We have lost a friend some younger trumpet players may not know or even recognize his name, Robert E. Nagel. To the older players, his work with the New York Brass quintet was the start of brass chamber music as we know it today. The trumpet work of Robert Nagel and Allan J. Dean was an inspiration to all of us at that time and we will forever be indebted to their perseverance and musicianship. I’m sure many of us have our favorite story about this gentile, soft spoken man but mine will forever be etched in my memory. Many…

One of our readers brought up an interesting issue which I thought would be helpful to other readers and that was the quality (or lack of) of many imported trumpets on the market. As the unaware shopper begins to search for the perfect instrument for their kids or themselves, the first place many go to find such an instrument would be on ebay……so let’s take a look. Type in ebay.com and in the search box, enter trumpet. The first thing you see is “Mendidi Bb Beginning Trumpet in Gold, Silver, Black, Red, +CaseKit+ Case”. My goodness they might think, “I…

We are all aware of the nefarious actions of a few who find pleasure in interfering with others security and communications. These spineless, low level bottom feeders are responsible for disrupting communications as well as stealing from the innocent. These worthless, insects are called hackers and identity thieves. When sites are shut down as has been the case lately on the internet and supposedly secure sites have been violated as in the case of our government, we all shake our heads and wonder what kind of leach could do such things but when it actually happens to you, it elicits…