Here is Rafael Mendez playing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. Rafael Méndez (March 26, 1906 – September 15, 1981) was a popular Mexican virtuoso solo trumpeter. The music building of Arizona State University houses the Rafael Méndez Library, established in 1993. Mendez was associated with the old F.E. Olds Company and there was a line of professional trumpets, the Olds Mendez. See this site for more about Rafael Mendez, including some MP3 sound clips.
I was listening to an oldie today with some nice trumpet work. So, I looked it up. It was Gerard Presencer, a fine British trumpeter. Listen to some his current work, or enjoy this great oldie. And it uses samples from “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock from 1964. I’ll put up a nice version starring the late Freddie Hubbard next week.
I was listening to an oldie today with some nice trumpet work. So, I looked it up. It was Gerard Presencer, a fine British trumpeter. Listen to some his current work, or enjoy this great oldie. And it uses samples from “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock from 1964. I’ll put up a nice version starring the late Freddie Hubbard next week.
Here’s a video treasure. Louis Armstrong appeared on the Johnny Cash show and they performed Blue Yodel No. 9, which Louis Armstrong had done in 1930 with Jimmie Rodgers.
Grammy-award winning trumpeter Freddie Hubbard has died, following a heart attack the day before Thanksgiving. Freddie Hubbard’s career started in the late 1950′s, and was pretty much continuous but for a lip injury in the 1990′s. In 1992, he developed an infection of his upper lip and there were doubts he would play again. However, he had played more in recent years to favorable reviews. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts honored Hubbard with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award.
In this recently re-discovered video from 1959, Maynard Ferguson impresses the audience by playing 3 horns — baritone, valve trombone, and trumpet. The tune is “Great Guns”.
Harry James was a remarkable trumpet player born in 1916. His parents were circus performers, and his father was strick, giving him a page of trumpet exercises each morning to master before he could do what most children would want to do, which would be anything but trumpet exercises. YouTube has a remarkable collection of videos and recordings but a few of my favorites are linked here.
In 1935, Harry James joined the Ben Pollack orchestra at the age of 19. A year later he moved onto the Benny Goodman band. In 1939, he launched his own band, and hired Frank Sinatra. Unfortunately, his band foundered and he released Sinatra so he could sign with Tommy Dorsey.
In the 40′s there was a 2 year musician’s strike and a little skirmish called World War II. Harry didn’t serve in the war due to a back injury, but he found work in Hollywood as a musician. Here’s Harry James playing ‘Concerto for Trumpet’ in the movie ‘Private Buckaroo’. The year is 1942, and Harry is 26.
For the 1943 musical, ‘Best Foot Forward’, Harry would perform a song that will forever be associated with him, ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’. The arrangement and commercialization of classical tunes would be a James’ trademark, but one for which he would be criticized for music critics. Nevertheless it sold records. (The orginial video that we had on this page has been removed from youtube. Here’s another version.)
Here Harry James plays ‘Hora Staccato’, a violin piece in an arrangement he wrote himself. The movie was Bathing Beauty.
Harry James work in the 50′s isn’t on YouTube, but here we catch up with Harry and Buddy Rich playing ‘Green Onions’ in 1965.
Harry James died in 1983 in Las Vegas of lymphatic cancer. He was 67. He gave his last concert 9 days before his death.
