< Previous28 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 2930 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild and then a Charlie Parker-inspired variant using doodle tonguing (la-da). You handle all of this exceptionally difficult music perfectly, making it look and sound so effortless. One immediately knows you not only practiced hard when you were young, but obviously still take practicing seriously. What does a practice session of yours look like these days? McNeil: I start with breathing exercises, the first of which is not prescribed by anyone. I hold my breath for maybe sec- onds. I do it calmly and relax. I work it up to to seconds, but it’s better if I can work it up to to seconds. I don’t stop doing these until I get it up to at least seconds. When I get it up to forty or so seconds, when I need the next breath, it’s like coming up from under water where you gulp in a lot of air. Doing these exercises makes everything else easy. Then I start in the middle of the horn with a few notes and buzz those same notes with just my lips. I also make sure I tongue when I buzz. I do five or ten minutes of that. Then I play some basic Caruso exercises. After that, I’m ready to play. Then I just do the normal practicing most people do. I make sure I work on doodle tonguing every day and do all of my hard combina- tions, such as mixed slurring with doodle tonguing. I also do fast lip trills, followed immediately by fast doodle-tonguing patterns; those are really hard. I use a timer to make sure I cover everything I need to. For me, the sleep process takes all of my trumpet abilities away, so I have to almost start from scratch every day. Erdmann: You do some piano work as well, correct? McNeil: Every day I do the Hanon studies. I get up, put on my finger braces, and sit at the piano. It’s like I’ve never played the piano before; it’s the most amazing uncoordinated thing you have ever heard. I start by playing slow, subdividing the lines, and use a metronome. Then I speed it up a little. My playing is full of clams, but I don’t stop when I make a mistake. It sounds like atonal Hanon, playing all of the notes that shouldn’t be played. After about five to ten minutes—never less than five and never more than ten—something happens, and I feel like I can play the piano again. I asked a doctor why this happens, and he said, “What you have is a situation where maybe this finger is moving about percent of normal in terms of the electricity being con- ducted through it, this finger here is going percent, the one next to it is going at percent, and this other one is actually getting as high as percent. But this finger is sad and only going at percent. When you send a message to those fingers, they don’t all get it at the same time, which is why you think you’re going to play something, but something else happens. They aren’t going when you want them to, and your subconscious has to get it all sorted out.” He’s right, I don’t think about it, but at some point, all of the fingers start to work in the same way, just like the day before and the day before that. It’s amazing. The mind is a great com- puter sorting everything out. Every day the situation is slightly different, and every day my mind has to go back and correct everything all over again until all of my fingers are on the same page. I watch it happen every day. I don’t get angry; I just say, “C’mon fellas, let’s do it,” and pretty soon, I—and they—can. Erdmann: To me, your book written with Laurie Frink, Flexus, is the next step in the evolution of the Cichowicz Flow Studies, melded with Charles Colin’s Lip Flexibilities, integrating some ideas from Fay Hanson’s trumpet tutorial along with Caruso’s trumpet ideas, and all of it fleshed out with a lot of original ideas presented in a wonderful, developmentally progressive setting. It is “For me, the sleep process takes all of my trumpet abili- ties away, so I have to almost start from scratch every day.”