Complete articles index

Bo Nilsson

Cicerone of the brasses

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 8

Instrument Makers in USA

Getzen

Two devastating factory fires, rapid reconstruction and a growing export market shaped Getzen’s rise in Wisconsin, where craftsmanship met industrial ambition.

By Stephan Suter

Part 3

Jazz Improvisation

The melodic minor scale 1

By Charlie Shoemake

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 10

Claudio Pontiggia

By Jeremy Mathez

Part 1

Jazz Improvisation

Major scales

Major scales, seventh chords and interval exercises provide the foundations for a systematic approach to jazz improvisation based on chord-scale relationships.

By Charlie Shoemake

György Geiger

A Giant of a trumpeter

György Geiger combines orchestral playing, brass chamber music and contemporary premieres with a solo career that brings Hungarian trumpet playing to international audiences.

By Balint A. Varga

Part 1

Trombone and Organ — a Dialog

Since the 1970s, the trombone and organ have inspired a new repertoire in which medieval traditions, sacred music and modern composition meet in unexpected ways.

By Klaus Winkler

Editorial

In his 1986 editorial, Jean-Pierre Mathez announces country features and challenges brass competitions that demand musical sensitivity from exhausted performers.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Points and areas of corrosion in brass instruments

Red spots on brass instruments were often blamed on players and poor maintenance, yet the causes of premature corrosion may lie in manufacturing and surface treatments.

By Karl Hachenberg

Wynton Marsalis

Interview

At Montreux in 1987, Wynton Marsalis condemns commercial pop culture and defends the transmission of jazz traditions through education and close attention to its masters.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Brass Techniques Series • Part 3

The Ear

Pitch recognition, sensitivity to timbre and hearing care form the foundations of a musician’s aural development, linking how brass players listen to how they play.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 7

John Clark

John Clark made the horn a jazz voice on its own terms, balancing improvisation, studio realities and an instrument still fighting to escape classical expectations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Part 3

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The pluralism of the so-called “modern” forms (1945 to the present)

After 1945, bebop, modal jazz and rock reshape trumpet playing, as successive generations develop new approaches to phrasing, improvisation and sound.

By Michel Laplace

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 2

Julius Watkins

A pioneering career, landmark recordings and collaborations with jazz legends gave the French horn a place it had never occupied before.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Markneukirchen 1986

International Brass Competitions

In 1986, young brass players from East and West met in Markneukirchen, where exceptional talent, demanding juries and musical traditions crossed political borders.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez, Roland Schnorhk

Anonymous Brass Quintet Budapest

1st prize at the Narbonne International Brass Quintet Competition 1986

Founded by Budapest music students in 1981, the Anonymous Brass Quintet emerged as a distinctive Hungarian ensemble, combining individual artistry with remarkable unity.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Brass in the Operas of Berlioz

Berlioz turned a changing brass section into a dramatic force, using horns, trombones, cornets and saxhorns to shape colour, distance, ceremony and fear.

By Benjamin Perl

Part 9

Instrument Makers in USA

Yamaha Music Products

In Grand Rapids, Japanese precision met American manufacturing, as Yamaha balanced imported components, skilled craftsmanship and the demands of a growing brass instrument market.

By Stephan Suter

Part 6

How and why I became a musician

In wartime Switzerland, an unexpected encounter in Basel gives Edouard Gros his first F tuba, opening a new musical path amid military service and orchestral rivalries.

By Edouard Gros

Can jazz performance be taught?

A profile of Charlie Shoemake

By Thomas Stevens

ARD Music Competition in Munich in 1986

Once again trumpet, after six years

At Munich’s 1986 ARD trumpet competition, Reinhold Friedrich wins second prize after four rounds assessing technical command, interpretation and artistic personality.

By Edward H. Tarr

Part 3

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique, Paris 1795

In 1795, a seashell could still belong to the history of military instruments, its origins entwined with Greek mythology, biblical tradition and ancient warfare.

By Anonyme

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 4

Thomas Bacon

Classical discipline meets jazz-rock freedom as Thomas Bacon confronts improvisation, stylistic crossover and the physical demands placed on the horn.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Narbonne 1986

1st International Brass Quintet Competition

In 1986, Narbonne became a meeting place for the brass world, where an ambitious international competition brought emerging quintets alongside established masters.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez