< Previous18 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild Looks complicated, right? Take heart—here are some real- life examples of how trumpeters just like you have created a version of their best lives, starting with a trumpet and a dream. Trumpeter #1: “The entrepreneur” He had friends with steady gigs at resort showcases in Hawaii and got a call when one moved to Los Angeles. He toured and performed for a few years there and then moved to Las Vegas, where he performed in the pits. With the steady income and stable work, he got married and had kids. He met other pit musicians and discovered a few had bought homes and were renting a room or two to other Las Vegas musicians to help pay the mortgage. They eventually bought second and third rental houses. Trumpeter # followed suit and learned how to buy foreclosures, fix them up, and rent them. His days were free to learn, study, and act. Plus, he had friends to show him how. Eventually he saw that recorded music was going to replace the live bands in Las Vegas, and he started enhancing his con- nections in Los Angeles. Along the way, he became a pretty savvy arranger and recording producer. He got work arranging and composing for cruise ship shows, which came naturally, as they were just miniature versions of the Las Vegas production shows. Today he writes, arranges, and records all the ship soundtracks for a major cruise line, and this has afforded him the ability to move his family to his boyhood home in the mountains. His rental income in Las Vegas has grown over the years. He lectures and teaches others how he did it. Trumpeter #2: “The one-track mind” Trumpeter was an extremely strong player and eventually toured with a major-name touring band for three years. On the strength of his tenure with that band, he landed a steady gig in a Las Vegas pit for the next seven years. He saw the same changes coming in Las Vegas that Trumpeter had seen, started gathering his transcripts from his undergraduate music degree, and applied to law school. He kept playing in the pits as he could to pay his mortgage while in law school, and he has been an entertainment lawyer ever since. Early in his Las Vegas career, his life was sta- ble, so he, too, married and had children. Trumpeter #3: “The steady one” Trumpeter was a fine section player and a good jazz player. He moved to New York, because a childhood friend of his was already there playing in the recording scene. Trum- peter started getting recording gigs due to the success of his old friend and nailed the parts. Broadway sub gigs started call- ing, for many Broadway musicians could do recording sessions during the day, and they all ran in the same circles. Twenty-five years later, he is working every night in the pits—sometimes as a regular, sometimes as a sub. He married, has a house in New Jersey, and is raising a family. Trumpeter #4: “The star, the one who made it” Trumpeter was a phenomenal jazz player. His parents supported him playing with pros in his hometown while he was in high school. He went to a prestigious music school. He did not finish, but instead hit the road in his second year with a known touring jazz band. He left the jazz band for New York after six months. He was highly social and creative and even- tually made a horn section out of friends from that touring band when they left the road for New York. He sold his horn section to rock bands that were largely ignored by the estab- lished New York recording artists and added some horn parts to several unlikely rock tunes and artists. The established play- ers immediately took notice. Unpredictably, he started getting calls to record with the established players, for they observed his ability to “find work where there was none.” Soon, a call came to rehearse with a really big name, in preparation for a tour, as the trumpeter they had hired was on another tour and could not make the rehearsals. When it came time for the tour, the big name made an executive decision to keep Trumpeter . He contin- ued his success in the “A List” of stars and has a net worth of multiple millions of dollars. He was the author’s roommate on that first jazz tour. At age fifty, he is single, childless, and an international star. Trumpeter #5: “The journeyman professor-plus” Moderately talented, creative, and highly ambitious, this trumpeter took every gig he could, learned every style he could—to some success in all styles of trumpet playing. Social and positive in personality, he went to a prestigious graduate school and became close to many who would go on to succeed. From those years, one recital partner is principal in a major us symphony, another is a lifelong military band principal, and there are many others. Trumpeter toured for a decade or so with various community-concert-type tours and others, got a master’s degree, and started a doctor- ate between touring. This took him to about age . He found a group of high schools that employed private teachers who were desperately looking for a trumpeter, for one had just retired, and another was leaving to pursue his doctorate. Trumpeter signed up, teaching a grueling lessons each week, traveling to different schools. The work was hard, but the money was great. He rented a room in a house with other young working people. He met his soulmate and got married. After year or so, he started applying for colleges. He got his first university gig. They had twins. Unhappy with his state salary, he con- sulted Trumpeter , and together, he