After visiting family, the tail end of the month found me on a plane for Phoenix Arizona for a conference. I was pretty bummed that I would once again be forced not to practice for an extended period but I took it in stride. I hung out with my former co-worker Julie (who showed me the ropes at the conference), played golf with my boss (can you get a free drop by the rattlesnake pit?), met some cool people in the IT Legal field (can you say PARTY?) and learned a lot. Of course, I took my mouthpiece and buzzed on it whenever I could.
I got back home late Friday and I had a master class waiting for me the very next day. I was pretty concerned about how I would do on the horn after such a long lay off but found myself playing better than ever. On “Take the A Train” I was able to nail the F# with relative ease and when Jeff broke out “‘Autumn Leaves” I was able to play the head musically – something I could not do before… especially with that G on top of the staff! After the master class I went home and spent two hours on fundamentals. Lots of long tones and lip slurs…
A few equipment changes to announce… I have officially switched to a Monette B2 as my main mouthpiece. I’m going to give it the same fair shake that I gave my Laskey 70C (6-7 months). I tried it a long time ago but didn’t stick with it more than 2 or 3 weeks. I backed off of the Kanstul M-B4S because of the size. It felt a touch small and my teacher encouraged me to play on larger mouthpieces. I trust his judgment in this and all matters trumpet since he knows my playing better than anyone. My teacher before him actually made the same suggestion so 2 out of 2 are probably right. I was also popping out those Gs and F#s with it so that solidified the change.
The other change is in the flugelhorn category. I got my hands on a Couesnon flugelhorn. I had it completely overhauled at Charlie Melk’s Brass Works and it looks like a new horn. Charlie did an amazing job and I recommend him highly. My biggest beef with it is in the valve category. They are a bit sluggish and I’m used to better valve action. I think that is because they are bottom sprung but it could be because I’m used to the Getzen valves on my Lawler. That aside – the sound is to DIE for. I can definitely see why cats like Ingrid Jensen, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and Tom Harrell selected it. I may break out of my silence and record something with it — no promises though.
Since I’m not updating the site weekly I’m taking a poll to see if anyone would be interested in getting an email from me when I post new messages or CD reviews. If there is enough feedback I will do it. You email address would only be used for that purpose and masked when the messages are sent. Just shoot me an email and let me know.