mrtrpt

I don't know about you guys, but when I listen to NY, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Phili, etc. I can tell a difference....

Maybe that difference isn't as big as it used to be...? Maybe I'm too young to know (late 20's).

A friend and I do the modern day drop the needle... he just sits at his computer and picks from a library of thousands of pieces and is like "who is this?" It's fun to listen to Chris play something and then a second later hear Phil and Mike play the same thing... there's definitely a difference (do you want the blonde supermodel or the brunette? we always joke... :) And it's not just the trumpets. It's the whole orchestra. Like sometimes when you hear the same section back to back with different orchestras you're like "man those strings are great there!" or "man, the low brass are amazing!"

I've heard Phil Smith, Chris Martin, Dave Bilger, Tom Rolfs, and Mike Sachs all play in person and I think that they are all very different...

I also think that trumpet playing has just flat out evolved very quickly in the past 20 years... I was showing my girlfriend a video of Hakan a month or so ago from the ealry 90's and was like "he is really great, but that's not his sound anymore..." she thought I was nuts. Then we went to his website and listened to a recent clip and she was like "that's that same guy?! he sounds [even more] amazing!" I was just like "exactly....." Things change, even the same people 15 years later...

Listen to recordings of the same great player 20 years apart and you hear differences, growth, maturity [obviously]. You can't be a young player and come in with an attitude of "I'm totally an individual, I'm going to do it my way" You have to show respect for the generations that came before you; show that you know the traditions, that people have worked their whole lives to shape and develop the art. It is possible to do this while still being yourself...

You see it in sports. When some hot shot kid comes out of college and is like "I'm going to do it my way, I'm awesome, I don't care how many greats came before me" and we all hate that guy... why is there a desire for that in the music world!!??

And one more sports analogy. For every player you see in professional sports there are hundreds of guys who didn't make it. Who went to training camp and got cut, who didn't make the cut in the first place, who get injured, who screw up their chances by not playing within the team system, etc. There are scouts out there constantly looking for the next superstar at pee-wee games, high school games, college games, everywhere. What makes us think that the process is going to be any easier?? Filling a spot in a major orchestra is not like filling some 9-5 desk job opening...

I think the players today are much more "individual" than we give them credit for...the players who actually HAVE the jobs. This notion that "in the past" there were more "individuals" is a little lop sided because it seems we're always comparing the people who show up at auditions today to the people who actually HAD the jobs back then. Is the implication that everyone who showed up at an audition back then was great?? The only players you can compare to all the past legends are the players who actually have those jobs today. And I think that they are doing one hell of a job...!

I'm interested in the repsonse this gets...

MR