and his wife saved his salary in a disci- plined manner and eventually bought rental real estate. After a while, he got good at it. It supplemented his university position well, with his wife running the business, and he filled in on the side. The combination of his teaching and the growing side busi- ness meant that his wife could stay home, with all efforts directed at a unified outcome for the family. Everything grew in the right direction. He eventually added two more children, and to this day, at , claims to have a life of richness and pros- perity, beyond anything of which he had ever dreamed. His only disappointment is that he did not have the vision twenty years earlier—thus, this article! “At age fifty, he is single, child- less, and an international star.” “His only disappointment is that he did not have the vision twenty years earli- er—thus, this article!”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 19 In summary, do you see any common experiences from which you could draw to help you gain confidence in your future as a trumpeter? Do you see any areas on which you could focus to give you mechanisms for achieving success in your trumpeting life? Trumpeter was flexible and willing to branch out his skill set to great success when he saw change beyond his control on the horizon. Trumpeter aimed consistently and diligently, hit his target, and stayed on it, but was able to completely re- route his focus when change be - yond his control loomed. Trum- peter was steady, social, and solid. Thus, he enjoys a house, a family, a retirement, and a solid thirty-year Broadway performing career. Trumpeter was highly social and one-track minded in his focus, developed his brand- ing over several decades, was tops in his performing ability, and never, ever, stopped pursuing his stardom every minute of every day. In a conversation I had with him in July , he stated, “I own one suitcase and three trumpets, and that is it. I don’t even own a plant; it would die.” Trumpeter was will- ing to explore knowledge and experience outside his initial field, much like Trumpeter , for he decided the trumpet had hit its apex in the university job. No more three-month gig- ging tours leaving family for extra income. He decided to “succeed where he was” and found a way. Summary of the summary: common attributes Flexibility: A willingness to jump tracks when situations change Courage: To face change, new ideas, and new fields and plunge ahead into the unknown (with as much knowledge as possible) Curiosity: A willingness to explore possible areas of oppor- tunity to see if they are a match for one’s skills and needs Social nature: An ability to warmly and quickly relate to people, identify their needs, and interact positively in seeking desired outcomes Willingness to do “whatever it takes” to achieve one’s goal. I have close relationships with each of the above trumpeters, and each one, in their own way, describes this as the one enduring quality that caused their successes and was equally responsible for their failures when they faltered, lost confidence, got dis- tracted, or questioned their true goals. Takeaway : Each trumpeter found a way to add to and enhance their trum- peting life. Takeaway : Change is a constant. Learn to deal with this in your own way. Takeaway : Each trumpeter above eventually became a version of their true self. Every young person who wants to succeed needs to devel- op a knowledge of who they are and what they would do all day for free. Finally, they need to be willing to use the other attributes to find a way to benefit their fellow human beings in the process! About the author: Dr. Grant Manhart has been teaching trumpet, jazz and online music appreciation at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, since . He toured professionally for a decade prior, performing on Broadway and with the Buddy Rich Band, among many others. He is also an author, publishing a music appre- ciation text, Music Appreciation: A Socioeconomic Perspective-A Text for Disrupted Times. He is cur- rently finishing a college success manual for students, Mapping Your Success. He created and co- sponsored the “Student Meet and Greet” at the past five ITG Conferences. “I own one suitcase and three trumpets, and that is it. I don’t even own a plant; it would die.” “Every young person who wants to succeed needs to develop a know - ledge of who they are and what they would do all day for free.” F REE M USIC S UPPLEMENT F OR J ANUARY 2021 We hope you enjoy this year’s free Music Supplement, one move- ment (“The Caregiver”) for trumpet and piano of Pendulum by the dynamic Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad. This work was the result of ITG’s commission and was premiered at the ITG Conference in Miami by José Sibaja. This pdf file is available now for download from the Resources: Special Offerings section of the ITG Website.20 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild Engelke: You were born in Rio de Janeiro but undertook your formal studies in the United States. Can you please share your musical background before college and how you developed your skills as a performer and composer? Assad: Music played a big role in our lives. We played music together as a family, listened to records, and went to concerts. It was an organic way of learning by assimilation, but still, I was very raw. I was a creative person, but a technical mess; I had a lot of coordination issues as a young girl. Music was