Tom Harrell – Interview #1
Tom Harrell has been one of my musical heroes for many years. In fact, I would say his playing and composition have had the most profound impact of all my jazz influences. I have done many transcriptions of Tom’s solos and in doing so have developed an even greater appreciation for his musicianship. His lines are often un-idiomatic, meaning they don’t lay naturally for the trumpet. It is as…
What’s the Deal with Transcribing Jazz?
Outside of practicing your butt off, aspiring jazz musicians are told two things will also help their improvising; listening to great jazz players and transcribing their solos. I do not disagree with this. After all, jazz is a language and to understand it we must not only study the grammar of how to spell and write, but in order to speak it we need to listen to hear how it sounds. However,…
A Clinic With Bud Brisbois
Here is a transcript from a clinic given by the great Bud Brisbois. He gave a concert at my alma mater Lawrence University with the group Matrix (mentioned below and pictured above) just before he committed suicide. While I was not at Lawrence at that time, many of my teachers were. They talked and still do talk extremely respectfully of Bud and I am very thankful that they turned me on to one…
Jazz Break: It Could Happen To You
I’m going to break from the norm of this site for a moment and offer up a musical selection. I know this may not be following the educational and informational direction of this blog but I came across this mp3 the other day and just thought I would share it.
The Setup
A few years ago saxophonist Tom Gullion, called some musicians together to play on a recording project of his. The night…
Shell Lake pt.2
Things are wrapping up here at the Shell Lake Jazz Combo Camp. It's been a fantastic week. The faculty were all top notch players from Minneapolis, Chicago, Indiana and Madison. There was one faculty per instrument and we gave three concerts as a group throughout the week. (The piano faculty was Luke Gillespie from Indiana U and is absolutely brilliant!) The faculty combo was joined by jazz…
Shell Lake pt. 1
I am leaving tomorrow morning to teach at the Shell Lake Jazz Camp. I will be there from July 4-9 teaching brass master class, improvisation a combo and jazz arranging. The faculty will also be performing evening concerts. I'm looking forward to meeting and playing with the other faculty up there.
I'm not sure what kind of internet connection I'll have but I hope to continue regular posting…
Balancing Classical and Jazz Practice
I am someone that tries to maintain as high a level of classical trumpet playing as jazz playing. Call me obsessive-compulsive but I can’t “dabble” at anything. If I can’t dive in and do something 100% I lose interest and would usually rather not do it at all. There are a number of trumpet players out there like me “crossover players”, and this article is for you. Actually, you will find a…
Practice Improvisation Like a Scientist
The Hypothesis
Have you ever felt like your progress in learning jazz improvisation is stagnant, rambling, directionless or going nowhere? It’s easy to feel that way because there is so much to learn in this art form and too many possible directions to go at once. Looking at a blank page and writing, or blank canvas and painting, without an objective is sometimes too unstructured for a young…
Recycling in Jazz Improvisation
The following is an exerpt from my book, "Recycling in Jazz Improvisation" which can be downloaded as a pdf iunder the "Shop" tab.
The core concept for this book started a while ago when I began teaching my younger trumpet students to practice major scales in what I call "scale fragments". I have found that this can be a more efficient means to work on major, diminished, whole-tone, and…
Juggling Versatility
A Trend In Trumpet Playing
I have found that in recent years there seems to be a trend for music students, in particular, students of the trumpet, to strive for music careers that encompass and embrace a wider variety of musical styles. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that the freelancing musical climate has changed from one where a player could more easily make a living doing just…