Freddie Hubbard passed away today. [more inside]
posted by bluedaniel on Dec 29, 2008 - 42 comments

Trumpet Kings is a blog dedicated to videos of trumpeteers, mostly jazz but there are a few classical ones. On the companion youtube channel there are 184 videos. These are some of my favorite things: Wynton Marsalis - Riot, Dizzy Gillespie - trumpet battle, Maynard Ferguson - Round Midnight, Louis Armstrong - C'est Si Bon, Miles Davis - No Blues, Ray Anthony - Harlem Nocturne, Booker Little - Minor Mode Blues, Ingrid Jensen - Foxy Trot and Sergei Nakariakov - Bach's Air.
posted by Kattullus on Sep 16, 2008 - 11 comments

Two flutes at once. Two guitars at once. (Honorable mentions.) Two recorders at once, 100% nose-powered. Two trumpets at once (breakdown at three).Two harps at once. Two saxophones at once. (Bonus: Clarinet/sax unos.) [more inside]
posted by No-sword on Aug 6, 2008 - 18 comments

The brass quintet Canadian Brass is both venerable--it's been around 38 years--and prolific--its discography is as long as your arm. While they often play classical arrangements, they also mix in jazz and blues, along with a complement of showmanship and humor. (Also, they play Flight of the Bumblebee on the tuba.) [Mouseover for titles.]
posted by Upton O'Good on Jul 3, 2008 - 18 comments

Star Wars trumpet performance and interpretive dance by Stacy Hedger. [YouTube]
posted by fandango_matt on Oct 11, 2007 - 50 comments

Happy birthday, Herb Alpert! The man who managed to make bullfighting look sexy (and the only solo artist to ever hit #1 on the Billboard charts for both vocal and instrumental pieces) turns 72 today. Celebrate by watching a classic video, listen to a 2001 appearance on Morning Edition, or spend some quality time with Dolores Erikson, the "Whipped Cream Lady."
posted by jbickers on Mar 31, 2007 - 26 comments

Cool Stuff Being Made: Each week the National Association of Manufacturers posts a new, generally-lengthy video of something being made.
posted by Captaintripps on Jan 23, 2007 - 18 comments

Here's a dot ^. an octave and a half above high C for the legendary jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, who has passed away at 78. Building on the experimental wanderings of Miles Davis, Ferguson fused jazz and rock in creating what is quite probably the signature big band sound of the psychadelic and disco eras. (See, e.g., "Rocky" (.wav).) He was well-known for astounding technical proficiency and his tight-lipped embochure created one of the largest ranges of any trumpeter. (Here's Ferguson playing and conducting "Round Midnight" in a very early clip [youtube]). But legions of former high school trumpet geeks full disclosure: I am one will remember him best for his commitment to signing promising young players for his tours and his reaching out, with tireless touring at tiny venues, to high school and college bandies and drum corps-types who at one time or another came across his repertoire.
posted by Saucy Intruder on Aug 24, 2006 - 32 comments

The tromba marina, also known as the marine trumpet or nun’s fiddle, is an obsolete, 4-7 foot tall, single-stringed instrument in the viol family. Played with a bow, the tromba marina sounds strangely trumpet-like (for mp3's, scroll down to the bottom of the first link), hence the name . Buy one here or make your own. You can also see one up-close in the Musical Instrument Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but they don’t bother putting an image on their webpage, and the gallery’s carpet smells intensely of mildew.
posted by unknowncommand on Aug 4, 2006 - 5 comments

Starry Night a minimalist improvisation by:
mazen kerbaj / trumpet
the israeli air force / bombs
posted by hototogisu on Jul 20, 2006 - 12 comments

Musical instruments are pretty good examples of form following function. Over time, they evolve into standard shapes. Occaisionally, some people push the instruments in new directions. Other times, they run at right angles to reality
posted by plinth on Nov 17, 2000 - 1 comment