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Posted

For the better part of a year in the late 1970s you couldn't miss this tune on radio.  I actually met him once, as he went to college with one of my horn teachers so we went to a big outdoor concert west of Chicago.  Nice guy.

 

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Posted

Dammit.  Wore this LP out back in the day.  As an up and coming trumpet player, Maynard and Chuck were on my turntable constantly, trying (and usually failing) to play along.  Rest in peace sir.

 

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Posted

It's funny, Maynard & Chuck were the two biggest influences on almost every young trumpet player back then and yet they could not have been much more different.  Both very talented, but Maynard was a screamer jazz-rock guy and Chuck was so smooth he might as well have been lumped in with the yacht rockers.

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Posted
14 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

A little old school drum corps in tribute:

 

Just saw that as well, yeah, very cool.  That was always the true end of summer for me, catching the DCI finals on PBS.

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Posted
1 minute ago, UTCzech III said:

Just saw that as well, yeah, very cool.  That was always the true end of summer for me, catching the DCI finals on PBS.

Those shows were what led me to join Phantom for about a minute and then switch to Cavaliers.

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Posted
Just now, Longhornstampede said:

Goddammit if Herb Alpert goes I'll be really pissed off!

God damn you.  He's coming to Austin, he better not!  (Side note, what a glorious time that was for trumpet players, Herb, Maynard, Chuck, Chicago, BS&T, EW&F-I remember one year at jr high band camp, yeah I know, at TLC in Seguin, some guy in our dorm had the sheet music to "Got To Get You Into My Life" with the trumpet parts, we all made copies on those old xerox machines with the super slick copy paper, still have it tucked away somewhere.. even outliers like the Freddie Hubbard solo on "Zanzibar" and Singers Unlimited, check out their version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" if you've never heard it, killer...)

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Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Those shows were what led me to join Phantom for about a minute and then switch to Cavaliers.

I was in band in HS and always went to the late July event in San Antonio. Loved watching the drumlines warm up and really enjoyed those early 00's Cavaliers and Blue Devils shows.

Edited by Pam Cummings
Posted
5 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

I was in band in HS and always went to the late July event in San Antonio. Loved watching the drumlines warm up and really enjoyed those early 00's Cavaliers and Blue Devils shows.

BD was basically an NBA team playing against Austin High.

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Posted

This week don't feel so good.

 

1 hour ago, Underdog said:

Feels so good and Rise were the jams for me. 

Rise is a criminally underrated jam that should be on every soundtrack for every hip movie ever made.

 

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Posted
2 hours ago, UTCzech III said:

God damn you.  He's coming to Austin, he better not!  (Side note, what a glorious time that was for trumpet players, Herb, Maynard, Chuck, Chicago, BS&T, EW&F-I remember one year at jr high band camp, yeah I know, at TLC in Seguin, some guy in our dorm had the sheet music to "Got To Get You Into My Life" with the trumpet parts, we all made copies on those old xerox machines with the super slick copy paper, still have it tucked away somewhere.. even outliers like the Freddie Hubbard solo on "Zanzibar" and Singers Unlimited, check out their version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" if you've never heard it, killer...)

Freddie Hubbard was far from an "outlier" in trumpet circles. Maynard, Mangione, Alpert, hell even Bill Chase before his untimely death, just happened to catch on as rock stars not just to trumpet players but to the general public . Back then their music was substance and not some pop hook tune. But guys like Hubbard, Vizzutti, Doc (even though everybody knew about him because of the Tonight show), and a ton of others were monstrous talents. Even to this day I still play alongside two of Maynard's former lead players and another guy who played lead for Buddy Rich, on a regular basis and I am in awe sitting on the second third or fourth book next to these guys. 

Nowadays you have so many supremely talented trumpet players like Rick Baptist, Malcolm McNabb, Chris Coletti, etc.... not to mention the principals of most of the world class orchestras that are just pure perfection. (We even have at least one UT grad amongst the ranks of those upper tier elite orchestral types).

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Posted
1 hour ago, Longhornstampede said:

Freddie Hubbard was far from an "outlier" in trumpet circles. Maynard, Mangione, Alpert, hell even Bill Chase before his untimely death, just happened to catch on as rock stars not just to trumpet players but to the general public . Back then their music was substance and not some pop hook tune. But guys like Hubbard, Vizzutti, Doc (even though everybody knew about him because of the Tonight show), and a ton of others were monstrous talents. Even to this day I still play alongside two of Maynard's former lead players and another guy who played lead for Buddy Rich, on a regular basis and I am in awe sitting on the second third or fourth book next to these guys. 

Nowadays you have so many supremely talented trumpet players like Rick Baptist, Malcolm McNabb, Chris Coletti, etc.... not to mention the principals of most of the world class orchestras that are just pure perfection. (We even have at least one UT grad amongst the ranks of those upper tier elite orchestral types).

No I just meant that once in a while a song would come from somewhere other that where you would normally expect, in this case a Billy Joel song, that had a killer trumpet solo (2 actually)...

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Posted
37 minutes ago, UTCzech III said:

No I just meant that once in a while a song would come from somewhere other that where you would normally expect, in this case a Billy Joel song, that had a killer trumpet solo (2 actually)...

Zanzibar? 

Posted
1 hour ago, Longhornstampede said:

(We even have at least one UT grad amongst the ranks of those upper tier elite orchestral types).

Who are you referring to?

Elias Haslanger went to Austin High, same class as my wife, he played sax with Maynard for a cup of coffee.  I'm not familiar with too many trumpets from Austin other than Ephraim Owens.

Posted
5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's funny, Maynard & Chuck were the two biggest influences on almost every young trumpet player back then and yet they could not have been much more different.  Both very talented, but Maynard was a screamer jazz-rock guy and Chuck was so smooth he might as well have been lumped in with the yacht rockers.

