Manny Laureano

I don't know that color on trumpet can be manipulated in any way other than through mental conception. In other words, if you have the talent to mimic voices like a half-assed impressionist (imitating celebrities, politicians' voices) then you have the ability to change color. If you hear a person's unique voice and can't imitate it you may be hard-pressed to create different colors on the trumpet.

A good exercise might be to get recordings of 4 or 5 recordings of very different trumpeters. Arbitrarily let's say the following: Doc Severinsen, Herb Alpert, Rafael Mendez, and Miles Davis. Play a tune that they play and try to imitate it. If you can hear the differences that make them not only unique unto themselves but also to each other, well, you're on your way. If you can't hear the difference, no amount of physical manipulation will be successful.

I find the Herseth quote to be rather fascinating, Derek. At the time Herseth first played Mahler 5th with Barenboim for the first time he was still playing his Monette. So much for the notion of those old horns being one-dimensional and incapable of allowing a player the ability of playing with a wide variety of sounds. I guess Bud didn't have any problem. Don't mean for this thread to go in another direction, I just find that funny in light of the comments people were making when THEY played those horns. Sorry, couldn't resist pointing that out.

ML