While returning from two of my doctor’s appointments today, I had an interesting thought come to mind. What current trumpet players have replaced our many heroes of the past?
Chronological List of Trumpet/Cornet Heroes of the Past (my opinion)
Born during the 1800s
Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban (28 February 1825 – 8 April 1889) was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet.
Herbert Lincoln Clarke (September 12, 1867 – January 30, 1945) was an American cornet player, feature soloist, bandmaster, and composer. He is considered the most prominent cornetist of his time.
Born from 1900- 1910
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed “Satchmo”, “Satch”, and “Pops”, was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer.
Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical approach and purity of tone. His solos on seminal recordings such as “Singin’ the Blues” and “I’m Coming, Virginia” (both 1927) demonstrate a gift for extended improvisation that heralded the jazz ballad style, in which jazz solos are an integral part of the composition. Moreover, his use of extended chords and an ability to improvise freely along harmonic as well as melodic lines are echoed in post-WWII developments in jazz. “In a Mist” (1927) is the best known of Beiderbecke’s published piano compositions, and the only one that he recorded. His piano style reflects both jazz and classical (mainly impressionist) influences. All five of his piano compositions were published by Robbins Music during his lifetime.
Rafael Méndez (March 26, 1906 – September 15, 1981)[1] was a Mexican virtuoso solo trumpeter. He is known as the “Heifetz of the Trumpet.”
Born 1910- 1920
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his tone, and was influential on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band.
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer.
Born 1920- 1930
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke Ellington (1951–59),[2] Quincy Jones (1960), and Oscar Peterson (1964-96). He was with The Tonight Show Band from 1962 to 1972. His career in jazz spanned more than 70 years, during which he became one of the most recorded jazz musicians, appearing on over 900 recordings. Terry also mentored Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves, and Terri Lyne Carrington.
Adolph Sylvester “Bud” Herseth (July 25, 1921 – April 13, 2013) was principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.
Timofei Aleksandrovich Dokschitzer (Russian: Тимофей Александрович Докшицер, 13 December 1921, Nizhyn, Ukraine — 16 March 2005, Vilnius) was a Soviet Russian trumpeter, Professor of Gnesins Musical College. He was the solo-trumpeter of Bolshoi Theater.
Alois Maxwell “Al” Hirt (November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader.[1] He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of “Java” and the accompanying album Honey in the Horn (1963), and for the theme music to The Green Hornet. His nicknames included “Jumbo” and “The Round Mound of Sound”. Colin Escott, an author of musician biographies, wrote that RCA Victor Records, for which Hirt had recorded most of his best-selling recordings and for which he had spent much of his professional recording career, had dubbed him with another moniker: “The King.” Hirt was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in November 2009.
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
Carl Hilding “Doc” Severinsen (July 7, 1927) is an American jazz trumpeter who led the band for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Walter Maynard Ferguson CM (May 4, 1928 – August 23, 2006) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton’s orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often served as stepping stones for up-and-coming talent, his versatility on several instruments, and his ability to play in a high register.
Born 1930- 1940
Maurice André (born 21 May 1933 – 25 February 2012) was a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field.
He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the piccolo trumpet including the Baroque repertoire on trumpet. André has inspired many innovations on his instrument and he contributed to the popularization of the trumpet.
Born 1940- 1950
Arturo Sandoval (Born 1949)is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer.
Sandoval, while living in his native Cuba, was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie, finally meeting Gillespie later in 1977. Gillespie became a mentor and colleague, playing with Sandoval in concerts in Europe and Cuba and later featuring him in the United Nations Orchestra. Sandoval defected while touring with Gillespie in 1990, and he became an American naturalized citizen in 1998.
Born 1950- 1960
Allen Vizzutti (born September 13, 1952) is an American trumpeter, composer and music educator.Born and raised in Missoula, Montana, Vizzutti last learned the trumpet from his father, Lido Vizzutti. At age 16, Vizzutti won the concerto competition and was awarded first chair in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen, Michigan. He earned a B.M., M.M. and a Performer’s Certificate, and the only Artist’s Diploma ever awarded to a wind player from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Wayne Bergeron (born January 16, 1958) is an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Maynard Ferguson’s band in the 1980s. As a lead and studio player, he is notable for his ability in the upper register of the instrument, as in his screaming trumpet work in the soundtrack for the 2004 Disney/Pixar animated movie The Incredibles. He is on faculty at the Los Angeles College of Music.[1]
Born 1960- 1970
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American virtuoso trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammy Awards and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
James Lloyd Morrison AM (born 11 November 1962) is an Australian jazz musician. Although his main instrument is trumpet, he has also performed on trombone, tuba, euphonium, flugelhorn, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, guitar, and piano.[1] He is a composer, writing jazz charts for ensembles of various sizes and proficiency levels.
Christopher Stephen Botti (/ˈboʊti/ BOH-tee; born October 12, 1962), is an American trumpeter and composer.[1]
In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category, for the album Impressions.[2] He was also nominated in 2008 for his album Italia [3] and received three nominations in 2010 for the live album Chris Botti In Boston. Four of his albums have reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard jazz albums chart.
Born 1970- 1980
Alison Louise Balsom, Lady Mendes, OBE (born 7 October 1978) is an English trumpet soloist, arranger, producer, and music educator. Balsom was awarded Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards and has won three Classic BRIT Awards and three German Echo Awards, and was soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms in 2009. She was the artistic director of the 2019 Cheltenham Music Festival.
