Jazz Trumpet Licks

I had the great opportunity to live in Japan for 5 years. While I was stationed in Japan I also had the opportunity to meet Eric Miyashiro in person. It’s a funny story really, I was at a music store near Tokyo and heard a trumpet player doing two octave lip slurs in the distance. I was curious to see who it was because the trumpet player was wailing up to double high Cs and beyond in his lip slurs.

I walked towards the trumpet high notes and to my utter amazement, Eric Miyashiro was in a separate room giving a Yamaha trumpet clinic to about 30 viewers. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I stood outside as the clinic continued on. Eric Miyashiro continued to play some Maynard Ferguson type Jazz licks on different Yamaha trumpets. After each Maynard sound sample he spoke in Japanese about each trumpet.

After the clinic was finished, I seized the opportunity to introduce myself to Eric Miyashiro as he walked out of the room. I haphazardly told him I was a big fan. He asked me if I play. I told him I was in the Navy Band over in Yokosuka. He surprisingly got excited and happily stated that he loved performing with the Navy Band folks. He even mentioned a bunch of names of Navy cats that he used to work with.

That was my first experience meeting Eric Miyashiro. I got to see him perform several times while I was stationed in Japan. Great times!

I love this video of Eric Miyashiro performing Give it One. He has such a powerful trumpet sound.

A very young Greg Gisbert takes an awesome trumpet solo on Love For Sale with the Buddy Rich Big Band. To Greg Gisbert’s left is another very young, but awesome lead trumpet player named Eric Miyashiro. I really don’t know how young they were in this Jazz video and I’m not even going to try to guess.

I’ve had the great opportunity to meet both Greg Gisbert and Eric Miyashiro when I was stationed over in Japan. I saw Greg Gisbert playing trumpet with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Big Band and Eric Miyashiro was performing with a local Japanese Big Band, I just can’t remember the name of the Big Band.

The Big Band in this video sounds great. Let me know what you think!