What are/were your trombone inspirations?

[tbdana]

What trombone albums, concerts, or particular artists were (or are) influential in your early trombone development? Who inspired you? Who made you say, "I want to do that, too!"? I'm specifically asking about during the first 5 years or so of playing trombone. Early influences, not those later on. Lay it on us.

[norbie2018]

Ralph Sauer, Crystal Record recordings and Tutti's Trombones.

[EriKon]

My (step)father. He is a professional trombone player as well, mostly retired now. Although I didn't choose the trombone as an instrument completely on my own. Already having played guitar for a few years I wanted to get into the music program of the new school. But they said chances for getting a place would be easier with an instrument that is not guitar or piano. And as I always have heard the sound of trombone at home since I was 2 years old, that was the most logical thing.

But I remember that I've always been in awe when he played in the lessons. He made it sound and look so easy but great. I wanted to get this done too (but I also was a bit lazy in the first few years, I have to admit). Therefore the recordings and concerts that "influenced" were with him too of course. The two most influential albums to me were:

tb4 - Brandon Creek (a trombone quartet record, very different styles in there, mostly classical stuff, but also some folk/jazz inspired tunes, and a bit of free, modern weird tune, and some gospel. since then I love the sound of trombone quartets. Is there anything more beautiful?)

Slide Movements Orchestra - Iveragh Moods (8 trombones + rhythm section, probably my most listened to album ever. Always dreamt of playing that music and finally played the program a few years ago after a little bit of rearranging for my final masters graduation concert). This is the title track:


And in this early stage, I think you're getting very much inspired by the people you play with. In school orchestras, bigband, wind ensemble or whatsoever.

[Mr412]

This complete album, The Trombones, Inc.: Back then, who knew.

[Burgerbob]

[ghmerrill]

Whatever bass trombone player was playing in Pete Fountain's group in the Hilton Hotel in New Orleans in (?) 1988 (or thereabouts). I was there doing some presentations at a SAS User Group Conference (with a SAS colleague who had played trombone professionally in Boston and then flipped to being a software engineer), and one of the "events" for that conference was a performance in the Hotel by Fountain's group. I don't remember who the bass trombone player was, but at that point I said to myself "I really need to get back to playing." I'd quit -- saxophone and flute -- while in graduate school. I bought a tuba and started on that, but eventually worked over to bass trombone, which I feel is my "spirit instrument." My mother had played trombone in high school (very unusual then, I think, for a woman) and I had tried to do that in 6th grade, but got shunted to saxophone. But I was also inspired towards low brass by my high school band director (tuba) and a couple of friends who were excellent baritone or trombone players.

[bitbckt]

Only serious...

[hyperbolica]

I had a girlfriend whose father was an audiophile. He gave me tapes of Empire Brass, Canadian Brass and Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. It was a definite overload of great brass music. It drove me to a real love of chamber music. The girl went by the wayside, but the music stayed.

[chouston3]

That Ralph Sauer CD on Chrystal Records and The London Trombone Sound from Decca. Those were my first trombone CDs and I listened to them a lot. Then I saw the Canadian Brass in a concert and they were really inspiring.

[WilliamLang]

Really basic for me - Lindberg and Alessi. I didn't how much else existed coming out of high school, and I always thought it should be possible to do what Lindberg does with Alessi's sound, so I've been chasing that ever since as my basic framework.

[ghmerrill]

... tapes of Empire Brass, Canadian Brass and Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.

I don't have the tapes, but I still have the CDs. I need to role them off to some other medium.

[harrisonreed]

When I was 15, my youth orchestra went to see the the National Symphony in DC, and I had no idea what the programme was until I was handed the booklet. Christian Lindberg was the soloist listed.

"wow, that's the Blue Bells of Scotland guy" I thought "oh this is going to be like that Virtuoso CD". The piece he played instead was:



I didn't know what to think. It was kind of like an overload, all at once. Between the alto sackbut runs up to a high G, the unbelievably powerful tenor playing, bizarre multiphonics ... At one point I thought he had made the chandelier resonate but it was actually a perfect handoff / crossfade from trombone to clarinet (around 12:27 in the vid). He played the 32 minute piece from memory. The entire audience clapped for nearly that long after it. Something like 9 encores, with My Funny Valentine as one of them. He finally had to beg the audience to let the rest of the show continue. I wasn't even sure I liked the music afterwards. We all sort of left, the string players, everyone, like "what the heck just happened?"

It was a great trip. Solidified my desire to dig into what a piece of music is really all about.

[BGuttman]

First role model was Tommy Dorsey. But as a kid I didn't have the high range.

Second: the Brooklyn Philharmonia played Borodin 2nd Symphony and I fell in love with the bass trombone when that little solo came up.

Third: watching Lawrence Welk on TV with that fantastic trombone section.