emotionally conflicting for me, because it took my father and uncle [of the Assad Brothers, an internationally renowned gui- tar duo] away from their families and children, as it was just impossible to make a living in Brazil at that time (and still is). I was very close to my father, so I took his relocation to Europe very hard. For a few years after he left, I didn’t touch the piano and didn’t sing. As I got older, though, I realized that music was important to me. This was the beginning of a more serious pursuit. I was thirteen. Engelke: When and why did you leave Brazil for France and eventually the United States? Assad: My father agreed that being near him would be a good idea for my musical studies. I lived with my mother and brother in Rio de Janeiro until we both went to France to be with Dad, but France was short lived as we were hit by the tragedy of losing his second wife. My father was pretty much lost for a good period after that, but he eventually met Angela, a Brazilian-American scientist and now his third wife, who is the reason we all came to the United States. Engelke: Did you always envision a multifac- eted career as a performer and composer in many genres, or how did this evolve? Assad: I had no clear goals in mind—I really wanted to learn as much as I could. I think having visited and lived in other countries prior to com- ing here really influenced my musical thinking, so I didn’t make clear distinctions between styles and genres. In fact, I always thought this was quite funny, the way people label everything. Engelke: How did your interests fit the coursework at Roosevelt University and the University of Michi- gan? Did you do much scat singing while in college? ITG’ S 2019 C OMMISSION : C LARICE A SSAD ’ S P ENDULUM BY L UIS C. E NGELKE FA3 D ynamic Brazilian-American composer, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad is a recipient of the Aaron Copland Award, several ascap awards in composition, a Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Van Lier Fellowship, the Franklin Honor Society Award, the Samuel Ostrowsky Humanities Award, and a McKnight Visiting Composer Award—in addition to hav- ing received funding from the New Music Alive Partner- ship program of the League of American Orchestras. Her more than seventy works have been performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Tokyo Sym- phony, Queensland Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Sybarite5, Metropolis Ensemble, and Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Assad’s works are published by Editions Lemoine (France), Trekel (Ger- many), Criadores do Brasil (Brazil), and Virtual Artists Collective Publishing. As a performer, Assad has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Anat Cohen, Gilberto Gil, Nadia Sirota, Paquito D’Rivera, Tom Harrell, Marilyn Mazur, and Mike Marshall, among other outstanding musicians. She has performed at interna- tionally renowned venues and festivals, including the Netherlands’ Concertgebouw, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Belgium’s Le Palais des Beaux-Arts, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Le Casino de Paris, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Caramoor International Jazz Festival. Her substantial output as a popular artist includes thirty recordings, includ- ing seven solo albums on Cedille Records, sony Masterworks, Nonesuch, Adventure Music, Edge, Telarc, NSS Music, gha, and chandos. These recordings of her work include percus- sionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and oboist Liang Wang. Assad holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan School of Music, where she studied with Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, and Evan Chambers. Young Clarice Assad studying piano in Rio de Janeiro, 1987© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 21 Assad: I started singing while very young. It was such a free way of expressing musical ideas. No one told me to stop mak- ing sounds and playing with my voice, and this might be where my “scat singing” evolved from. Roosevelt and Michigan really challenged me in a pos- itive way with the coursework. I was lucky to have been at the schools in a time when I was not forced to write in any other way than my own, as many other institutions have done, depending on the current trends of classical music. Engelke: Who are your most significant influences as a compos- er, particularly from Brazil? Assad: Egberto Gismonti was my biggest influence as a young composer, because he was doing something that no one else was—drawing from the richest folk, native/popular sounds and rhythms of Brazil with “serious” music that was exiting, complex, and accessible at the same time. This is not easy to do. He was especially unreal when it came to apply- ing these ideas to his piano playing, which remains amazingly fresh to this day. Engelke: What do you consider to be your most significant symphonic works and/or other career highlights? Assad: My scat singing concerto (Scattered) has a fond place in my heart. I believe it to be a good representation of myself as a musician, because since I am the only soloist, the vocal and piano parts are constantly changing. There is no ultimate ver- sion of that piece, even though the orchestra part remains stat- ic. As long as I play the concerto, it will never be the same. I like that idea of freedom. Engelke: ITG approached you about a commission in early 2017 . While trumpet, voice, and