If Jaco played trumpet...

[trumpeter]

He probably would be Wynton Marsalis, at least talent-wise.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hHOza5OixBA&search=wynton

A little video to get your familiar if you aren't with this amazing trumpet player.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era, and by far the best-known African-American instrumentalist in classical music today.

Marsalis has made his reputation with a combination of skill in jazz performance and composition; a sophisticated, yet earthy and hip personal style; an impressive knowledge of jazz and jazz history; and a virtuosity in classical trumpet. As of 2006, he has made 16 classical and more than 30 jazz recordings, and has been awarded nine Grammys, spanning both genres.

^Just a bit of background

I have read countless stories and a few biographies of Marsalis, and he appears to have one of the hardests work ethics of all time. In the world of trumpet playing he has "mastered" (subjective) both realms of playing, in classical and jazz.

From the liner notes of his classical "best-of," Classic Wynton

"Every young trumpet player has to practice his Arban (a huge brass technical study book, the so-called "Bible of Brass"). Twenty-five years ago in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 12, Wynton Marsalis Practiced it,too - for an hour before he went to school, another hour over the course of breaks during the school day, at least an hour after school was over, and again in the evening for several hours after he'd finished his homework. On a typical day when he was an teen, Wynton practiced a total of six hours, and much of that time was devoted to the exercises and drills in the 347 page bible of trumpet study called Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumped"

That is what I call determination. Imagine if you practiced technical drills for six hours a day for most of your life from age 12, where would you be?

Well, I saw Marsalis in concert once, one of the funniest and most entertaining men I've ever seen. And I get to meet him in 2007 at the International Trumpet Guild Convention.

To give this thread a point, lets talk about great players of other instruments than bass, and try to think of some who have done a "crossover" so drastically, and masterfully, as Marsalis has done from Classical to Jazz.

[page]

As a trumpet player I can say that Wynton is a waste of talent. He has incredible capabililties , yet IMO he has yet to put out anything creative or original or even mildly interesting. The guy has some serious chops though, no doubt about that.

If I wanna hear some good trumpet I'll turn to guys like Sal Marquez, Freddie Hubbard, Cuong Vu, and of course Miles among others.


all my opinion of course.

[whitedk57]

Michael Jordan tried baseball, and could barely compete with the semi-pros.

Apples and Oranges here...

[Bruce Lindfield]

If Jaco wanted to play in Wynton's band,he wouldn't be allowed to play electric bass!!

[Aaron Saunders]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

If Jaco wanted to play in Wynton's band,he wouldn't be allowed to play electric bass!!

If Jaco played trumpet, IMO he probably would've been more along the lines of Freddie Hubbard or Lee Morgan -- guys who were not only great players (Wynton) but also took musical chances and really did some deeply creative stuff.

EDIT: As for other instrumentalists and the classical to jazz thing, I'm going to bring up Bill Evans and a player he heavily influenced, Brad Mehldau. I saw Brad play a solo set last year before the Wayne Shorter Quartet went on (it was a double bill -- both had the same amount of showtime...and what a show!) and he was absolutely brilliant. Definitely my favourite modern pianist. Also in the same vein as Bill Evans, he didn't just play a tune -- he explored it, went inside every nook and cranny. On contrast to Bill (Bill's music was always more natural in a group setting where he could have interplay -- dig the album "Interplay", actually) his solo work is not only painfully beautiful, but supremely confident and swinging.

That said, Bill Evans is still my favourite pianist of all time. His sensitivity to other players in the group is unsurpassed, even 45 years after his landmark trio's work (Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz For Debby.)

Although, to be honest, most jazz pianists seem to have a background in classical...Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarret, as well as Charles Mingus. While Mingus' main axe was the bass, he was a mean piano player too, and his early musical education was studying classical music on the cello.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by page

As a trumpet player I can say that Wynton is a waste of talent.

That didn't take long...the 2nd post!

trumpter-
Wynton Marsalis is a bombshell as far as these BBs go.
I suggest you try www.jazzcorner.com & check out a couple of the Wynthon threads...they're not very pretty.
To be brief-
Wynton has a very narrow view of what Jazz should be...& many take exception to it.

[gkbass13]

im not a big fan of wynton's oulook on jazz. in hsi opinion, fusion shouldve never existed and the later work of coltrane and miles was a disgrace to traditional jazz. i think being an artist is all about having an open mind, although he does have killer chops and has put out some good stuff in his time, no doubt about that. anoteh rgreat horn player that ive mentioned a few times in recent threads is don byron....amazing jazz clarinet and saxaphone player...i knwo thos e are reeds and not horns, but ina clas i had with him he woudl play recording of old wayne shorter stuff or miles tracks and whatever instrument he had handy, he would follow the solo with note for note with impeccable timing and phrasing. he won downbeat mag's jazz artist fo the year awhile back to...check him out....


www.donbyron.com

[Snarf]

I like Branford.

