| Hi Rick
Paul died before I got to town so I never met him personally.
The things I heard about him was that if he hadn't died, Chuck Findley wouldn't be a " trumpet players " house hold name, because Chuck filled the void left open by Paul's passing. He was the first call " Rock and Roll " session trumpet player. All the acts that recorded in the 60's and 70's , including Phil Spector wall of sound, want young, hip , " groovy " session horn sections recording there stuff, just the age and the look of the name bands that were recording. Goz never had a chance at that kind of work.
I'll call a few guys tomorrow that were around when Paul played and get a better idea of his abilities. The definite word was he was monster player and as strong as a bull. I've got one picture of him. and he looked like a bull also. Long hair, big mustache wearing some sort of big brimed " Pimp " hat.
That same theory also goes for Conrad Gozzo and Johnny Audino. If Gozzo hadn't passed away at such a young age ( 38 ) , Johnny Audino ( Gozzo's air apparent ) would have just been another face down at the musicians union. Not really, but Johnny started getting the calls that would have went to Gozzo after Goz left becasue of Audino's big sound that came close to Gozzo.
The passing of Paul Hubinon, Conrad Gozzo , plus Pat Houston ( Elvis's lead player. His death in the early 70's let a 21 year old Walt Johnson step in to that spot and Walt's first Elvis job was the famous " Hawaii Concert " with Elvis that was televised internationally for the first time ) changed direction of a few careers.
Pat Houston lived in the SF bay area and was killed in a car accident.
He played lead trumpet for Elvis and lead trumpet for Don Piestrup's big band which backed up the Pointer Sisters plus countless Reno Headliners . #1 call trumpet player for all of SF / Reno area.
His equipment
A .459 bore k-modified Selmer Paris ( 24 b ) trumpet circa early 60's , laquer , and a bach 7c mouthpiece. That's it baby, down and dirty. He probably had order his 13 " color " tuning slides but Paris is such a long way away they probably just hadn't showed up yet and I heard his
" Shulman System " and " Super Chops Video " was on back order.
All the best, warts and all
Larry |