[Bach5G]

I just read the OP. Early influences? None on trombone but in my teens I borrowed a JJ Johnson record from the library that really impressed me. I liked BS&T and Chicago, but I’d say the trombone playing did not make an impression on me.

[EriKon]

Interesting. Were you all frequently listening to this kind of "advanced" (don't know how else to call it) trombone music within your first years of playing? I started trombone at the age of ten and definitely didn't listen to those famous trombone players until maybe a year or two before I started my bachelor studies.

[ithinknot]

I started trombone around 13, by which point I was already doing piano stuff publicly (accompanying choirs, playing for other students' exams etc) so "trombone inspirations" were specific, rather than "wow, music".

Hearing Gordon Campbell in person was the first time I really thought "that's the sound". Jiggs and Mark Nightingale were around a lot but GC and that old-school, basically 100% vocal, concept made it clear why you'd play the trombone specifically. My teacher was a big Fontana fan too, so that helped. Watrous seemed impressive, but a bit abstract to a kid. For whatever reason, I didn't know about Urbie until much later.

The gearhead rot was there before I started playing... when I was very young, my dad played banjo in a Dixieland band run by an excellent trombonist. He had a 2BSS and a 44H, both immaculate. I don't know that I knew what they were, but I knew the difference and was always interested to see which one he'd show up with

[AtomicClock]

First 5 years? The only influence I had in that time was a Canadian Brass concert. But a huge impact on me. To this day I consider brass quintet the apex of music. My first album was a few years later, and pretty obscure: Ronald Borror's Seventeenth Century Italian Trombone Sonatas. I can't say it influenced me much.

[bitbckt]

Interesting. Were you all frequently listening to this kind of "advanced" (don't know how else to call it) trombone music within your first years of playing? I started trombone at the age of ten and definitely didn't listen to those famous trombone players until maybe a year or two before I started my bachelor studies.

He didn’t light my fire[0], but I was sustained by Christian Lindberg recordings within the first five years of my experience, absolutely. I started playing trombone around 10 years old, too. At 15 I would have been in high school, already playing solo repertoire - I played Morceau in my state’s solo and ensemble competition at 14 - for several years and trying to imitate my heroes while wearing out the recordings.

[0] That was Riker (erm… Watrous).

[AndrewMeronek]

Early on, (the first couple of years) I didn't really have "inspirations". I just enjoyed the band stuff in school on trombone.

I did get an inspirational character later on, when I was finishing up high school and figuring out what I wanted to do afterwards - I joined an Army Reserve band which happened to have a terrific, energetic trombonist named Sergeant Thomas Allport. He was the first professional-level trombonist I really got to work with, and we remain friends to this day.

[tbdana]

Interesting. Were you all frequently listening to this kind of "advanced" (don't know how else to call it) trombone music within your first years of playing? I started trombone at the age of ten and definitely didn't listen to those famous trombone players until maybe a year or two before I started my bachelor studies.

Yep, sure did! My father would find trombone albums and bring them home to me. Between 8 and 10 years old, he brought home the Urbie Green 21 Trombones albums and I absolutely fell in love. I still have the albums today. See photo below. I would spend hours trying to play along with them. I wanted to play just like Urbie Green.

Dad also brought home Kai & JJ, Si Zentner, and some really cheesy trombone albums called "Trombones Unlimited" (that featured some great players like Rosolino and Mike Barone), but Urbie Green's albums got the playing time. He was my inspiration until I discovered Dick Nash and Frank Rosolino.

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[JohnL]

Had a couple Kai Winding albums that my folks picked up cheap:

The_In_Instrumentals.jpg

Kai_Winding_(album).jpg

Pretty much wore 'em out.

I also listened to a lot of Maynard Ferguson. Sometimes, I've been accused of playing bass trombone like it was lead trumpet...

[mgladdish]

This one - it's got all-sorts on it.



Although I've only got it on tape, and will have to dig my tape player out of the loft to give it another listen.

[elmsandr]

Totally not bootlegged…

(And a matching George Roberts tape somewhere)

0567EA63-C5C6-4C27-B07C-672DFAFA3C6E.jpeg

[RossM]

Lito Fontana, Mnozil Brass(Gerhard Fußl mainly), and Brett Baker. Seeing Mnozil live about a year after I started playing trombone was life-changing.

[Doug Elliott]

I great up in the DC area, hearing all of the service bands and the National Symphony regularly as a small child. And seeing Lawrence Welk and other stuff on TV. I always wanted to play trombone and started when I was 8, on an Olds Recording which we got used for $65.
Tommy Dorsey, Bob Brookmeyer, and Urbie Green were my earliest influences but I didn't actually start playing jazz until much later.

[CharlieB]

Tommy Dorsey, on live TV.
A round screen Raytheon CRT black and white TV.
Early 1950's.
The big band era.
The trombone genre is waaaay different now.

