[TPIN] "Now why don't he write?"

[RickTrumpetMan at aol.com]

Hey Mark,
 
Yeah, I know what you mean.  My imagination always let me believe that  it is 
the "A" at the end of Give It One. (They used to play it like the  record in 
the old days with the gliss going back up to the  "A".)   
 
I remember that there were color posters of that photograph shoot in  the 
early pressings of M.F. Horn III.  I've never found one though.   It's from a 
different perspective if I remember correctly.
The only one I ever saw was in a "barn/studio" in the mid-70's where I  
played with a Chicago cover band called "Earth Child" in China Grove,  NC.  (I 
didn't have my driver's license yet, so it was a pretty brief  tour...)
Anyhoo.....
 
I'm not saying he DIDN'T use pressure!  Whatever armchair  quarterbacking 
that can take place now has to include some  divergent perspective (including 
yours!) to get us to an  "aggregate truth".  If there can be such a thing.  
 
Usually once or twice in a concert the Fox would grace us with (well, maybe  
it could be overdone, but at that age, I stood rapt while watching it every  
time) his two or three octave "horse whinny" lip trill.  This was done  often 
while gesticulating expressively with no hand on the "wheel"  (valves) as if he 
were "orating".  I thought it was great!  (But  sure enough, I'd regularly 
read some trumpet hating spud at "Downbeat"  magazine castigate him for it.....) 
By the end of the  Columbia years, maybe it had become a tradition perhaps 
too richly drawn  upon for the Roulette faithful.  But at that time their kids 
were laying  down the coinage for records. 
 
He was doing it mostly with air and (my theory) his tongue in ways  well 
expounded upon by Gordon, Reinhardt and others.  There wasn't a lot of  shove 
showing that I could see.....
 
I see where your coming from and agree that what it took to contain  
"Hurricane" Walter was probably pretty fearsome!  Perhaps it's  understandable that 
some folk tended to think the whole ball of  wax was his left arm. FWIW, If I 
push too hard, I shut down.  The  real trick for getting in shape for me is 
learning to know where "not  too hard" stops and extending the time it takes for 
me to "get  there". 
 
Here's one last thing to consider:  There's are anecdotes  (maybe in the 
Mosaic set?) about how Producer Teddy Reig would chap  Maynard's posterior if he 
didn't "put the eyebrows on" while playing in the  studio while recording.  
Reig would always insist on another  take.  Then Maynard would carry on like he 
did onstage and Teddy  would beam through the studio plate glass with a thumbs 
up.  
 
I'm sure that there's a little room to agree that in  this case the 
showmanship and the musicianship are  sufficiently intertwined so as to be tough to 
separate!
 
Nobody but the man himself could've told us.  I'm not  too sure he like to 
analyze himself that much, though.
 
(Jacobs had some good things to say about that I  think!)  :)
 
Great follow up!
 
Regards,
 
Rick P.



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