Have the best New York Brass players be on your next recording session! Trumpet trombone and saxophone

National Wholesale Liquidators reopened in West Hempstead. Nothing to do with brass … I love this store! I always love buying my $2.99 extesion chord while getting milk. And don’t forget your 2 car jacks for the price of one. Need 50 lightbulbs and christmas lights in July? This where you go. Shampoo for you ceiling? Someone thought its a good idea to make an automated shnitzel cooker out of cardboard? And the book section is awesome too – If you were wondering where the Word ’97 for dummies book went – this place is for you! And bookshelves. Lots of bookshelves. Probably the best place to go to get Sauder bookshelves. In order to “get there before everyone shows up” I decided to beat the crowd and go early. Apparently, I live in a telepathic neighborhood because everyone and his wife showed up. Families of vooloohoos (which are according to a famous hitch-hiking book source is a super-intelligent shade of the color blue), and mythical creatures all took off a day of work and managed to somehow arrive before I did. The line went around the block. And people were asking “Are they giving out anything for free?”

I started a conversation with, National Liquidator Director of Security Phil DeGorter (in Lon Gilandeze it’s pronounced “De-Gauww-du”) . He told me that people have been calling them up since 2008 and asking to reopen this store. I am happy they complied, and Phil made sure it all went smoothly for the mobs of people that showed up.
Unfortunately Phil did not see his shadow today and we are going to have to wait until April for spring.

I got a call to play alto trombone with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. They are performing Gurrelieder by the composer Arnold Schoenberg. I expected to be playing a modern piece. But to my surprise it turned out to be a post-romantic mega composition that is performed by 131 musicians on stage and a 300 strong choir and soloists. To give you a sonic picture, here is a video from the finale of the dress rehearsal, where you can hear the alto trombone soaring above the whole orchestra:

Immense right? For me it is like closing a circle – My father sang with the choir in 1974 – the last time it was performed in Tel-Aviv! I was asked to play the alto trombone part, as I specialize in this instrument. There are 7 trombone parts in the piece: 1 alto, 1 tenor, 4 tenor/bass trombones and a contrabass trombone(!!). If you count in the bass trumpet and tuba – you have 9 low brass players! Although the part itself is sparse – the alto trombone’s job is to cut through the sound mass at the mid-range frequencies – and can be heard above the orchestra in the above recording.

There are a few perks to the job, namely I get to sit sandwiched between the principal trumpet, principal tenor trombone, principal french horn player, the bass trombone section, and get the play louder than all of them with a solo line that carries over the orchestra at the climactic end. I love brass, and I love sitting next to the great New-York players screaming their heads off with their trumpets and trombones in the studio – so imagine the power of 4 trumpets, a bass trumpet, 11 french horns (4 play Wagner tubas), 7 trombones including alto and a contrabass trombone – we had to get a special drone to do the job:

Just to get a small sonic picture here is a clip I picked up with my camera:

The section at the philharmonic this year is phenomenal, probably one of the best classical brass sections in the world today. Principal trombone player Danielle Morandini is being lent to the New York Philharmonic for next year’s season, so you will have a chance to hear him here. It is my understanding that the principal trumpet player Yigal Meltzer and Danielle are working on an disk. I can’t wait to hear it! Assistant principal Eran Reemi who played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has launched a conducting career and I will interview him here at some point in the near future. Here is another clip I picked up with my cellphone. Alas the quality isn’t too good but you get the picture

here are a few more picture:

Danielle morandini is bored and decided to eat Yigal’s piccolo trumpet.

This is the view from my chair! We sit so far away – we need to communicate with the Maestro through shouting. The young blood playing in the some of the lower chairs have been having too much fun. Yesterday I was standing on stage all the way in the back, I turned around, only to see Maestro Mehta standing behind me, he looked at us and said – “The guys on the lower chairs need play LESS!”. Come on… who in their right mind would want less bass trombone?

First concert is tonight and it is going to be an experience of a lifetime!

