Jazz Trumpet Licks

If you haven’t seen this Jazz video of James Morrison on You Tube yet, you’re in for a real treat. There are a whole bunch of cool things James Morrison (an Australian trumpet player/trombone player) shows off on. Switching back and forth between trombone and trumpet, multiphonics at the beginning on trombone, using a trombone trigger to play a bunch of Jazz licks on trombone, and of course a lot of high notes. He goes up to a high G, but mainly does it one handed while making it look very easy. The blues changes are of the tune, “Things Ain’t What They Used to be”.

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.

I found another good Jazz trumpet video from the Vitoria Jazz Festival back in 2006. Luckily, this time I was able to embed the video into my site. This trumpet player’s name is Terrel Stafford. He definitely took a very nice Jazz trumpet solo on the tune entitled Four by Miles Davis. Terrel Stafford plays this trumpet solo with a lot of energy, I hope you enjoy this Jazz clip as much as I did.

I never heard of this trumpet player until today, but Mat Jodrell sounds great at this jam session. Mat Jodrell takes a ride on the tune Four by Miles Davis. The tune Four is one of my favorite standard Jazz tunes. This jam session took place at Jazz de Medianoche at Vitoria Jazz Festival back in 2006.

Anyway, Mat Jodrell nails all the chord changes on Four and playing with a lot of energy on trumpet. I really enjoyed listening to this trumpet solo and I hope you do as well.

I wasn’t able to embed the video on my site, so click the link above to check out Mat Jodrell’s trumpet solo on Four.

This Jazz trumpet solo of Nicholas Payton starts off nicely on the head with just guitar and trumpet. I really like how it sounded. Nicholas Payton uses a lot of skips with fourth patterns that sound like he is taking his trumpet solo outside. That is probably why I like this Nicholas Payton trumpet solo.

When I first heard this recording, I never heard a trumpet player sound like that before. If you are interested in getting this Nicholas Payton CD, it’s called From This Moment. It Could Happen To You is my favorite listen on the entire CD, but there are other good tracks as well.

**Note: Audio has been removed from this post.

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