DCZards wrote:Yes, I love trumpet playing as well as sax, piano...pretty much any jazz. Armstrong is indeed considered the best, his peers such as (other trumpet players) say as much. My preference though goes more toward Lee Morgan, Freddy Hubbard, Woody Shaw and Dizzy Gillespie. I had an opportunity to interview Dizzy. I have an autographed copy of his memoir "To Be or Not to Bop."
You know, Zards, I'll probably drive you as crazy about jazz as I do about basketball -- I beg your forgiveness in advance!!
Obviously, those are all extremely good trumpet players on your list....
Dizzy was a unique individual, that's for sure. I was once carrying a couple of drinks (1 for me 1 for a friend) across a large reception room at a jazz festival, when he appeared out of nowhere & tried to steal them from me! With a big smile on his face -- just messing with me!
Thinking about Dizzy makes me want to mention some other early bop trumpeters -- Howard Mcghee, Red Rodney, Idrees Sulieman & Fats Navarro. They all recorded with Bird except Sulieman. & went on to do great stuff (there's plenty on Spotify, Youtube, etc.). You probably know them all, but in the (altogether unlikely!) event that Navarro's name is new to you, look for him playing "Anthropology" for a quick intro to his absolutely incredible brilliance. & "Infatuation" as well.... Fats died in 1950 at 27. Heroin.... He was the single greatest influence on Clifford -- as is obvious after 4 bars of any cut by him!
As you mention, Hubbard & Shaw, maybe you knpw their 2-trumpet recording of "Boperation." It's a Navarro/McGhee song.
As to Louis Armstrong, it's hard to compare a guy like Satchmo at his prime with more recent trumpeters at their primes -- recording technologies were so much more primitive & occasions to record so much rarer than they were by the time someone like Clifford came along.
Armstrong was known to play extended solos, but that wouldn't have been possible when Tight Like This was recorded. It was cut right to shellac (no such thing as tape back then), & 3 minutes was the limit. His solo is eloquent & beautiful. To my way of thinking he & Sonny Rollins are the 2 greatest improvisers in the history of jazz.
Long ago when I was down & out in Paris, the great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacey put me up in his loft for a few weeks. I remember him saying that no one was as avant garde as Satchmo; that's a sentiment I agree with.
I'll go out with one of the great recordings ever, in any musical genre or style, one I'm sure you know:
