TromboneChat

Mine was Dean "Sandy" Weishaupt. Former navy band player and instructor. He was Bill Watrous' teacher at the navy music school, and had the same beautiful tone, and the ideas just flowed like water. Same wicked sense of humor, too.

Mine was just a few, George Roberts, Philip Jones Brass ensemble, Chicago brass section. Today there is so many heroes, I cant pick out one. So many good players to listen, even many we never hear about. Many young ones, so many great women players. The world changes all the time. As I get older I listen more and more singers, and another instruments. Cello, violins, viola. Just to listen how they express them self and get some ideas. Played in a strange ensemble today where I was close to a viola player. She had a great sound and musically easy to be with.

But trombone heroes we grow up with will always be there.

Leif

Michel Becquet.

So far no one has mentioned one of my all time favorites. He was a big influence on me and I listened to him play a lot on the Basie band, and of course that is the late great Al Grey! I got to hear him play live with the Basie band as well. No one ever sounded like him!

As a teenager it was Lindberg, Alain Trudel and Jörgen van Rijen and locals Dave Martin (who I went on to study with) and Pierre Beaudry. Jörgen's sackbut CD inspired me to try the sackbut during my undergrad. From there it was my teacher Catherine Motuz, Simen van Mechelen and Adam Woolf.

Although my sound concept is nothing like how he plays, the late Bill Pearce was my trombone hero growing up in suburban Chicago in the 1960s. I heard him live several times, including here in Iowa where we moved to when he was close to retirement on the trombone.

He could do amazing things with the trombone. It didn't hurt that most of his playing was in the sacred music genre which is something I'm very interested in. Doug Yeo has also done some very nice work in that area and we often listen to one of his CDs in particular on the way to church on Sunday morning.

Dan Barrett is also someone that I really have admired for his playing in the many small group swing era style jazz groups that he recorded. He has a tone that I aspire to on small bore.

Two more I haven't seen mentioned yet, both very much individuals:
Dickie Wells
Jimmy Knepper.

Another vote for Bill Watrous. My high school band director played a side of Manhattan Wildlife Refuge for me when I was about sixteen. Of course the album is almost all big band "fusion" (not a fan) but the impact of that technique on me was hard to overestimate.

A couple of years after that friend in college played me a record of the first Tommy Dorsey I had ever heard, also a strong influence.

In no order- Bill Watrous, JJ, Frank R, Wayne Henderson, Bruce Fowler, Curtis Fuller

timbone wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 9:54 am In no order- Bill Watrous, JJ, Frank R, Wayne Henderson, Bruce Fowler, Curtis Fuller

Interesting to see Bruce Fowler in there, in a kind of "which one of these is not like the others" way. I liked Bruce. He was a friend. But he was nothing at all like the rest of those guys.

And I do love the inclusion of Wayne Henderson and Curtis Fuller.

I have to add James Pankow of Chicago for sure. Probably one of the reasons for wanting to become a musician in the first place!

But the first big heroes were the 'Trombones Unlimited' recording musicians... Mike Barone and Frank Rosolino, with Bobby Knight on bass trombone. We were young kids, but that was exciting, beautiful music with great arrangements...still is!

Urbie Green and the NYC studio cats playing on the Enoch Light and the 'Brass Menagerie' albums.

Then came Denis Wick and the 'Star Wars' movie music for sure.

Another unsung hero had to be Bob Edmonson, because we were young kids when my parents played nothing but Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and his trombone playing was on all the recordings!

Bruce Fowler did amazing things on trombone. That Zappa stuff was awesome and I also saw him play third in Toshiko's band in the 80's, playing unison with the sax solis. There is a release of the Fowler Brothers (5 of them) called "Breakfast for Dinosaurs" . Amazing playing, writing, production. Bruce later went on to carve himself a niche in Hollywood much like JJ who also wrote for pictures.

I have to say now that I reviewed this, Bobby Brookmeyer was again a standout voice, and on valve trombone. His work opposite Clark Terry demanded a great player. Gingerbread Men, and Mumbles are classics! You need to hear him if you hadn't. Yet another bone player that also was into arranging and orchestration.

Urbie Green
Carl Fontana
Frank Rosolino
JJ Johnson
Dick Nash
Jack Teagarden
Tommy Dorsey
And many more