piano were not required during our initial discussions, you grav itated to this quite early. Did you listen to any works for trumpet and voice, or did you set out to write something com- pletely new? Assad: The only time I ever heard anything close to this combination was when I was a resident artist with Jazz at Lincoln Center in Doha, Qatar, for two months. I had at least one set each evening in which I would be joined by Dominick Farinacci, a wonderful jazz trumpeter. We were playing charts by other composers, but the more we played together, the more comfortable we became in making their music our own. So, I knew the combination, sound-wise, would be good. But, here is the thing: there are no recordings of these concerts—no videos—and we hardly ever played anything I wrote. So, it is as if it never happened. I believe I saw this opportunity with ITG as the perfect scenario to explore such un - charted territory in my own writing. Engelke: You wrote three individual movements that may be performed together as a set or individually. Can you shed some light on each of the individual works and their titles: 1) “Hermet- ic,” 2) “The Caregiver,” and 3) “Luminous?” How and why did you choose Pendulum for the work’s overall title? Assad: I wrote these movements at different times through- out . This was a year when I went through too much loss—my best friend, Richard; my American music mentor, “As long as I play the concer- to, it will never be the same. I like that idea of freedom.” “I think having visited and lived in other countries prior to coming here really influenced my musical think- ing, so I didn’t make clear distinc- tions between styles and genres.” (L – R): Clarice Assad, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Marin Alsop. Post-concert conversation after live recording of Violin Concerto. Denver, Colorado, 200522 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild Bruce; and then Luhli, one of my earliest musical mentors going back to when I was thirteen or fourteen. Luhli was a bit of a mystic and read people’s palms and minds. She used a pen- dulum sometimes to guide her intuition. I wrote the pieces at different times and not exactly with my friends in mind, but while giving the set a title, I was in the middle of this process of grieving and couldn’t stop thinking about light. I thought, “Enough with the darkness; let in the light, happiness, hope, and joy.” Because this is what they all meant to me. [Note: The second movement was originally titled “Celestial,” but after the premiere performance and further reflection, Assad retitled it “The Caregiver,” since she believed this to be a more accurate depiction of the music.] Engelke: When finalizing details for the commission, you very much wanted to be the vocalist and pianist for the premiere per- formance. How did this influence your writing? Assad: More and more, I want to be an active part of the music that I write, if possible. I didn’t really think about writing for myself; I focused a lot on the trumpet as a soloist. The only way it influenced my writing is that I wanted to create music that is exciting to play and enjoyable for people to hear in a concert. Engelke: In our discussions, making the work readily perform - able by any vocalist, as well as ITG members, was stressed. Do you envision most performances occurring with separate vocalists and pianists? What advice do you have for primarily classically trained singers who will interpret this unique new work? Assad: Finding a vocalist and pianist to do exactly what is on the score is not impossible, though it is tricky, because every- one’s voices are different and trained differently. Also, even if there is no language involved, the musical vocabulary and sounds on that work are very Brazilian-infused. With that said, I see more and more vocalists taking lib- erties with their voices, and I hope and believe there might be people interested in trying to create their own version of this piece. Engelke: Hopefully the primarily classi- cal vocalists will welcome the challenges you have presented, but perhaps trumpet soloists will seek out a jazz vocalist if needed. Do you have any recommen- dations regarding the mouth harp sections to be performed by the vocalist? This is a very interesting way to start the work, but will all performers be comfortable executing these passages? Assad: This is essentially a percussion part, and that was the reason I added the mouth harp. It takes a bit of practicing, but I have seen many singers be able to do incredibly well after one try. It’s about enjoying the process of creating new sounds, and most musicians I have come across are quite open to it. I do workshops on spontaneous music creation and teach many of these techniques to students who go on to create their own version of the things we explore. Engelke: Do you have any recommendations regarding inter- pretation? Specifically, you included a few chord symbols, so how much flexibility do you encourage from the artists? “I saw this opportunity with ITG as the perfect scenario to explore such uncharted territory in my own writing.” (L – R): Clarice Assad, Dominick Farinacci, and Dave Miller. Jazz at Lincoln Center residency, Doha, Qatar, 2014 “Enough with the dark- ness; let in the light, hap- piness, hope, and joy.”