Woody Shaw “There Will Never Be Another You”

TLDR: Skip to the end of the article to find free PDF versions of Woody’s solo in C, Bb, Eb, and bass clef! The YouTube video at the end of the article contains an embedded Bb version of the sheet music. This one time at band camp, an instructor told me that you could gauge […]

Album of the Year (2022): In These Times

My old, dead blog had a series of articles dedicated to identifying the best Jazz album for each year, starting in the 1950’s. It was an ambitious project that I loved, but I only managed to publish a handful of articles to highlight the brilliance of albums like Kind of Blue, A Love Supreme, and […]

Playtest: Bajoc Frankenhorn

For years and years I’ve played a Getzen Eterna 900 tuning bell trumpet made around 1981. It is a rare bird–I’ve only seen two listed publicly since I’ve actively watched trumpet classified ads a few years ago. The TLDR version of this post is I had it restored with some new parts via Bájoc Music, […]

What B Flat Trumpet Should I Buy? Tier 1: $15,000+

It’s been a while since I’ve written about buying new trumpets. As you recall from my scintillating intro article, the new trumpet market is divided into five pricing tiers: Today we’ll be diving into Tier 1, which is the territory of Monette. Note that I won’t be talking about Monette mouthpieces or non-trumpet models in […]

Kenny Dorham’s Solo On “An Oscar For Oscar”

Mr. McKinley Howard Dorham, aka “Kenny”, aka “KD”, was a titan in the jazz trumpet lineage. While digging through my old transcriptions, I found this one I did a few years ago on “An Oscar for Oscar”, which is a Blues in Concert C. The whole album (Kenny Dorham Quintet) is a classic, so be […]

Roy Hargrove’s Solo on Confirmation

Sometimes there are cats that sound killer live, but not as much in the studio. Then there are others who sound great in the studio, but not live. (Lastly, there are those like me that sound bad at both, lol). But once in a while there is a transcendent musician who sounds ridiculously good no […]

Fats Navarro’s Solo on Barry’s Bop

I love Fats Navarro. He is a Founding Father of the trumpet. In the words of the great Jimmy Heath: Fats ate Miles up every night. Miles couldn’t outswing him, he couldn’t outpower him, he couldn’t outsweet him, he couldn’t do anything except take that whipping on every tune. Every trumpet player should study Fats. His recordings […]

Kenny Dorham’s Solo On Like Someone In Love

McKinley “Kenny” Dorham was one bad man. He paired up with John Coltrane to record the album Coltrane Time, which also featured the innovative Cecil Taylor on piano. No other trumpet player was so versatile, malleable, and flexible enough to play with Taylor, Monk, and Andrew Hill like Dorham did. (Can you imagine Miles playing […]

Blue Mitchell’s Solo On Silver’s Serenade

Check out Blue Mitchell’s melodic solo on Horace Silver’s “Silver’s Serenade.” Below you’ll find a video with the embedded sheet music (in Bb). I’ve also included free Bb, C, Eb, and Bass Clef downloads after the YouTube video. If you find these videos and transcriptions helpful, please like, comment, share, and subscribe! These PDFs are […]

Playtest: Schilke HC2L-Lbr

It’s here! My baby which I ordered with some custom features back in March 2022…. Behold the HC2L-Lbr! If you’re wondering what that alphabet soup means, here’s a quick primer: HC=Handcraft 2=Copper bell, nickel inner tubing, yellow brass outer tubing, X4 valve block, large bore (.468) L=Tunable Bell Lbr=Brushed Lacquer While you can find some […]