(Almost) All Trumpets

Street Prophets had one of their open thread posts up today that featured trumpets. Of course, as a drum corps alumnus, I can't let a topic like this pass by without commenting on it. What follows (in blue) is most of what I wrote there (along with a new comment):



This is from the 1996 British movie, "Brassed Off," with Pete Postelthwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, and Ewan McGregor. This scene is where Tara's character "auditions" with the local coal mining brass band by playing from "Conceierto de Aranjuez." Granted, she's playing a flugelhorn and not a trumpet, but so what? [Of course, drum corps fans should recognize this song, especially from the 1973-76 Hawthorne Muchachos (among many other corps).]




This is Arturo Sandoval, playing with the Boston Pops back in '93. Arturo's a Cuban-American musician who's the best (IMO) jazz trumpeter in the world today.




While Arturo's a great screecher, no one's better than the late, great Maynard Ferguson whom I grew up listening to. This video's of one of his more popular covers, "Gonna Fly Now," from the original "Rocky."

Maynard Ferguson: 1928 - 2006

From Allah (swt) do we come, and unto Allah do we return. I'm sorry to hear that Maynard Ferguson has passed away. He was 78.

For those of us in the drum corps activity, Maynard was a major inspiration. My corps in 1978, the Empire State Express, played Maynard's arrangement of "Scheherazade," from the "New Vintage" album. It's a great song, and very typical of Maynard's style, with the elongated, park-and-blow double high C. On the recording, Maynard holds that double high C for - oh - 45 seconds or so. Our lead soprano could only hold it for about 20 seconds at the most. Theories abounded as to how Maynard could hold the note for so long, the most popular being "circular breathing," where Maynard could somehow both breathe in and play the trumpet simultaneously. The article linked above suggests that Maynard credited yoga for his ability to sustain his notes.

Maynard: You will be missed.