Stuck on Trumpet

Thinking about all the trumpet playing I have been doing recently sent me back to the two trumpet players who had the greatest influence on a just beginning player.

The first was, with no doubt at all: Herb Alpert. His first song, released the same year I got my first trumpet and took my first lesson. Maybe that's why the love for Hispanic and Latin music has been so strong. From 1962 - over 50 years ago- The Lonely Bull.



Alpert is 78 years old now. A real pioneer in so many ways.

Then the other side of the 50 years ago mark, would be Al Hirt. (Love of jazz and Dixieland started right here!) His first, and in my mind still one of the greatest jazz-pop trumpet songs of all time, 1964, Java.



I'm still working on that damn solo part of his. One of these days, one of these days!

Lots of other heroes came along: Louis Armstrong, Maynard Ferguson, Bill Chase, the incomparable Wynton Marsalis. Alpert and Hirt were the first ones to excite the music within. Can't ever forget.