[trumpeter]

Thanks for you opinions, it really opened my eyes.



You guys are cool.

[bassist15]

Maybe you should change it to If trupmet was Jaco's main instrument. He did play a variety of saxes . He played them for pure enjoyment. But they werent his main instruments. When he was around 15 he would go to local black music clubs and sit in on Baritone sax with the horn sections.

[geoffkhan]

I saw Wynton play with his big band a while back. He's a great trumpet player technique-wise, but I don't really hear anything original in his playing. He's just a master of imitating other players.

I definitely wouldn't even compare him to Jaco since Jaco pretty much revolutionized bass playing (at least for me).

[giantrobot_69]

The difference being that Jaco was an innovator on bass, like Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis was to trumpet. Wynton is a talented technician on trumpet, but hardly an innovator.

[JimK]

I'm not a Wyton lover...or hater. Trust me, I don't like his view on Free Jazz & I don't think everything needs to 'swing' in order to be considered Jazz.

Anyway-
Will say that he helped bring acoustic Post Bop-style Jazz back from its death bed. Maybe he gets too much credit as the savior: He was young, talented, dressed the part, etc...I dunno.
His first solo disc on Columbia Records did bring some new listeners into the fold (i.e. 'jazz' listeners that had grown weary of '80s Smooth Jazz, et al)...possibly some old Jazz lovers, too.

[CamMcIntyre]

I'd think of Jaco more like Dizzy, Miles, or Louis Armstrong.

My view of Wynton is also biased as i love fusion. We discussed in a class at school {Jazz Essentials} the Young Lions and how Wynton was part of that movement. I think he is an astouding player, but-strikes me as a prick. I got to hear the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra w/Wynton when they came to perform at Symphony Center [Chicago Symphony's home]-the concert killed.

take it easy.

[onewebfoot]

I won't disagree with any critique of Wynton Marsalis, but I will sing his praise. Wynton was once a classical player, and he left classical music altogether to dedicate himself to the music of his culture - jazz. That being said, Wynton Marsalis has long been praised by trumpet players (far more accomplished than I ever was) as truly awe inspiring in the "London Concert" (Haydn's trumpet concerto). FWIW.

[BassChuck]

If Jaco played trumpet, would he sound like Flea? (on trumpet that is..)

Not to hijack the topic, but is that Flea playing trumpet on some of the tunes on "Stadium Arcadium"? (if so.... he does NOT sound like Wynton).

Truthfully it's a shame for trumpet players that Jaco didn't play trumpet. That instrument really needs a player that stretches the limits of the instrument like Jaco did for fretless electric.

Miles and Dizzy come to mind, but really they were stretching the limits of music more than the limits of the instrument.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by JimK

I'm not a Wyton lover...or hater. Trust me, I don't like his view on Free Jazz & I don't think everything needs to 'swing' in order to be considered Jazz.

Anyway-
Will say that he helped bring acoustic Post Bop-style Jazz back from its death bed. Maybe he gets too much credit as the savior: He was young, talented, dressed the part, etc...I dunno.
His first solo disc on Columbia Records did bring some new listeners into the fold (i.e. 'jazz' listeners that had grown weary of '80s Smooth Jazz, et al)...possibly some old Jazz lovers, too.

Yeah I've got Wynton Cds and he's undoubtedly a great technician on his instrument and a great "historian" for a certain Jazz era - but what is ironically funny about this thread is that Jaco was playing exactly the kind of music that Wynton so clearly detests!!

[JimK]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

Miles and Dizzy come to mind, but really they were stretching the limits of music more than the limits of the instrument.

I think Dizzy stretched the limits of the trumpet...who was playing like that before him?
I think it was in one of those Bird bios...the critics' comments-du jour were something like-
"Parker & Gillespie can surely play their instruments...so why aren't they playing them properly"?

Miles? Who started playing a horn through a wah-wah pedal?

[Bruce Lindfield]

Freddie Hubbard is the one who was playing those really high notes, as clear as a bell!!Long, bravura solos and fantastic tone - I never tire of listening to his solos, from when he was at his peak!

Before I was a bassist, I was a trumpeter, so I'll share some of my thoughts.

Maynard Ferguson actually could be considered the Jaco of trumpet. Put this way, you need roughly 256 times the energy to play a double C than a low C on trumpet, and the double C was pretty much his tuning note. He's probably one of the most imitated trumpet players today.

Another guy to consider, probably IS the Jaco of trumpet, is Adolph Herseth, former principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He made the Bach C trumpet with a 229 bell with a Bach 1X mouthpiece drilled out to the size of a carburator nearly standard equipment for young aspiring classical trumpet players. If you're the principal trumpet of a symphony orchestra, you're almost expected to imitate his style.