[TPIN] Buckets and Flugels

[Stan Modjesky]

Just my opinion, as a newcomer around here, but the blend is the important thing in a section.

You get a trumpet section where the players are using five different brands of straight mute, and it's never going to blend. Not only does each one have its own sound quality, each detunes the horn to a different degree.

Same is true with switching to the flugel. Unless the horns are very well matched, there won't be a blend, and the directionality of the flugel is different from a bucketed trumpet.

Any of you who recall the music pedagogy magazines in the 40s and 50s might recall that some band leaders often went to great lengths to get everyone in the trumpet (or 'bone) section sounding as much alike as possible. That is a LOT of work, since two players are likely to sound a bit different from each other using identical horns and mouthpieces.

As far as the bucket mute itself is concerned, I've only owned one, and it was made from a two-pound coffee can, stuffed with rags and topped off with a layer of cheesecloth. I DID have the good sense to spray paint it white, in case you were wondering.

Mutes used in combos are another story, and I am surprised there is as little experimenation as you see on the bandstands. After the first time I heard Doc Cheatham's album recorded when he was 87, I was struck by the quality of his straight mute sound. Not nearly as much buzz as you generally get. On the album cover, Doc's straight mute looks as though he'd deliberately banged on the bottom from inside the mute, to make it rounded or convex. I had an extra LeBlanc straight mute, and while I was not willing to make dents, I tried stuffing it with a rag, and wrapping it in duct tape. It's butt-ugly, but has something close to the sound I wanted. I also filed the corks on one of my (Stone Lined) cup mutes, to bring the edges of the cup directly into contact with my bell--as tight a sound as you can get. Doesn't work for everything, but it has its uses. I can even recall a recent New Year's gig where I used a champagne glass as a plunger. Didn't sound special, but the audience thought it was a hoot...

Stan Modjesky
Baltimore