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 23 Assad: I think of music as a living, breathing thing that is never static. Unless it is a specific work that involves many players to execute their part exactly as written (such as orches- tral works, for example), when we have fewer musicians involved, there is more freedom to think of a score as a repre- sentation of musical ideas that can be interpreted in many ways, more like a roadmap. The chord symbols are there so people can feel free to explore other voicings or even harmony substitu- tions if they wish. Musicians are innately creative, and I think this should be encouraged and nurtured whenever possible. Engelke: What projects and/or tours have you done recently? Assad: was quite an incredible season. In addition to the premiere of Pendulum at the ITG Conference, I had pre- mieres by the Boston Youth Philharmonic, the Albany Sym- phony chamber ensemble, the Cabrillo Festival of Contempo- rary Music, Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo in Brazil, plus wonderful collaborations featuring new music with my father and the Third Coast Percussion, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet in England, and recording projects with this awesome Danish percussionist who used to play in Miles Davis’s group, Marilyn Mazur. I’m very excited about all of these projects; it is truly magical to be involved in all these incredible projects! Engelke: Thank you for donating the second movement, which works well as a stand-alone work, to make it available to our members as a free supplement. The entire work is available for purchase at your website (http://www.clariceassad.com). Your performance with José Sibaja at the 2019 ITG Conference in Miami, Florida, was such a memorable event! About the author: Luis Engelke is profes- sor of trumpet at Towson University and principal trumpet of the Lancaster, Kennett, and Mid Atlantic Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Endless Mountain Festival. He serves as Music Reviews column editor for the ITG Journal and vice president of the Baltimore Musicians’ Association. Engelke has appeared on more than fifty commercially released recordings for the Pro-Arte, Decca, Innova, and Aurora labels, including his two solo albums, A Brazilian Collection and Songs, Remem- brances, and Impressions, which have both received critical acclaim. His more than publications include articles, editions, and compositions published by the Jazz Educators Journal, College Music Symposium, The International Musi- cian, Balquhidder Music, EC Schirmer, Hickman Music Editions, and Triplo Press. “Musicians are innately cre- ative, and I think this should be encouraged and nur- tured whenever possible.” (L – R): Clarice Assad and José Sibaja. Premiere of Pendulum on July 11, 2019, at the ITG Conference in Miami, FloridaErdmann: How did you come to be a sub in the Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra? McNeil: I met Thad at a jam session somewhere—maybe Wichita. Some guys from Kansas City who had played with Count Basie were there. They were playing at a rib joint, and I went down to sit in at the jam session. When I noticed Thad, it was a moment of “I do believe that’s Thad Jones.” I asked if I could sit in, and everything was cool. He liked the way I played and asked, at the end of the night, what I was doing. I said, “I think I’ll go to New York in the fall.” He said, “Bring your horn on Monday night. You can sit in.” That was an easy audition I did- n’t know was going on. Erdmann: This points out how we always have to play our best because we don’t know who’s listening to us. McNeil: You sure don’t. I remember some of us from New York were close to Louisville for something or other, and May- nard Ferguson’s band was playing in a high school auditorium in Henryville, Indiana. We weren’t playing that night, so we got a car and went to see Maynard. You could tell the guys in Maynard’s band were disdainful about playing there. In their solos they would play cartoon music, sneering and smiling at the same time; it was very unbecoming. I was thinking how those guys should be embarrassed to play that way. The only guy who didn’t do that was Maynard. He played like he was playing for the king. It was shocking how disrespectful the other guys were. I said, “If they only knew who was in the audience, namely us—and we were sitting right in front—they wouldn’t play that way.” I was thinking about how it could have been me up there being a freaking idiot. It was a great lesson. Erdmann: You advocate left-hand practicing in your Trumpet Techniques book. During one of the flare-ups of CMT , you had to play the trumpet exclusively with your left hand for two years. To aid this you had two left-handed trumpets made by Kanstul, which you used on Fortuity, playing the entire album left-handed. You play so perfectly on that album; no one can tell you were play- ing left-handed. J OHN M C N EIL : O VERCOMING BY T HOMAS E RDMANN FA4 24 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild T he list of trumpeters who can play both “in” and “out” with ease, as well as with melodic and har- monic inventiveness and excitement, is incredibly small. Perhaps the master of this technique is trumpeter John McNeil. He is now fifty years into a storied, landmark career and commands respect for his lightning-quick improvisa- tional reflexes and subtle soloistic nuances. Critical acclaim is universal. The Chicago Tribune writes, “(McNeil’s) refusal to fall back on prefabricated hip licks was another sign of his commitment to emotional truth.” The Washington Post says that McNeil plays with “a balance of