[TPIN] Acquiring Maynard taste

Tue Feb 12 23:17:20 CST 2008

I am hardly the player most of you are in TPIN, nor have I achieved the heights you have. Still, I cringe when I read negative comments pointing at the flaws, failures and idiosyncrasies of the giants of the trumpet. 

Look, Maynard was not the best be-bop player, nor was he the first to live in the ultra high-range of the horn. Still, his West Coast-style cool jazz was delicious, precisely because it was quirky and unique, with delightful twists and winds around the melody. Listen to how he constructs his phrases, builds to climaxes and finishes his choruses with a satisfying finality. He did compose melody in his jazz improvisation even allowing for the effects - especially the lip trills and all his other tricks as he ascended into the higher ranges. Indeed, since he came on the scene, many of those tricks have become relatively cliché as we saw with last year's Maynard Tribute Band featuring Patrick Hession, Wayne Bergeron and Eric Miyashiro. Nevertheless, it is a fact that these devices have become a part of the trumpet lexicon and that is the point. Maynard was thus a pioneer and his playing encouraged a whole generation of players (including me) to wade into the world of big band music, when we could have just as easily turned to rock and roll and become yet another bunch of electric guitar players.

Every time a technically proficient practitioner question the merits of another player's signature stylistic effects -- particularly one of the giants -- it tends to demean the questioner instead. That is because it is the pioneering influence that makes what the giants have accomplished special more so than the specific quality of the particular trick. I have, in the past, pointed out to my students that Louis Armstrong could never have belted out the lead on a Stan Kenton bandstand, but he was the first to lead a trumpet section and really swing. The highest notes he played are generally playable by most high school trumpet players these days, yet those young players would never be going there were it not for Louis. We shake and growl, double-tongue improvised licks, accent and phrase like Louis -- all perhaps better than he did. We do so because he already blazed the trail and did it all for us long before we got there. All we had to do then was to follow and do it over and over until we had polished our craft to a perfect shine. However, we would have nothing to polish or shine were it not for Louis.

I agree that Arturo Sandoval plays higher than Maynard, more cleanly than even the most technically proficient jazz trumpeters and busts be-bop runs that Dizzy himself could only smile at wonderingly. But Arturo followed in the footsteps of those giants. In fact, his virtuosity serves as a paean to all those who came before. He worshipped Dizzy Gillespie and thoroughly enjoyed Maynard and all those guys. He is sophisticated enough to know that were it not for them, he wouldn't be...simple as that. Ought we not, then, to learn from him and appreciate and emulate rather than criticize?

I don't know about all of you, but I long ago acquired a taste for Maynard!

Mark H. Schwartz, Senior Manager

CFO Tech, PLLC

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-----Original Message-----
From: tpin-bounces+mark=cfotech.net at tpin.okcu.edu [mailto:tpin-bounces+mark=cfotech.net at tpin.okcu.edu] On Behalf Of Byron Jones
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:35 PM
To: Jack Taylor; tpin at tpin.okcu.edu
Subject: Re: [TPIN] Acquiring Maynard taste

I'm a friend of Jack's (or at least I was until I started bashing MF), and I 
did listen to the two tracks he sent me, one from 1958 (And We Listened), 
and another from 1998 (Just Friends), and I was pleasantly surprised. I 
don't consider myself to be an expert on anything, but I do know what I 
like, and those two tracks were very nice. Maynard at his best, I would 
suppose...
I'm lucky enough to be getting a bunch of MF to listen to over the next 
couple of weeks thanks to Bill Dentler, Jack, and others, so I expect to be 
an expert soon (ha!).
I still like Arturo better, though. I know it's like apples and oranges. 
Arturo has not only chops but virtuosity and musicality. He can actually 
tongue attack notes in staccato from double high C's and up, and still do it 
with style. Maynard had the chops, no doubt, and from what I've been hearing 
from the recent stuff I've listened to, I'll have to say that he does sound 
good on his solo work. Maybe a bit on the cheesy side with all the lip 
slurs, etc. But he still sounds great, even as late as the '98 stuff. Not 
bad for an old man.

There, Jack...are you happy?
I'd like to hear you point of view on MF in forum, and your defense of his 
Columbia years. Who was pressuring him, and why???
I'll go back to lurk mode....
Byron

> I've avoided this discussion so far, but since Byron apologized to me 
> before
> beginning his Maynard "diatribe"...
>
> I sent him 2 tracks, one from 1998, one from 1958.
>
> I await his comments on these tracks.  Then I will contribute further to
> this discussion.
>
> Jack Taylor

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