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 31 a fantastic book and not for the faint of heart. I read where you said it’s a book for improvisers. Could you explain that? McNeil: I told Laurie I was playing the horn pretty good, but, “When I solo, I play well at the beginning, and while I’m not really tired after a few choruses, I play badly at the end. My embouchure kind of falls apart, even though I keep my corners tight.” She said that wasn’t the problem. She said, “As an improviser, you’re playing at the extremes of what you can do. These are unrehearsed actions, never having played that music in that way before. You can play a written solo and two or three choruses and be fine at the end if you practice it. So, it’s not that.” I even checked her out by playing a Clifford Brown solo, and I wasn’t tired at the end. She said, “When you have unre- hearsed movements, you have a tendency to make tiny errors. As you go along, the errors compound until you’re finally play- ing just a little wrong, then a lot wrong. They add up as you go along. Most trum- pet players who have problems experience this.” She was right. I remember Dizzy Reece always sounded good for a couple of choruses, and as he went longer, his range and his accuracy gradually reduced. He had to know when to quit early. You either learn how to beat this problem, or you’re known as someone who only plays briefly. I asked her if she ever developed exercises to beat this. She had, but she hadn’t done anything with them. I said we should do a book together. I would be her guinea pig, and she could be mine; we would go back and forth to find what has to be in the book. You can’t practice the surprising aspects of an improvised solo, but you can practice things that you may be asked to do in a solo. Erdmann: The whole book is great, including the etudes. McNeil: Thank you. You’ll never be asked to do stranger things in a solo than what we have in this book. Of course, Marcel Bitsch has other strange things as well. That was how the book started. We include the Carmine Caruso things, because they tend to help the most people. Carmine’s thing was all about timing, subdivision, and pounding that into you. Timing can get off in a solo, because you’re playing things that are unrehearsed. He always said, “The body coordinates itself better if it has a consistent time frame to operate in.” Time and again that has been proven correct. The book also includes some strange flexibilities. I once saw something in a Kopprasch trumpet book where you go from third space C to G above the staff with no valves. Erdmann: Lip bending? McNeil: Yes. So, we included that, as well as things like play- ing in the key of E but using the key of F fingering so you have to lip everything down. That’s a killer. We also put in some flexibilities, followed quickly by tongued wide intervals— things that are unexpected. Then other things in the book are “meat and potatoes,” like long tones and all that business. That was the aim. We would spread the pages of the book out on the floor and walk back and forth looking at what we had. Doing this allowed us to see if a section had too few pages, which would make us go back and flesh that technique out. It was a big undertaking. Erdmann: When I interviewed Freddie Hubbard, who, like you, could also play both “in” and “out” with equal ease, he said, “Playing ‘in’ or ‘out’ doesn’t matter, but what is important is how you resolve.” He credited the thoughts of George Russell in helping him get “outside” the chord. The example he used was playing an E-flat seven chord over an A minor flat-5 chord, superimposing chords in that way. How did you come to develop your abilities to play “out” so well? McNeil: Resolution is the key—how you get there and how you get back. A listener hears wrong notes—mistakes—after they happen, not while they happen. If you play a phrase with notes that don’t fit, they will sound like they fit if you resolve correctly at the end of the phrase. If you do this, the listener will say, “That was great.” If, however, you clam on the resolu- tion or make it clumsy, immediately in the mind of the listener everything will be classified as a mistake. To learn how to play in this manner correctly, I would hold an F major chord on the piano and then, at the same time, start on my G on the trumpet (which is concert F) and try to hear and play, ascending, G, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat, and end up on the G an octave above where I started. You can also do this in a descending pattern. I would play these “out” notes in between the notes that sound traditional. I would want to be able to hear leaving the F major chord and then going back. That’s how I learned to do it. I also try to be graceful when doing it. I learned to not be afraid to do this. Additionally, I would use Jamey Aebersold records, which are great for singing and things like this. They’re not as good for playing, because they are not live and are unable to be responsive to you; but they do pound out every chord all the time. That’s ideal if you are singing, because you want to hit everything. If you want to learn to play “out,” you have to learn to hear distance. I worked on going along playing on tunes that are very diatonic, in F or G, and would try to hear distance from those chords. For example, if I play in A while F or G is being played on the record, you learn F-sharp is more distant because it’s a half-step away. I would also practice these con- cepts descending. I wanted to be able to hear this distance clearly. This can be hard to do if there are a set of changes going on. It’s much easier to learn this with static harmony, because it’s a fixed target. Or, you can do it successfully on tunes with changes if the changes are diatonic and have a sense of a single pitch to them. Erdmann: Can you give an example? McNeil: Rhythm changes in B-flat are relentlessly in B-flat. You can play a B-flat all the time over those changes, and while that pitch won’t necessarily always fit all that well, it will be okay. In that regard, rhythm changes are like a modal tune. Trumpet: small-bore Vega made in the teens, with a Coast ½c mouthpiece that is not at all close to the standard size of a Bach ½c. It is closer to a Bach c and was made in West Germany before . E QUIPMENT “The body coordinates itself better if it has a consistent time frame to operate in.” “If you play a phrase with notes that don’t fit, they will sound like they fit if you resolve cor- rectly at the end of the phrase.”32 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild As Leader East Coast Cool (Omnitone, ) Sleep Won’t Come (Omnitone, ) This Way Out (Omnitone, 2003) Fortuity (SteepleChase, ) I’ve Got the World on a String (SteepleChase, ) Things We Did Last Summer (SteepleChase, ) Clean Sweep (SteepleChase, ) The Glass Room (SteepleChase, ) Faun (SteepleChase, ) Embarkation (SteepleChase, ) As Co-Leader With Kenny Berger Brooklyn Ritual (Synergy, ) Hip Deep (Brownstone, ) With Mike Fahie Plainsong (Destiny, ) With Tom Harrell Look to the Sky (SteepleChase, ) With Bill McHenry Chill Morn He Climb Jenny (Sunnyside, ) Rediscovery (Sunnyside, ) With Ryan Kisor and Brad Goode Jam Session, No. 17 (SteepleChase, ) With Hush Point (with Jeremy Udden and Aryeh Kobrinsky) Hush Point, III (Sunnyside, ) Blues and Reds (Sunnyside, ) Hush Point (Sunnyside, ) As Performer with and Producer for Others With Les Arbuckle No More No Les (Audioquest, ) With Randall Conners Randall Conners () With Tony d’Aveni Broken Hip (Brownstone, ) With Mike Fahie Anima (bju, ) With Allegra Levy Lose My Number: Allegra Levy Sings John McNeil (SteepleChase, ) Lonely City (SteepleChase, ) With Noah Preminger Dry Bridge Road (nowt, ) With John Raymond Foreign Territory (Fresh Sound, ) With Schumacher-Sanford Sound Assembly Edge of the Mind (Beauport Jazz, ) With Nicholas Urie Large Ensemble Excerpts from an Online Dating Service (Red Piano, ) With Ken Walker Terra Firma (Synergy, ) As Author Flexus: Trumpet Calisthenics for the Modern Improvisor (with Laurie Frink) (GazonG Press, ) The Art of Jazz Trumpet (Music Sales America, ) Jazz Trumpet Techniques (StudioP/R, ) As Editor Timeless—The Music of John Abercrombie (GazonG Press, ) As Composer/Arranger for Other Artists Cindy Bradley Just a Little Bit () Sylvia Cuenca The Crossing () Tony D’Aveni Hip Displacement (Brownstone, ) Diva Jazz Orchestra Live in Concert (Arbors, ) I Believe in You (Arbors, ) Five Play On the Brink (Arbors, ) Allegra Levy Lose My Number: Allegra Levy Sings John McNeil (SteepleChase, ) Cities Between Us (SteepleChase, ) Montgomery-Hermann Quintet On the Brink (Summit, ) Montgomery-Hill Sextet Got Eyes for You (See Breeze, ) Darryl White In the Fullness of Time () Ancient Memories () S ELECTED D ISCOGRAPHY© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 33 That’s one thing. Here’s another: You also look for things that will expand the nature of the chord you’re playing. For example, let’s take a C major chord with a sharp 11, so that’s C to C with an F-sharp in it. What if I play a B major scale over it? What do you have in a B major scale that fits? B is the major seventh, but you also have an F-sharp which is the sharp-11, and you have an E which is the fourth degree of the B major scale. Now you have a seventh, the third, and a sharp 4. That’s enough for a chord. If you play those notes in your right hand on the piano, and play the root down low, you have a voicing. It’s very stable, because you have the third and seventh of the original chord or scale. I use that as a starting example. Stu- dents