I'm looking for some really great and fantastic classical players or recordings that you guys could recommend. Starting on trombone in a jazz enviroment really gave me a lot of jazz player to listen to, but almost no classical, unfortunately. Alessi, Lindberg, Pryor, Vernon and Markey are pretty much the only names I know, so any suggestions are open!
A few more ideas (plus broadening up the scope, because there's too much good trombone playing that is neither jazz nor "classical", which most often is taken to mean more strictly orchestral and/or solo from the orchestral and conservatory tradition)
Tenor trombone
Jorgen van Rijen, a fantastic trombonist with amazing artistic integrity. He has many recordings. Also crosses over genre boundaries.
Ian Bousfield
Gordon Wolfe
Bass trombone
Stefan Schulz
Brandt Attema
For new music
Some of the above plus the great Dave Taylor and Mike Svoboda
Check out Felix Del Tredici, an up and coming specialist of contemporary trombone who's already had several pieces written for him and will without a doubt be a major figure in that field in the decades to come
For earlier music played by specialists of historical trombones
My mentors Catherine Motuz and Charles Toet
Simen van Mechelen
Adam Woolf
Wim Becu
Greg Ingles
But mostly in that genre you should look for ensemble recordings (they usually involve combinations of the names above) - Concerto Palatino, Oltramontano, Caecilia Consort, Quicksilver, Dark Horse Consort to name a few. There is one CD in particular that every trombonist should own called Fede e Amor, hands down one of the best albums featuring trombone, ever.
Maximilien Brisson www.maximilienbrisson.com
Lecturer for baroque trombone,
Hfk Bremen/University of the Arts Bremen
Jorgen can Rijen is an enigma to me! Clearly he is one of the best soloists AS WELL AS orchestral section leaders, but his playing style is VERY different from where the whole trombone world seems to be going.
I remember in the 90s, teachers were cautioning students to not study Lindberg too intently, for fear that his bright (compared to american orchestral sections) sound and fast vibrato would influence the student. They had forgotten that in the 80s, Lindberg was considered to have an incredibly dark, huge sound.
Nowadays if you listen to van Rijen next to Lindberg, it's like listening to Lindberg in the 90s next to Alessi. Incredibly free playing, free vibrato, and a tone that is not like any other I have heard. Night and day. And playing like Lindberg did in the 90s is in vogue even in an orchestra setting these days.
I would say, don't sound like him in an orchestra, but he is a different player sitting in an orchestra. So, yes, sound like him in the orchestra, but not the him that you hear on his albums. Good luck trying to sound like him as a soloist -- there is only one Jorgen.
Ko-Ichiro Yamamoto has been my favorite trombonist for over a year now, I absolutely love his sound and his interpretations. His album Ballade can be streamed on Spotify, and I can't recommend it enough. I've also really been enjoying David Rejano Cantero's recently released CD.