Much more appropriately than Steely Dan, for sure.

Posted
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Who are you referring to?

Elias Haslanger went to Austin High, same class as my wife, he played sax with Maynard for a cup of coffee.  I'm not familiar with too many trumpets from Austin other than Ephraim Owens.

Craig Morris...from San Antonio 

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Posted
7 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's funny, Maynard & Chuck were the two biggest influences on almost every young trumpet player back then and yet they could not have been much more different.  Both very talented, but Maynard was a screamer jazz-rock guy and Chuck was so smooth he might as well have been lumped in with the yacht rockers.

No Chase?

Posted
33 minutes ago, UTCzech III said:

Went to school with Craig, nice guy.  Also had Bob Cannon as my TA one year.

Same. Craig was a year behind me ... But way ahead as a player. And Tom Tallman as a TA too. Good jazz guy.

Posted

Csb

The RRISD sax “technique teacher” when I was in MS and HS was friends with Denis DiBlasio, the bari sax player for Maynard Ferguson.  I, too, was a bari sax player.  DiBlasio was in town and agreed to play in with our HS jazz band.  Denis had an idea that we’d do a cross handed thing where we were both playing both saxes.  I did not pick it up the first time and he concluded “screw it, we’ll do something else.”  Anyhow, we played Coconut Champagne - I did the first solo - he played a 2nd solo for about 5 minutes. He was sensational.  I was a high schooler who was afraid to fuck up in front of a famous person.  Wish I had cared a little less about that at that time.

Another time, Maynard played at Westlake high school and we all got to meet him.  He’s more impressive in person that on his records.

/csb

Another trivia nugget - Gregg Bissonnette was the drummer for Maynard at that time.  After, he was drummer for David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani, Andy Summers, Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, among many others.

https://youtu.be/hGQWCR6jFZ4?si=HWAGsJ7jymc6Jgc-

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Posted

As a very young pup I saw Maynard in the round, circa 1977.  Peter Erskine was his drummer, right before he split for Weather Report.  I was nowhere sophisticated enough to understand what I was seeing, but holy shit Erskine was unbelievable.

Years later, Maynard's band came through the Wendy's I worked at late one night.  I was semi-gobsmacked.  Stan Mark stepped up to order and I asked him why he played a black trumpet.  He was a total dick -- "because I can".  OK, fucker.  That was the very last time I let someone's fame clutter my thoughts.  I might have spit on his burger.  (Might have.)

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Longhornstampede said:

Same. Craig was a year behind me ... But way ahead as a player. And Tom Tallman as a TA too. Good jazz guy.

Ah yes, Tom, another TA of mine, cool

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Posted (edited)

Erskine played in Steps Ahead, before Steve Smith (of Journey fame) joined in ~1987.  Both are fantastic drummers.  Steps Ahead was founded largely by Michael Brecker (tenor sax) and Mike Manieri (vibraphones).  They created some fantastic music in the mid-80s to mid-90s. 

When in NYC (a family member lives there) I always seek out a Steve Smith show.  After one of Smith's shows, I see a guy I think I recognize.  I ask if his name is Mike Manieri.  He says, "yes."  I said that I recognized him from the "Live in Tokyo 1987" show (it was 2022?) video.  He laughed and we talked for a bit.  Down to earth talented guy.  Was teaching at NYU and gigging on the side.

 

EDIT - looks like it was from 1986.  Mike was the first guy I ever saw play w/ 4 mallets.  Freaking amazing.

 

Edited by boilerhorn
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Posted (edited)

RIP Chuck.  Maynard, Chuck, Herb, Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, Doc, Hugh Masekela are all up in my current play list.  

Edited by CycleTex87
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Posted

Doc is WAY underrated, presumably because he was seen as Johnny Carson's outlandish foil for so many years.

I got to see Wynton back to back nights -- one with his jazz quartet, the second with a symphony.  Mind blown.

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Posted
21 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

For the better part of a year in the late 1970s you couldn't miss this tune on radio.  I actually met him once, as he went to college with one of my horn teachers so we went to a big outdoor concert west of Chicago.  Nice guy.

 

My mind associates this song, played a little faster, with a theme song from the 70s or early 80s.  I've searched and it is not, but there is something close out there.

Posted (edited)

The thing about Feels So Good was the range that Mangione lived in throughout that number, it was a big break from most flugelhorn solos before. Most people associate flugel with lower and mid register and mellow (someone like Derek Watkins being the standard on flugel, while he could absolutely scream on trumpet) but Chuck, while not screaming, stayed in a pretty high range for flugelhorn and showed great control of the horn and his tone while doing it. A lot of guys couldn't maintain that on flugelhorn, thus you had many just play it all on trumpet.

Edited by Longhornstampede
Because I can't figure out how to spell flugelhorn!
Posted

It's definitely a lot easier on trumpet.  I never played much flugelhorn, but in my descent from trumpet to (brief stop) euphonium because I got braces to French horn I just kinda avoided the usuals like flugelhorn or mellophone.  French horn was my wheelhouse, which was cool because it was so damn hard most brass players just said "fuck that".

Posted
3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's definitely a lot easier on trumpet.  I never played much flugelhorn, but in my descent from trumpet to (brief stop) euphonium because I got braces to French horn I just kinda avoided the usuals like flugelhorn or mellophone.  French horn was my wheelhouse, which was cool because it was so damn hard most brass players just said "fuck that".

Fellow horn player here, and I agree totally.   I got a flugel because of Chuck, of course.  I saw him dozens of times, including the Hollywood Bowl shows.   

 

But, the best horn player I ever saw perform was Al Vizzutti. 

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