can play in B major over the C major chord using the B, F-sharp, and E as the major points of rest. Then you can pivot off of those notes. If students remember (from their early theory days) the concept of a pivot chord, you can apply that con- cept to this and think of those pitches as pivot notes. I can play a B, and it will sound like the root of the major seventh of the chord I’m playing over, so I can go either way with it, into C major or B major with it. That note will not interfere whichever way I go. That’s what I mean when I talk about expanding the nature of C major. If you do it enough, expanding C major, staying in C major will even start to sound wrong to you. Erdmann: You also have another way to go. McNeil: Yes. Can you leave it, C major for example, com- pletely behind? Can you play something that is completely not in the chord? Can you play something that does not belong, in any system, with that chord? How far away can you get? Then you start to think, “This is not standing by itself. It has to land. Maybe I can resolve this ‘in,’ but I also like to resolve it ‘out.’” For example, can you play something totally away from the chord, but resolve it with a half-step motion at the end? This sounds like it is very technically thought out—and it kind of is—but I sing all of this stuff. I try to sing “out” notes against chords. For example, I’ll play a C minor chord on the piano and try to sing an E major pentatonic scale over it, as well as improvise on that scale, making sure I keep distance from the C minor chord. What does this sound like? If you deal with these things more as sound, in the end you’re going to have a more musical result. Then you know what it sounds like and how it works. Erdmann: When you describe these methods of working, the mystery may lessen, but you also come to the realization that you have to practice your butt off in order to get to the point of being able to make any of this sound good—as opposed to just playing the I NDEX TO A DVERTISERS Cvr = Inside Front Cover Col = Color Section Bill Pfund Trumpets. . . . . . . . . . . Col Blackburn / Pickett. . . . . . . . . . . . Col Brass Buzzer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Carmine Caruso Information. . . . 112 Chopsaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Col Crystal Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Curry Precision Mouthpieces. . . . Col DePaul University. . . . . . . . . . . . . Col Ellsworth Smith Information. . . . 109 Hickey’s Music Center. . . . . . . . . 114 Hickman Music Editions. . . . . . . Cvr ITG Conference 2021 Information. . . . . . . . . . . . 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Col Photo credit: Eldon Phillips34 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild “out” notes and not being able to attach meaning to the musical line you create out of them. You can only play what you practice. McNeil: Yes. I went to a clinic given by Frank Strozier, the alto saxophonist who was great and never got his due. People would ask him questions like, “What do you play over a dominant chord?” He would say, “Anything you want; it’s a matter of taste.” Then they would ask, “How did you learn to play?” He’d say, “I just play music and try to play what I want,” as if he didn’t learn a whole bunch of bop heads, transcribe tons of solos, and then learn things from them. Of course that’s what he did. I know he did, because Bird did. Have you ever checked out Bird playing quotes from Louis Armstrong solos? One of the things that made Bird different was the even eighth-note feel he had. There once was a funny personnel grouping on a Jazz at the Philhar- monic concert. It was billed as Char- lie Parker and his teachers or his influences. They had people like Willie Smith and other alto players from whom Parker supposedly learned things. So, everyone—all of these swing era saxophonists—are playing choruses on blues changes, and then Bird plays and doesn’t sound anything like them. Bird was an entire universe different from those guys. People—myself includ- ed—wondered where Bird got the even-eighth-note feel. I think he got it from Pops. Louis played in a style that was kind of an early swing-era thing, but he also had a ragtime thing to his playing, which is an even-eighth-note feel. Think about Struttin’ with Some Barbecue. The solo he takes is very “ragtime” with all sorts of even eighths. So, you think, “Whose solos would you quote when you play?” Well, you would probably quote things from solos you’ve listened