During the recording session for “All of the lights” at Ken Lewis’s I caught this take one on my cam. If you raise the volume you can hear the track …the next take was perfect. Tony is one of the short list of trumpet lead players who commands the extremely difficult ultra high trumpet range. Of the current list of high note players, four of the world’s greatest players: Tony Gorruso, Mike McGovern,  Dave Trigg and Don Downs all play with NewYorkBrass.com.

Incidentally,  many people do not understand (or care about) the difference between a lead player, solo player and second player. For those who do care, the main difference is sound. The lead player provides the bright shiny “sparkle” on the top. The second trumpet’s purpose is to deliver the “golden glow” – a phat sound – delivering a “punch” to your face when you listen to a brass track. I have seen time and time again where contractors and arrangers misunderstand the roles and hire the wrong guy for the job, only to complain bitterly later on

Every Wednesday Jazz Legend Teddy Charles and friends perform in Teddy’s living room in Riverhead, Long Island, NY.

Teddy Charles and friends

Its a time of good wine and music and memories… Teddy who is in his 80s is still a grandmaster! Lots of musicians come from near and far to play with one of the last lions of the golden age of Jazz. Teddy played, arranged and recorded with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Mingus, Ella Fitzgerrald and many other giants. Was first on call for most jazz and RnB gigs in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Standing with Teddy is Daniel Flam on trombone and Mark on the bass.

Visible is Capt’n Teddy’s hat. We were playing “Darn that dream”, after we played he made some comments, which I judiciously wrote down. Teddy was telling me how Mingus performed it…

Here is another view of Teddy on the Vibes:

“In the early 1970’s Teddy Charles, a famous jazz vibraphonist, found himself behind the wheel, steering her toward the New York area from Boothbay, Maine.”

The “Mary E” was one of five traditionally rigged sailing vessels that Captain Ted had owned (Tiki, Golden Eagle, Barbara, Valente, and the Christeen). In 1990, Captain Ted moved the vessel to Greenport, NY, where she sailed until 2006.
At the start of the season in 1994 she suffered a fire below decks during the night. Her crew worked hard and rebuilt the charred interior.

With Captain Ted at the helm the “Mary E” sailed winter voyages to Key West, Florida in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2001.

Teddy many pictures and paintings of the Mary E. This water color was in the stairwell.

I was browsing Ebay and saw this 1924 Conn trumpet selling for $125.

On EBay it looked like this:

1924 Conn 24B by NewYorkBrass, on Flickr

Since I was looking to have a horn with the “old-school” sound, it was a no brainer for the price…  After cleaning and considerable mechanical work it looks like this:

Conn 24B or 22B by NewYorkBrass, on Flickr

At the time the Conn Company was the leading company in making high end trumpets. (FYI: “High End” means sounds good and looks good.) This trumpet has an advanced valve system that was removed after the great depression. The Conn Company would make hundreds of trumpets, and the ones they thought had a special tone would be set aside for special treatment. This one had 24 carat gold plate trim and a gold wash inside the bell. They sold for $2500-$3000 which at the time, was comparable to the price of a car. This is where curious minds should go for more information about Conn instruments to The Conn Loyalist website. A brief history of is also available here.

So how does it sound? See http://blog.newyorkbrass.com/2010/11/04/oh-maya-girl-a-1924-suprize-from-ebay/

I recently acquired a 1924 Conn 24B trumpet on EBay. I have a bunch of old trombones I had lying around – including a French trombone from World War I era, and others, and record an arrangement of “Oh Danny Boy” in a brass band style – to recreate the brass sound of the times. I also threw in a vuvuzella. I quickly jotted down an arrangement and proceeded to record…

Originally trumpet player Tony Gorruso recorded the solo, and I played the rest. However, as I was recording the guide track – my daughter showed up. The footage is so cute, that despite the trumpet playing, I decided to keep this one, and rename it “Oh Maya Girl!”