Glenn’s Trumpet Notes

News & Tips for Trumpet & Cornet Students

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Posts Tagged ‘Louis Armstrong’

Nobody Plays the Horn Like Bria Skonberg!

Posted by glennled on September 4, 2024

On Wednesday, 24 July, I heard Bria Skonberg and her band at Jazz Alley in Seattle. Nobody plays trumpet like Bria. And she also composes, arranges, and sings.

For about three years, I’ve watched her videos and followed her on Facebook, and as she posted about playing everywhere else but here, mostly on the East Coast and New Orleans, I would comment, “When are you coming to Jazz Alley in Seattle?”

She always replied, “We’re working on it,” until one time she said, “Check the July 2024 schedule.”

Sure enough, she was booked for 23-24 July! So, on the last night, I went and sat in the balcony at table 430. Had a nice side view. After the show, I spoke with her briefly. She wants to come back.

Later, I also spoke to the general manager. “I’ve come here to see Pancho Sanchez, Arturo Sandoval, and Chris Botti. I like her best of all.”

“She belongs with them,” he said.

“She’s so versatile and expressive!” I said. “She talks through the horn. She may not have the range and power of some other trumpeters, but she beats them all in expression. I hope you’ll bring her back.”

“We will!” he said, and we shook hands.

The New York Times wrote, “Ms. Skonberg has become the shining hope of hot jazz, on the strength of a clarion trumpet style indebted to Louis Armstrong, a smooth purr of a singing voice inspired by Anita O’Day.” Coming from British Columbia and now living in New York, she was described in The Wall Street Journal as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation.” Her signature composition is “So Is the Day,” with which she closed the show.

Jazz Alley wrote, “Bria has recorded on over 25 albums, has garnered over 13 million streams online and over 85,000 social media followers…She tours constantly, bringing her own signature sounds of fiery trumpet playing, smoky vocals and storytelling together with adventurous concoctions of classic and new.” She’s a Juno Award winner (2017), among other awards. Her 2024 release, What It Means, “tells stories of life lessons that range from upbeat to down-to-earth to emotionally deep, all the while exhibiting both her mastery of the trumpet and her soulful and undeniably connective voice.”

Her parents were in the crowd on that last night. They know—nobody plays the horn like Bria.

Please se https://www.briaskonberg.com/bio and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bria_Skonberg

Posted in Professional Concerts, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Second Mini-Trumpet Show for My Classmates at Our 65th Sinton High School Reunion in Texas

Posted by glennled on November 5, 2023

On Saturday, 30 September, my Sinton High School (SHS) Class of 1958 met in Fulton, Texas to celebrate the 65th anniversary of our graduation. Our class graduated 76 seniors on 23 May 1958. As our members now continue to dwindle, we gather each fall for another reunion. We attended school in nearby Sinton, Texas, a town of about 5,000 and the seat of San Patricio County. Fulton is a coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi.

The Inn at Fulton Harbor

Initially, our class met every 10 years…then every five years. Meanwhile, I was living in Seattle and Mercer Island, and I declined every invitation to attend, always promising to attend the 50th reunion. In 2008, my wife and I showed up. We liked it. We liked the people and the event. And that was the year that the group decided to meet every year “till death do us part.”

Charlotte Plummers, Fulton

Only Covid interrupted our sequence. Every year, we stay at The Inn at Fulton Harbor, where the group rents a meeting room on a Saturday. We talk amongst ourselves there in the afternoon, go across the street to eat supper at Charlotte Plummers Restaurant, go back to the meeting room, and talk some more. That’s it. Very simple. We say goodbye on Sunday morning and wait till next year.

Then things changed. In 2022, I offered to entertain the group after supper in the Inn. The leaders accepted. So, I played five songs on my Jupiter pocket trumpet, handed out the lyrics so that they could sing along, and told five jokes. First was our Alma Mater, “Maroon and White,” written by an SHS student, Daniel E. Sharp, in 1925. Next was our Fight Song to the tune of the march, “On Wisconsin.” Then came The Beatles’ song about aging, “When I’m 64.” After that came “What a Wonderful World”–Louis Amstrong’s recording in 1967 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Then we stood, faced the flag, hands over hearts, said the Pledge of Allegiance as we had done every morning in Grammar School, and finally finished with “God Bless America.”

They enjoyed it, and I was asked to do it again this year. I used the same format and changed only the jokes and two songs: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” The former was written in 1980, and the latter was made popular by The Mommas and The Papas’ recording in 1968. We reminisced about (a) the Sinton Plymouth Oilers, our town’s semi-pro baseball team which won the national championships in 1951 and 1957, when we were sixth graders and seniors, respectively, and (b) our crushes and dates in high school. Again, it was fun! Lots of stories and laughter and teasing.