to a lot. Bird must have listened to Louis a lot and then played quotes from them in dif- ferent keys. I think Bird had to have gotten at least some of that even- eighth-note thing from Pops. It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me, because here you have evidence that Bird listened to Pops a lot. You have to listen a lot to someone in order to learn a whole solo. In the same manner, Frank Strozier obvi- ously listened a lot to different jazz musicians and pulled things from them. Frank might have just wanted to keep up the mystery. Erdmann: You have played and composed a number of tunes in odd meters, including In Walked Ira from Hip Deep, Lose My Number from Fortuity, and Reggie Jackson from Brooklyn Ritual, as just three examples. Your improvised solos in odd meters are so smooth; it never sounds like you’re playing over any kind of a disjunct non-common-time figure. What is the secret to keeping your place, both rhythmically and harmonically, when playing in odd meters? Photo credit: Andrew Hurlbut “You have to do it right enough times. You have to do whatever it takes in order for it to be right.”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 35 McNeil: You have to do it right enough times. You have to do whatever it takes in order for it to be right. Let’s say you’re going to play in five: either three and two or two and three. To do this, I get people to take standard tunes and play them in five. They also have to count through it in their head or play it on the piano. You have to do this in order to start thinking in five. We play in 4/4 and 3/4 easily enough, because we have been playing tons of melodies in those time signatures. In your practice, you have to convert to new meters. I tell people to not be afraid to play pre-conceived ideas that will fit in order to show yourself how it goes. I help people create some things that will fit in order to show them how it works. For example, practicing some simple rhythmic things in a three-plus-two rhythm—like eighth-quarter-eighth-quarter for the three, and eighth-eighth-quarter for the two part, all in a swung rhythm and not too fast—is a good way to start. This is surprisingly difficult to do, because the moment you relax, you start play- ing in four. Working simple rhythms like this can help you keep your place. I usually find it’s not really a problem to change chords on cue if the chords change every two bars. Once the chords change every time you go to a different sub- division—change on every three and on every two—they don’t know how to phrase it. In the end, it’s all a bunch of real ordi- nary things that basically put 5/4 on the same footing you learned 4/4. I always ask myself, “Why is 4/4 so comfortable?” There is nothing in nature that says it has to be. We know the simple things in 4/4, but in 5/4 we don’t know anything. Basi- cally, it comes down to simplifying things down to the basic education of 5/4. To do this, you have to play basic easy stuff you already know, but now you play it in 5/4, like nursery rhymes or standard tunes. For example, play Stella by Starlight in five, but make sure you’re counting through all of it. You will find, however, adding an extra beat to a whole note can make the note sound interminably long. It just goes on and on, but for gosh sakes, it’s just one extra beat. Erdmann: What is your advice for a high school student who wants to have a jazz career? McNeil: Find yourself a school with a good jazz program. Then see if you have what it takes to acquire the skill level to be a professional—that is, having the discipline to sit in a chair for hours playing something times until you learn to play it, with your reward being that you get to do the same thing the next day. About the author: Thomas Erdmann is director of the sym- phony orchestra and professor of music at Elon University. He has had six books and over articles published in journals as diverse as Currents in Musical Thought, Jazz Player, Journal of the Conductor’s Guild, Women of Note Quarterly, WomenArts Quar- terly, Saxophone Journal, Saxophone Today, and the ITG Journal, to list a few. He has had over record reviews published and worked for a time as the Jazz CD Reviewer for the Monterey County Weekly, California, and Police Beat Reporter for The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois. ITG H ONORARY A WARD AND ITG A WARD OF M ERIT The ITG Honorary Award is given to individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the art of trumpet playing through