[Mertelstein]

As trite as it seems, my Dad. He was pretty well known in the North West of England and reasonably well throughout the U.K. as a trombonist and more in the 70s and 80s as a band leader and conductor. In later days he worked as a peripatetic music teacher and I was one of his pupils. He tried me on pretty much everything before giving up and saying to my Mum “I’m sorry, he’s going to be a trombone player.”

Going along to his big band concerts when I was much too young (pre-teens) in lieu of babysitters opened my eyes to amazing music. I remember the first CD he got me had the Dorsey recording of “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” and I loved it.

As I got older my contemporary trombone player friend Gary was an inspiration. One of the best young trombonists in the country (before he left for Norway) and a phenomenal player. He got hold of the Lindberg “Virtuoso Trombone” CD which blew my mind (although I still preferred my jazz).

The only downside of growing up with two such big local influences was the difficulty of carving your own niche. The fact I could play low pretty easily made a shift onto bass trombone logical and gave me a “USP”.

[Fidbone]

The first trombone players I ever heard due to my mum’s friend donating a couple of LP’s to me were JJ - “The Eminent JJ Volume 1” and Grachan Moncur III - “Evolution”
You could say I wore the grooves off those records
Next up was Don Lusher - “The Don Lusher Collection”
I was 12 years old.
Then came Wayne Henderson with the Crusaders, I bought every LP with him on.
Next was Raul D’Souza - “Don’t Ask my Neighbours” Followed by Bill Watrous - “Manhattan Wildlife Refuge”. I heard this accidentally in Dobells record shop in London and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Urbie , Rosolino & Fontana came a bit later.
Further along my journey of inspirations came Jim Pugh, Conrad Herwig, Albert Mangelsdorf, Joe Gallardo, Nils Landgren, Gordon Campbell, Wycliffe Gordon, Andy Martin, Richard Edwards, Mark Nightingale, Trevor Myers, Elliot Mason, Dennis Rollins, Peter Moore, Bob McChesney etc

[tbdana]

This thread and particularly Fidbone's post are making me feel old!

The first trombone players I ever heard...Bill Watrous - “Manhattan Wildlife Refuge”. I heard this accidentally in Dobells record shop in London and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I played with Bill for many years, and counted him a friend.

...Rosolino & Fontana came a bit later.

Played with those guys, too.

Further along my journey of inspirations came Jim Pugh...

Played with him.

..., Conrad Herwig

Played with him on Buddy Rich's band.

...Andy Martin...Bob McChesney...

Played with those guys, too.

These guys are your early influences??? Boy, do I feel ancient. I guess I'm just a dinosaur. Oh, well. At least I'm a dinosaur who was privileged to play with some of Fidbone's early inspirations, and that makes me a lucky dinosaur.

[Sesquitone]

When I was a pre-teenager, my dad was a fan of golden-toned saxophonist Freddy Gardner; so he bought me a second-hand alto sax and arranged for some lessons. I couldn't get more than a nasty squawk out of it. But, when, in 1950, I heard Spike Jones's version of "Molasses, Molasses (it's icky-sticky goo)" with the great trombone solo (probably by Joe Colvin), I knew what my instrument must be. I traded in the sax for a pea-shooter and learned to play "Molasses, Molasses" by ear--including the "raspberries". It actually makes a good mini-warm-up. When I use it before tuning-up in orchestra rehearsals, I always get indignant looks from the viola-ladies sitting in front of me.

[Finetales]

I inherited my grandmother's huge CD collection at some point, I think middle school or early high school. The good stuff from that is what got me started. Chicago Symphony records, Berlin Phil records, the Cincinnati Pops Copland record with Pete Norton on bass trombone, and a bunch of Airmen of Note records. Large ensemble music was what I enjoyed listening to, so I didn't really have trombone soloist inspirations (except Dave Steinmeyer's high ballad playing with the Note).

The most notable discovery I made on my own (rather than through the CD collection) at the time was Mnozil Brass.

[alonetrombone]

This thread and particularly Fidbone's post are making me feel old!

The first trombone players I ever heard...Bill Watrous - “Manhattan Wildlife Refuge”. I heard this accidentally in Dobells record shop in London and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I played with Bill for many years, and counted him a friend.

...Rosolino & Fontana came a bit later.

Played with those guys, too.

Further along my journey of inspirations came Jim Pugh...

Played with him.

..., Conrad Herwig

Played with him on Buddy Rich's band.

...Andy Martin...Bob McChesney...

Played with those guys, too.

These guys are your early influences??? Boy, do I feel ancient. I guess I'm just a dinosaur. Oh, well. At least I'm a dinosaur who was privileged to play with some of Fidbone's early inspirations, and that makes me a lucky dinosaur.

that's so cool that you played with all of them. who else did you slide the ol sound hole for?

