JackD

You haven't, but yes I am.

Jack

ecarroll

Jack,

Please say hi for me (we're old pals -- even studied together in Chicago for a bit) and that I look forward to our next evening on the Curry Mile I love the Northern, by the way. It's a terrific school.

Markus' work really interests me. As you've heard, he's a fabulous trumpeter (credits Caruso), and equally at home with jazz, free improv (nobody's more creative, in my opinion), new music, and his father's stuff (which he no longer plays). He's also a serious composer.

Markus is anything but a "crossover" artist -- simply one who explores a larger number of genres than most. It's just language in the end and we would all be well served by crawling out of our little self-imposed holes occasionally to learn a new one!

Cheers,
EC

JackD

Ed, will do!

Markus said at various points people had recommended he concentrate on one thing or the other, but he always wanted to play both or all the things anyway. His thoughts on memorising music were also really interesting.

mazzrick

There's an Italian trumpet player named Marco Pierobon who I would list as a great crossover player. He was acting principal of the Chicago Symphony spring of last year before Chris Martin. Before that, he was principal trumpet in the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia and played lead trumpet in the Gomalan Brass Quintet. For anyone who hasn't heard this guy play, I highly recomend checking out one of Gomalan's CDs (summit has them). The group played at Tanglewood in 2003 and was amazing. David Ohanian was taking them around at the time but I don't know their North American activity of late. Their shows range from Canadian Brass-like to Arnold/Ewald, and cartoon songs to acting out operas. Their newest CD is almost all jazz charts, and he sounds incredible. I know this discussion was concerning improvising jazz players and I don't know how much improvising does, but nonetheless, their website is gomalanbrass.com and there are a bunch of clips online.

Matt

ecarroll

Thank, Matt.

I've heard that Marco is terrific (so is Balazs Nemes, the other European that the CSO was looking at) and have long felt that trumpeters with a wider range of musicianship than simply a well prepared list of excerpts will usually be the last ones standing at an orchestral audition (and bet that Manny would agree with me).

Is it STILL raining in Montreal?

Best,
EC

joshuasullins

Vizzutti is probably the best "crossover player" I know of. I studied with him at the University of Washington, and he was able to teach it all as well, which says even more about his skills in multiple genres. However, I haven't heard some names which are worthy of mention: Wayne Bergeron, Gary Grant, Jerry Hey, Arturo Sandoval, and Michael Phillip Mossman. They are all equally at home in classical, lead, and jazz improvisational settings. And, this is just my opinion, but I don't think Wynton is really a crossover player. He is an amazing musician, and one of the finest trumpet players of all time. I am not personally a fan of where he has gone with his jazz work. I like what he did in the 80's better than what he does now. That said, I think he lacks the commercial sound to play lead. I am sure he could do it, I am mean, I heard him a while ago in NYC and he was playing double C's while improving! I would do ANYTHING for his chops, but he jsut doesn't sound like Wayne does on lead and solo stuff.

That is just all my opinion. I think the best crossover players are the studio guys who play everything, not necessarily the stars we all hear about everyday.

V/R
Joshua Sullins

ecarroll

Joshua,

I agree with you about Al from a "jack-of-all-trades", commercial, standpoint. I did a Japanese tour with Ten of the Best (or, in Al's words "Two of the Best and Eight of the Rest") once and everytime he'd play one of his features our jaws would hit the floor. Absolutely wonderful and very musical trumpet playing.


EC

joshuasullins

Allen is such an amazing trumpet player. I can just hear him saying something like "two of the best, and eight of the rest", he really is also one of the funniest trumpet players I know. He put up a flyer for a masterclass on his door once that read something to the effect of "For all interested trumpet players: we will be discussing the importance of playing higher, faster, and louder." He cracks me up. He even plays comedically at times. What a guy, and what a monster player.

V/R,
Joshua Sullins

trjeam

(i'll probably get burned for this joke but)....

maurice andre! classical to jazz??

if you don't know what i'm talking about then nevermind... but if you've ever heard maurice attempt to play jazz you know what i'm talking about...

ecarroll

Jorge,

I remember when the record companies had Maurice and others record those awful Claude Bolling Suites. What a waste of vinyl


Best,
EC