performance, teaching, publishing, research, and/or composition. The tradition has been to present this award to persons toward the end of their careers. Honorary Award recipients include Herb Alpert, Maurice André, Ryan Anthony, Louis Armstrong, Mel Broiles, Clifford Brown, Vincent Cichowicz, Miles Davis, Roger Delmotte, Timofei Dokshizer, Maynard Ferguson, Armando Ghitalla, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Glantz, Adolph Herseth, David Hickman, Gilbert Johnson, Philip Jones, Robert King, Clifford Lillya, Wynton Marsalis, Rafael Méndez, Fred Mills, Maurice Murphy, Robert Nagel, Uan Rasey, Ronald Romm, Renold Schilke, Charles Schlueter, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Shew, Susan Slaughter, Philip Smith, Marie Speziale, Edward Tarr, Clark Terry, William Vacchiano, Allen Vizzutti, and Roger Voisin. The ITG Award of Merit is given to those individuals who have made substantial contributions to the art of trumpet playing through performance, teaching, publishing, research, composition, and/or support of the goals of the International Trumpet Guild. Award of Merit recipients include William Adam, David Baldwin, Donald Bullock, Richard Burkart, Frank Gabriel Campos, Leonard Candelaria, Stephen Chenette, Charles Colin, Raymond Crisara, Joyce Davis, Vincent DiMartino, Kim Dunnick, Kevin Eisensmith, Bengt Eklund, Stephen Glover, Bryan Goff, Charles Gorham, Anne Hardin, John Haynie, David Hickman, Keith Johnson, Stephen Jones, Frank Kaderabek, Veniamin Margolin, Gordon Mathie, Rob Roy McGregor, Gilbert Mitchell, Gary Mortenson, James Olcott, William Pfund, Jeffrey Piper, Leon Rapier, Carole Dawn Reinhart, Dennis Schneider, Anatoly Selianin, Alan Siebert, Michael Tunnell, and Gordon Webb. To nominate someone who has made a significant contribution to the trumpet world, send the nominee’s biography and a rationale for his/her nomination to ITG Secretary Elisa Koehler, Music Department, Winthrop University, 129 Conservatory of Music, Rock Hill, SC 29733 (USA) ( secretary@trumpetguild.org ).36 ITG Journal / January 2021 © 2021 International Trumpet Guild spicuous part of his mouth. To remedy this defect he had a wooden tooth, or wedge, which, when he was ready to play, he inserted in his mouth, and which by some magic, or bridge work of his own, stayed in place while he blew the cornet. The playing over, the tooth went back into his pocket.3 Although King’s other paternal great-grandfather, Nathan King, also played cornet, apparently his mus - ical interests had its limits. Old Nathan was not a churchgoer. His minister tried to entice him into attending services. “If you’re not interested in the rest of it,” the minister asked, “why don’t you come listen to the music?” Nathan snorted and replied, “I’d sooner listen to thunder.” As mentioned previously, King’s own father, Fred, played tuba in Easton’s renowned Oliver Ames High School and Anna C. Ames Bands. In his retirement years, Fred King taught brass instruments for the Wakefield, Massachusetts, schools. In a interview, Robert King credits Anna C. Ames, widow of Governor Oliver Ames, with getting him started on his life in music: I started in as a trumpet player while in the th grade. Walter M. Smith (Boston’s great cornet soloist and teacher) was my teacher, which was certainly for- tunate for me. As the result of a fund left by the widow of Governor Oliver Ames, Mr. Smith, as well as being hired as the director of the Anna C. Ames Band, was also employed to give free music les- sons to the children of Easton. This fund also provided instru- ments. I got a trumpet and strug- gled with it for two or three years without being able to squeeze out much higher than a “g” with any consistency. My father was a tuba player in the band and played summer concerts almost every night in those days. Anyway, one night he took a car full of players to Walpole for a concert, and the old Buick broke down W hen I met my future husband, Steve, in at the University of Michigan, I soon learned that he played trombone. “Oh,” I said, “Where do you get your music?” He thought my question was very odd. I persisted. “Well,” he replied, “when you’re a brass player, there’s only one place: Robert King Music Company.” “That’s my father,” I answered. After he recovered from his sur- prise, he asked, “Can I get a dis- count?” “My father wouldn’t give his own grandmother a discount,” I replied truthfully. Steve then recited, “7 Canton Street, North Easton, Mass., 02356.” It was my turn to be flab- bergasted. His reply