Someone showed a list similar to this to me a while back and I apologize for not currently being able to give proper credit to the original author.  I have edited and paraphrased a few things in my list but primarily the credit for this Prep List goes to someone else out there in the music world.  (If anyone knows this source please leave that info in a comment below.) The ideas below are obviously geared toward trumpet players but any...

A fellow Tom Harrell fan, great trumpet player and friend Jamie Beiwick shared this interview clip on his facebook page.  Tom is not only one of the greatest jazz trumpet players of all time (imho) but also a very deep thinking, spiritually sensitive person.  This is a great interview clip mixing commentary with playing.  I am especially blown away by Tom’s solo on Green Dolphin Street.  (about 3:20 minutes in) Enjoy! Jazz...

Title Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra Johann Friedrich Fasch, 1688-1758 Scored for 2 oboes, solo trumpet, strings, and continuo Biographical Info Johann Friedrich Fasch is an example of that all-too-common phenomenon in music, the forgotten innovator. A contemporary of Bach (1685-1750), Fasch was a prolific Baroque composer, writing among other things over 90 suites, 16 masses, 4 operas, 61 concertos, and 19 symphonies. He was well...

Tom Harrell has been one of my musical heroes for many years.  In fact, I would say his playing and composition have had the most profound impact of all my jazz influences.  I have done many transcriptions of Tom’s solos and in doing so have developed an even greater appreciation for his musicianship.  His lines are often un-idiomatic, meaning they don’t lay naturally for the trumpet.  It is as if playing the trumpet for Tom is...

I can count on one hand the crossover trumpet players that I would actually buy CDs of BOTH their classical and jazz playing.  Rex Richardson is one of those players.  There are plenty of players who specialize in one field and dabble in the other but it’s rare to find someone that digs in, way in, to jazz improvisation AND classical technique/repertoire.  I was first introduced to Rex’s playing when we shared a new-music recital at...

Title Call for Solo Trumpet (2003) By James Stephenson Biographical Info Jim has composed a considerable amount of fantastic material for trumpet; sonatas, concerti, etude books, chamber music and unaccompanied solos.  I have heard that he has even composed music that involves instruments other than the trumpet.  I know … hard to believe, but you can find a complete listing of his compositions and arrangements here.  His website, by...

Title Litany of Breath For Unaccompanied Trumpet By David Sampson Biographical Info David Sampson is a trumpet player, teacher and composer living in New Jersey.  He has made considerable contributions to 20th and 21st Century trumpet literature by composing more than fifteen works featuring the trumpet as well as works for wind ensemble, brass ensembles of various instrumentation and choirs.  Further biographical information on David...

Title Solo For unaccompanied flugel horn or Bb trumpet by David Sampson Biographical Info David Sampson (b. 1951, Charlottesville, Virginia) has emerged as one of the truly unique voices of his generation achieving rapidly growing attention from major orchestras, soloists and ensembles.  He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Hunter College, Manhattan School of Music, and the Ecoles d’ Art Americaines, where his teachers...

Outside of practicing your butt off, aspiring jazz musicians are told two things will also help their improvising; listening to great jazz players and transcribing their solos.  I do not disagree with this.  After all, jazz is a language and to understand it we must not only study the grammar of how to spell and write, but in order to speak it we need to listen to hear how it sounds.  However, here is the point where I differ slightly...

Title Fantasia for Solo Trumpet (2008) By Lauren Bernofsky Biographical Info Although Lauren Bernofsky was trained as a violinist, she has contributed a substantial amount to the brass repertory.  Her list of compositions can be found here. The Fantasia for solo trumpet was commissioned by John W. Cain. Suggested Equipment Lauren composed this for Bb or C trumpet.  Except for the high E at the very end I prefer to play this on C...

Ray Mase is one of my absolute, all-time favorite trumpet players.  He plays in the American Brass Quintet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and teaches at Julliard Aspen Music Festival.  He has the most singing, vibrant, lyrical tone I have ever heard on the trumpet and is a huge influence on my playing.  I highly recommend his CD, “Trumpet In Our Time”.  The article that follows is one of his on how to practice more efficiently by...

Here is a transcript from a clinic given by the great Bud Brisbois.  He gave a concert at my alma mater Lawrence University with the group Matrix (mentioned below and pictured above) just before he committed suicide.  While I was not at Lawrence at that time, many of my teachers were.  They talked and still do talk extremely respectfully of Bud and I am very thankful that they turned me on to one of the true legends of the trumpet.  (I...