Recently I’ve been reading a little about the old French trumpet player and pedagogue Merri Franquin. In 1912 he invented a four-valved trumpet in C. The fourth valve worked differently from the standard three in that it raised the pitch of the trumpet by a tone – like a backwards first valve. The purpose of […]
Image above: A dismantled Soprano Bugle. A couple of months ago I decided to dismantle and re-assemble an old Soprano Bugle that had bought on eBay in 2007. At first things were going well. I removed some dents, rebuilt the tuning slide, patched over a hole using a small copper ring and added an Amado […]
After a gig this week I was asked how and where I learned jazz improvisation. It certainly wasn’t in school big band or even when I was studying at a conservatoire. The environment that gave me the valuable years of practising jazz improvisation was busking as part of a jazz duo on the streets of […]
Here is a recording that was made in 2013 by Richard Lambert. I am playing a duet from the Selected Duets book on my flugelhorn. I’m sharing because I like it! Enjoy.
After my little experiment yesterday with improvisation over Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No 1 I was inspired to create another recording using Gnossienne No 1. Satie’s minimalistic harmonic structure creates an environment that isn’t too different in nature from the modal jazz styles that were being explored 40 years after his death. The harmony in this […]
Anybody who is familiar with my taste in classical music knows that one of my favourite composers is Erik Satie. Today I made an improvised recording over the chords to his famous Gymnopédie No 1 using Abelton Live 9. I hope you enjoy Gymnotrompeta! Please share the link as you much as you wish.
Earlier this week I added some brass parts and solos to this recording by Bruton School for Girls head girl Julia Robbins. As it came out nicely I think it’s definitely worth sharing. Enjoy!
Last year a friend and colleague of mine wrote this piece of music and we made a recording. Seeing as I haven’t posted it on here yet I think it’s about time that I do. The piece is called Trumpet Fantasy by Matthew Dury. Update: the sheet music for this piece is now available for […]