[JLivi]

When I was in music school I almost quit after my sophomore because the music I was studying was not the music I wanted to play. Once I heard Fred Wesley on Maceo Parker's "Life on Planet Groove" it all made sense.

[OldNobody]

I chose the trombone in 6th grade because, when all of the kids sat down in the sections representing the instruments they wanted to play, there were only a couple in the trombone section--I had sat down with the aspiring saxophones of all things! So, I moved over to the trombone section. Serendipity at its finest!

The most inspiring trombone performances I have ever heard were those of big trombone choirs. Just can't get enough of hearing them, and wish I were able to play in them. I'm trying hard to get one started when my son hits high school next year. No other instrument does a choir the way trombones can.

Louis

[Fidbone]

This thread and particularly Fidbone's post are making me feel old!

The first trombone players I ever heard...Bill Watrous - “Manhattan Wildlife Refuge”. I heard this accidentally in Dobells record shop in London and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I played with Bill for many years, and counted him a friend.

...Rosolino & Fontana came a bit later.

Played with those guys, too.

Further along my journey of inspirations came Jim Pugh...

Played with him.

..., Conrad Herwig

Played with him on Buddy Rich's band.

...Andy Martin...Bob McChesney...

Played with those guys, too.

These guys are your early influences??? Boy, do I feel ancient. I guess I'm just a dinosaur. Oh, well. At least I'm a dinosaur who was privileged to play with some of Fidbone's early inspirations, and that makes me a lucky dinosaur.

Nice

As I’m a non-American I didn’t get the chance to play with your list.
However, I have and do get to play with the non-Americans on my list

Name drop over and out…….

[Kingfan]

Urbie Green and Bill Watrous. Jim DeSano (Cleveland Orchestra), my first pro teacher.

[andesl10]

I started playing in 2006, and at that time YouTube had just launched. There were a few trombonists on there that really inspired me. Notably Christian Lindberg, Joe Alessi, Nils Landgren, Alan Raph and Ben Van Dijk. At that time, Nils Landgren and Ben Van Dijk were my favorites, but Alan had a couple of "Trombone Tips" videos that were really helpful to me while I was starting out. (Still are!)

[Kingfan]

Just called Jim DeSano. Hadn't talked to him in years. I was his student 50 years ago, but he remembered me! He really appreciated the call. I urge anybody who thinks highly of an old mentor to reach out and let them know how much they mean to you.

[officermayo]

My father, Urbie Green, TD and Jimmy Pankow.

[Mertelstein]

I started playing in 2006, and at that time YouTube had just launched. There were a few trombonists on there that really inspired me. Notably Christian Lindberg, Joe Alessi, Nils Landgren, Alan Raph and Ben Van Dijk. At that time, Nils Landgren and Ben Van Dijk were my favorites, but Alan had a couple of "Trombone Tips" videos that were really helpful to me while I was starting out. (Still are!)

Those Alan Raph videos are great and so useful!

[LeTromboniste]

As a teenager, it was all Lindberg, started collecting his CDs, also a bit of Alain Trudel and Canadian Brass. Eventually Jorgen van Rijen, and New Trombone Collective. For orchestral inspiration it was kind of everything and anything I could hear, on YouTube and CDs. The NY Phil and CSO sections of course but not really more than anything else. Vintage Montreal Symphony a lot, and then just randomly whatever I was listening to – I was more interested in the music and the overall orchestral sound and the interpretation of different conductors and orchestras than how the trombones specifically sounded. Never really tried to emulate any specific orchestral trombone sound nor thought any I heard were inherently better, just fascinatingly different. A lot of my sound concept was inspired by my teacher Dave Martin, who's a real artist and musician, plus my own personal ideas encouraged by him.

Got inspired to try the sackbut by Jorgen van Rijen's CD. Then once I got serious about it my model was my teacher again, Catherine Motuz, and mostly singers and cornettists and other instruments.

I was very lucky that my main teachers both for modern trombone and for sackbut were inspiring artists who offer a base worth imitating, but also are highly encouraging of their students finding their voice, pursuing their own path and pushing further with their individual ideas.

[fsgazda]

I had no inspirations the first few years that I played. I never practiced and the trombone never saw the inside of my house.

Once I hit the end of my freshman year, I started practicing with a vengeance. Sophomore year I started playing the bass trombone parts on the school's King 4B/F. Soon after I was exposed to Tutti's trombones, George Roberts (although I didn't know who it was at the time) and Ray Premru on the Philip Jones recordings. Those were my earliest influences. Later came orchestral stuff, and in college is when I started hearing the early solo recordings that my school had in the library (mostly the Crystal records stuff) and the Empire Brass. That ensemble from the 70's through the 90's still is a huge influence on me today.