Jazz

A guide to commercial tuba playing in the Los Angeles area

Hollywood reality check: Tommy Johnson reveals what it really takes to become a commercial tuba player in Los Angeles—skill, versatility… and patience.

By Tommy Johnson

10 Outstanding Trumpet Players in the Los Angeles Area

Behind the polished sound of Los Angeles studio trumpet playing stood remarkably similar training, disciplined routines, and a craft shaped by constant stylistic demands.

By Boyde Hood

Part 2

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The “Classical” Period 1927-1945 — The Golden Age of the Trumpet

Between Armstrong’s rise and bebop’s arrival, the trumpet became jazz’s dominant voice, reshaping technique, orchestras, sound, mutes and virtuosity.

By Michel Laplace

Glenn Ferris - Profile

Beyond fame and labels: Glenn Ferris rejects the music business game—defining a raw, uncompromising vision of creativity, freedom, and what it means to truly play.

By Lee Underwood

Doc Severinsen

Talent, will and glory

Trumpet virtuoso and nightly television star, Doc Severinsen combined immense popularity with concerts, big bands and iron discipline.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Wynton Marsalis

Interview

At 26, Wynton Marsalis confronts jazz education, popular culture and artistic integrity with convictions as uncompromising as his approach to the trumpet.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 2

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

The classical Armstrong period (1927-1945)

Jazz trombone changed rapidly between 1927 and 1945, as Armstrong’s influence, big-band playing and new techniques transformed both its language and sound.

By Michel Laplace

Part 3

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

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

Bebop, Miles Davis and the rise of the flugelhorn mark a postwar jazz landscape in which trumpet playing splintered into competing sounds and ideals.

By Michel Laplace

Jabbo Smith

The Unrecognised Jazz Trumpeter

Overshadowed by Armstrong and later by Eldridge, Jabbo Smith emerges as a crucial trumpet innovator whose speed, range and phrasing anticipated modern jazz.

By Michel Laplace

Part 3

How and why I became a musician

As cinema orchestras vanished and radio reshaped musical life, Edouard Gros learned that survival could mean changing instruments, cities and expectations.

By Edouard Gros