understatement and uninhibited swinging.” Famed critic Ben Ratliff noted in The New York Times, regarding McNeil’s wide range of improvi- sational acumen, “(McNeil) delivers high-level improvisa- tions… with astonishing harmonic acuity and a uniquely liq- uid, even sound… pulling together jazz’s postwar strands: bebop language to the letter, tricky-meter tunes, free jazz, (and) th century classical harmony.” Born in Yreka, California, in , McNeil taught himself to play the trumpet and read music. Playing professionally immediately upon graduating from high school, after a stint at the University of Portland (Oregon), he moved to New York City via Miami and Louisville in . McNeil become a fixture in Greenwich Village’s underground scene, in time garnering gigs with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band, among others. McNeil’s career was launched when he beat out ten of New York City’s finest jazz trumpeters to win the trumpet chair in Horace Sil- ver’s quintet. It wasn’t long before McNeil also became known for his ability to compose and arrange music, as well as produce recordings for others. Today he leads his own bands and co- leads a quartet, Hush Point. McNeil later took up teaching when his life-long struggle with the neurological disease Charcot-Marie-Tooth (cmt), a form of muscular dystrophy, disabled him for a time. Teach- ing at the New England Conservatory (nec) one-and-a-half days a week, he became one of the nation’s most acclaimed and successful trumpet and music teachers; his list of success- ful students is truly remarkable. In pursuit of helping others, McNeil is the author of two trumpet tutorials and co-author of a third with Laurie Frink. Their book, Flexus, is described by trumpeter Ray Vega as “the most important trumpet method book of the new millennium.” Vega goes on to state, “It stands with Arban, Clarke, Schlossberg, Stamp, and Caru- so as standard material for any serious student of the trum- pet.” McNeil’s first book, Jazz Trumpet Techniques (), basically his practice routine at the time, helps trumpeters develop articulation and fast fingers. The subsequent The Art of Jazz Trumpet () goes further. He also edited a collec- tion of guitarist John Abercrombie’s compositions, Time- less—The Music of John Abercrombie (). While Aber- crombie selected the tunes, McNeil’s annotations provide insightful commentary drawn from his own interviews with the guitarist. While cmt does not define him, it is amazing how McNeil has persevered. Not generally fatal, cmt is a progressive dis- ease marked by a loss of muscle tissue and touch sensitivity, which flares in waves. It has invaded his facial muscles, diaphragm, and fingers—everything needed to play the trumpet. It has made it more difficult to walk and caused him to have back surgery that reduced his height by one-and- a-half inches. High doses of Human Growth Hormone (hgh) have helped him tremendously. That McNeil has not let it slow him down is perhaps the greatest testament to a lifelong love of jazz, the trumpet, and musical excellence. “That was an easy audition I didn’t know was going on.”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 25 McNeil: It was serendipitous to advocate left-handed play- ing before I had to do it to make a living. Kanstul made a cou- ple of left-handed trumpets for me at that time. I am a relent- less keeper of practice logs and diaries, and after , hours of left-handed practicing, I was able to play a gig. After another hours of left-handed practice, I recorded Fortuity. Erdmann: I bought the Trumpet Techniques book shortly after it came out and started doing left-handed practicing myself, especially on hard licks, and found it really worked when I went back to doing those licks with the right hand. For you, what was the key to being so fluent left- handed? McNeil: My aim was to make it a secret I was playing left-handed. Now, more peo- ple will know. The key was having faith in the ideo-kinet- ics. Luigi Bonpensiere, in his book New Pathways to Piano Technique, talks about the ideo-kinetics where one hand learns to do things the other hand has learned to do. Even though the other hand had never practiced them, it can kind of do them anyway. When you practice left-handed, as opposed to right-handed, it forces your mind to redefine the problems and make new grooves to accommodate them. Then, when you switch back to the other hand, there is a moment of electricity, and all of a sudden, you have mastered whatever was previously difficult. The feeling when you switch back and can all of a sudden play so much better is wonderful. This technique can cut so much time off your practice. I had done it a bunch before I had to, so I could already play trumpet left-handed a little bit—not great, but okay. Erdmann: Did the left-handed trumpets help? McNeil: Yes. The thing you don’t think about is trying to play a right-handed trumpet left-handed. That’s almost impos- sible, because the valve slides and saddles on those slides are set at the wrong angle. The balance, also, is all off. When I got that first left-handed trumpet in the mail and sat down to play it, I almost fell off the chair, because it threw me off so much. For about two or three minutes, I truly didn’t know what to do, but then it clicked in. It was an amazing time that had a certain amount of serenity to it, because I knew I was going to have to play chromatic scales and Clarke studies for x amount of time left-handed. I wasn’t going to have to worry