces where there’s a solo trumpet, not groups or sets of instruments, break out with significant solo or part in any song or piece. In the past there as been a general brass topic, and also a separate one for the trombone. Naturally this week is going to cover jazz, but hopefully also classical, reggae, pop, ska, folk, hip-hop and other genres. As Louis Armstrong said: “Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.” But what of the genre he is best known for? “If you have to ask what jazz is, you will never know."
Louis Armstrong: “Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.”
But as Louis says above, a solo conveys images and memories, emotions and more, and in his case, he is often thinking of his past in New Orleans, of a tough childhood or racism and repression and defiance. A great solo conveys all kinds of emotions, whether its by one of the greats, or any other player part of a band or guest in a song, conveying a story, a feeling or a sound that elevates and captivates us.
Louis / Satchmo, Dizzy, Miles, Chet? The top trumpeters, like the most famous footballers, pop icons or composers, only need one name, and are the superstars of the brass world. But there are many more to explore here.
Clifford Brown
“Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived,” says Herb Alpert. Who else?
Chet Baker. A distintive, gentle sound plagued by addiction demons …
Gottfried Reiche
Back in Johann Sebastian Bach’s day, the top dog biggest blower in Leipzig was his chief trumpeter Gottfried Reiche. But while the music he played can also be replicated in later recordings by great classical trumpeters, we’re likely to mostly find solo performances by 20th and 21st century players with distinctive sounds and styles, and instruments with valves rather than the straight trumpets of old, the Salpinx was a straight trumpet 62 inches (1,600 mm) long, made of bone or bronze mentioned in Homer's Iliad and might have been played to herald the first Olympic Games, to 14th century and beyond, when the word evolved from the Old French trompette.
Cat Anderson
Cat Anderson, for example, who played in Duke Ellington’s band, was admired for his powerful high notes. And later, in other circles, another player known for his high-note fast accuracy was Canadian Maynard Ferguson, who initially played with Stan Kenton. There are many more players, style and of solos to suggest and discover of course.
Trumpeters seem to be strong characters, as that remark above by Wynton Marsalis indicates. Is it the physicality of the instrument? They can be extremely affable like Louis Armstrong or Humphrey Lyttleton, or come across as dangerous, difficult and a bit mad like Miles Davis, or prone to addiction like Chet Baker. Or indeed all of the above. The sound and valve positions of their personalities might change from day to day. As Miles Davis admits: “Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.”
And playing the trumpet is really not easy. Here’s Dizzy Gillespie on his relationship with the instrument: "Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins”.
Dizzying skills
No wonder then that trumpeters can be cheerful or capricious, mean and moody. The trumpet is the diva, and the boss of brass section, like the lead violin in the orchestra.
It is played by blowing air through slightly separated lips, producing a "buzzing" sound into the mouthpiece, starting a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet ,changing pitch from a range of overtones or harmonics by altering lip aperture and tension (known as the embouchure) to change the timbre. But pitch can also be changed by semi-tones by combinations of valves.
And beyond the notes, there are other techniques used by many players, such as circular breathing by many jazz greats, where the player puffs up the cheeks, storing air, then breathes in rapidly through the nose while using the cheeks to continue pushing air outwards, so they can keep going for several minutes without stopping. I’ve never been able to get a note on the trumpet, but I’ve tried this with other instruments and it’s very difficult. Then there is flutter tonguing (rolling Rs into the mouthpiece), double- and triple-tonguing, growling, tremolo, vibrato, glissando, humming while playing and all sorts of subtleties with microtones, or very low notes via pedal tones, played by skilfully slipping the lower lip out of the mouthpiece. Your suggestions might include some of these skills, even if they aren’t identified.
Pocket trumpet
Trumpet solos might also include the range of instruments in the family - not just the standard C or B-flat tuned sizes, but the highest and smallest - piccolo trumpet or the pocket. Or they might include those with the mute, which, placed in or over the bell, which decreases volume and changes timbre, sometimes famously favoured by Miles.
That’s enough words and wind from me today. Now it’s time for yours. Please suggest your songs and pieces with wonderful, moving, weird and outstanding trumpet solos in comments below. Taking in this blow-by-blow account of great moments by the instrument is returning regular, the excellent Loud Atlas. Deadline is 11pm UK time on Monday for playlists published next week. OK, let’s blow …
Blowing hot and cold: Miles Davis statue in Kielce, Poland
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