was the address of my parents’ home. The house, bought by King’s grandmother, Carrie (Drake) King, in from its builder and orig- inal owner, Jason Willis, now con- tained the family business as well as the family. It was where Robert Davis King was born and lived virtually his entire life and where I grew up. I knew the company was well known to serious brass players—hence my odd ques- tion. But I didn’t expect Steve to have our address memorized. Musical Roots According to King, “Both my great-grandfathers on my father’s side played cornet. Of more immediate influence was my father, who played tuba rather well and was a member of one of the first school bands in the country, Oliver Ames High School Band.”1 In the second half of the nineteenth century, brass bands were popping up everywhere. Drakes were right in the thick of it. In Easton, King’s great-grandfather, Joel Smith Drake, was a member of the Second Brigade Brass Band, organized in .2 In the neighboring town of Mansfield, a musical ensemble called simply the Brass Band was formed in . Its leader was Frank Drake. In her book Every Day but Sunday, a his- tory of nineteenth-century Mansfield, Jennie Copeland writes: Frank Drake, the leader, played the cornet. To play the cornet successfully, one needs a full set of teeth. Mr. Drake unfortunately had lost a tooth in a con- M USIC FOR B RASS : A H ISTORY OF THE R OBERT K ING M USIC C OMPANY BY J UDITH D. K ING FA5 Fred King with his infant son, Robert, ca. 1915 “I knew the company was well known to serious brass play- ers—hence my odd question. But I didn’t expect Steve to have our address memorized.”© 2021 International Trumpet Guild January 2021 / ITG Journal 37 just outside of town. It was decided they had better walk into town and play the concert and worry about the car later. So they set out, whereupon my father could see that if they all pushed the car over a little rise, they could coast down into the square and find somebody to work on the car during the concert. One fellow, the baritone player, put his horn down by the side of the road and with the others came back to push the car. Well, they pushed both front and back wheels over the baritone, which just happened to have a music stand in the bell. At any rate, my father replaced the baritone and I was given the old one after it was fixed up. So that’s the story of how I came to play baritone.4 When Robert Met Sally Bob King and Sally Currier were classmates in Boston University’s School of Music. They both played in the Boston University Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Fiedler, later famous for leading the Boston Pops Orchestra. Sally played violin in the orchestra, and Bob played double bass. While Sally’s major was public school music, Bob majored in compo- sition. They didn’t start dating until some time after they graduated in . Bob’s family had moved from North Easton to Wakefield, Massa- chusetts, in . His grandmother, Carrie (Drake) King remained in her house on Canton Street. In , Bob returned to Wakefield to take the position of Supervisor of Music in the Wakefield schools. Because of the war, his tenure in the Wakefield school sys- tem was brief, just – . Sally was hired to take over Bob’s position when he entered the Army in World War II. They were quietly married at Sally’s parents’ home in Lancaster, New Hampshire, on Armistice Day , a day off for servicemen like Bob. After the war, Bob and Sally moved to 7 Canton Street, the old homestead in North Easton. Sally Greenleaf (Currier) King probably was the more musically tal- ented of the couple. She was born with perfect pitch. Bob made up for any deficit of talent with sheer drive and force of will. Sally, in addition to teaching music before moving to Easton, was organist and choir director at North Easton’s Unity Church for a decade, following Daniel Pinkham in that posi- tion. She also played viola in the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. Because the family business was run from home, she some- times felt that people did not understand that working alongside Bob was a full- time job. It is notable that Daniel Pinkham held the post of organist and choir director at Unity Church before Sally took the position. Pinkham would join the King family for a traditional Saturday night supper A young Robert D. King in his DeMolay uniform with his Conn double-bell euphonium, ca. 1933 “Well, they pushed both front and back wheels over the bari- tone, which just happened to have a music stand in the bell.”Next >