about anything else—just doing those things. I had to work on the coordination of my left fingers and aligning it with my articulation, every- thing—all of the hard fingerings and stuff. Things you don’t initially think about. To help me, I also played Hanon on piano with the left-hand. I tried to learn to write with my left hand; anything I did right-handed, I now did left-handed, such as punch numbers into a phone. I did as many things left- handed as I could in order to make it a part of my life. It worked. I even renamed my regular band “Lefty.” “When you practice left-handed, as opposed to right-handed, it forces your mind to redefine the problems and make new grooves to accommodate them.” Following page: Photo credit: Eldon Phillips Photo credit: Andrew Hurlbut© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 27 Erdmann: When you were young, you taught yourself not only to play the trumpet, but also to read music—and this before the YouTube era. Do you think you have had lasting advantages as a musician be - cause you have such strong self- discipline? McNeil: I do. Part of it stems from combating neuro- muscular disease. Because of it, you can’t gain anything very fast, and you can’t do it all in one day. You have to be willing to say, “I’m going to do this every day, and I’m going to keep at it until I’m able to do the action I want to do.” Doc- tors were very little help. Early on they told me, when I was and first diagnosed, that I should not consider being a professional musician because I would never achieve the motor skills it takes to be a professional. At the same time, they also told me not to lift weights, which I had already learned helped me a great deal. So, I took both of those pieces of advice under advisement. The doctor who told me I would never be a musician was named Dr. Dick, and I thought that was an appropriate name. After I recorded my first album, I sent him a copy, with no note attached. Erdmann: You took thirteen years off, from 1983 to 1996 , from doing recordings due to health concerns. Sonny Rollins told me that when he took off 1959 – 1962 from recording as a leader because he wanted to work out some things with his playing, when he returned to recording as a leader, it was with a renewed energy. Did you experience any kind of a different mindset when you went back to the studio as a leader after that time off? McNeil: I was like a spring that had been held down. The disease had been gradually beating me up, and I found ways around it. Because of the muscle-wasting part of the disease, I had my front bottom teeth built up, so they took up a little more space, allow- ing me to get the trumpet up a lit- tle higher and put more pressure on my lower lip. I also learned to play with my lips completely curled in. This way, of the vibrating surface was in the air stream. Everyone I talked to during this time told me I had to be as efficient as I could be. Part of the problem was that even at that time, I had a restricted air supply from the disease. The amount of compression I could create was also limited. Facts are facts, so I did what I could. I found if I could become more efficient, I could make better use of the air I did have. I also found I could play some high notes, but if I did that, I would get tired really quick and have to take a break. That hardly works. I tend to not go up that high unless it’s the end of a session; then I’ll try to get up there a little bit. On the East Coast Cool recording, I did go up to a high D or E (on Bernie’s Tune and Deadline) and hung up there. Erdmann: To help this, you play a Vega trumpet? McNeil: A good friend of mine, Brad Goode, was visiting here in New York, and I told him I was having trouble finding a horn that was easier to play, taking into account my air situ- ation. I have to do it all myself, because the horns never seem to help me. He had me try one of his, and I instantly overblew it. He told me to just breathe into it. When I did, the sound was incredible. It’s a small-bore horn that is over years old. I asked if he could play lead on it, and he said, “Sure, listen.” Then he started screaming on it. It doesn’t take air to get a big sound on the horn, and you can still play dark, bright, or whatever you want. He told me he had three, and he sent me one as a gift. When it came, it had an apparatus that allowed it to be turned into an A trumpet using slides and levers. Back when it was made, there were a lot of concert bands going around the country, and some of the trumpet parts were in A. Josh Lan- dress made some adjustments to make it play in tune a little better, and it plays great. It is in great shape and much easier to play than any horn I have ever had. Except for the tendency to overblow it, it’s great; it projects more and plays better in every way. I would have never thought you could play a small bore and have it work this well. All of the small bores I played in the past were terrible, and I could never get them to speak. This one does. Erdmann: There is a great video on YouTube of you demon- strating jazz improvisation concepts on the P. Mauriat PMT-700 trumpet, employing fourths, major and minor thirds, lip trills, “The doctor who told me I would never be a musician… After I rec - orded my first album, I sent him a copy—with no note attached.” Trombone student Tyler Bonilla (left) having a lesson in John McNeil’s studio. McNeil travels from Brooklyn to Boston once a week to teach at NEC. Photo credit: Andrew HurlbutNext >