Here’s a video sample of this mini-trumpet show for my classmates: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzD9pTFaJw0&feature=shared. You’ll hear some jokes, some banter, some faces, and some sing-along music.

Lo and behold, they’ve asked me to do it again next year, and I will, God willing! Gotta find two different songs and five different jokes…

Posted in Ceremonies & Celebrations | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Dire Straits: “They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playing band”

Posted by glennled on January 17, 2013

dire-straits-sultans-of-swingLately, I’ve been listening again to Dire Straits, a British rock band led by Mark Knopfler. Their biggest selling album, Brothers in Arms, has sold over 30 million copies, and their worldwide album sales exceed 120 million. The band’s career spanned a combined total of 15 years (1977-1988, 1991-1995). Their most popular songs include “Sultans of Swing,” “Money for Nothing,” “Walk of Life,” “Brothers in Arms,” “Lady Writer,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Tunnel of Love,” “Private Investigations,” “So Far Away,” and “Your Latest Trick.”

In the “Sultans of Swing” song, a crowd of young boys in the honky tonk, “dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles,” are drunk as they listen to a band called the Sultans of Swing. Two lines, sung with dripping disdain, catch my ear: “They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playing band, It ain’t what they call rock and roll…”

Well, now, wait just a minute! You can’t dismiss all us horns. Those boys obviously don’t know their jazz music history and don’t even care about learning it either. No, even though the Sultans of Swing may play some swing music on their rock and roll instruments (guitars, keyboards, synthesizer, and percussion), that’s not the swing music of the great Swing Band Era, ~1936-1944. And all those big bands did feature trumpeters—and some great ones, too!

Want to hear some swing trumpeters from a time long gone by? Try these, for seven of the best:

Yeah, that was then, way back when I was a boy. Today, I also love the “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits even though they trash us trumpeters. But someday, they, too, will be bye-gones, like brown baggies and platform shoes.   😉

Please click on any image to enlarge it.

Posted in Selected Trumpet Music | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Christmas Eve Concert–Cornet and Piano Duet

Posted by glennled on December 30, 2009

"O Holy Night"

The Christmas Eve tradition in our family, hosted in our home, goes like this. All family members who are in town come over for dinner. (We have two grown sons, a daughter and three grandkids in southern California, Las Vegas, and New Zealand.) This year we were 10 locals (including four grandchildren) around our dining room table. After dinner, we sing Christmas carols. My wife is a piano instructor. While she plays, everyone sings the lyrics from the songbook she created a few years ago, especially for this annual occasion. Once, one of our local grandsons played the clarinet for us. This year it was my turn to solo at the family concert. I played “O Holy Night,” accompanied by my wife. Our daughter videoed our duet. I encouraged all my students to play something for their families during their own holiday festivities.

After Bible readings from Luke and Isaiah about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and prayer, we do what the kids have been patiently waiting for: open presents! Finally, there is an evening snack, and they all go home, stomachs full, arms and hands laden with prize gifts, faces beaming, and eyes sparkling. Santa Claus is coming tonight!

My cornet is a “Super Olds” model with the nickel-silver rimmed bell, made by F.E. Olds & Son in Los Angeles. Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Louis Prima, and Raphael Mendez are among those who played various Olds instruments. Olds started making trombones in about 1910, and later added other brass instruments, introducing the Super Olds line in 1932. My cornet ranked in the mid-range of the various Olds models of its time. Today, the equivalent horn probably costs about $1,700. Mine cost my parents $250, and I was so proud! Why did I choose a cornet? Simple: our high school band director specified that we all play cornets, not trumpets. He preferred the cornet’s more mellow tone and wanted a cornet section, not a trumpet section, in his band.

My Super Olds has been around. I played it all through high school and college. It took me to All-State Band in Texas and on music scholarship to Abilene Christian College and the University of Washington. It went to the Rose Bowl when we marched in the Rose Bowl Parade and gave a half-time performance during the football game: UW Huskies beat U of Minnesota Gophers, 17-7. Now I play it in the Husky Alumni Band.

I’ve played my Super Olds in concert, jazz, dance, and pep bands, in orchestras for operas and musicals, and in a U.S. Navy bugle corps. It’s traveled from Texas to Washington to Rhode Island. And now I’ve played it in a duet with my lovely wife in our own warm living room for our own special family. Yes, my horn looks a little worn, but it plays as well as ever. I like that.

Posted in Musical Events at Home | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »