My Education

I was first hooked on the trumpet at six years old when my uncle let me play his horn. He liked to say that the first note I played was a clear middle C but I’m sure the story had been embellished. There probably isn’t a letter name for what came out. I had trumpet lessons from very early on but it was the “apprenticeship program”, as I like to call it, where I learned the most. I played in community bands almost right away, although I didn’t know the fingering for a G. I was fortunate to have friends that were about four years older and more experienced so my beginning years were spent hanging on for dear life to their coattails and playing catch up. At about twelve I had a teacher who played a lot of recordings for me. It all started the first lesson when I came in with an autographed Conrad Gozzo LeBlanc. I had no idea what the horn was or who this Gozzo guy was. Well, the first lesson was an incredible ear opening experience for me. My teacher played Trumpeter’s Prayer from an album called Tutti’s Trumpets featuring Conrad Gozzo and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. After that, listening to recordings and live players was the best teaching I had.

When my friends went away to study and returned with material to share from the legendary teacher Carmine Caruso, another with Mr. Bill Adam material having studied the “routine” with Charley Davis, another a student of Claude Gordon who shared his experience, it was through trial and error with this material that I really got the most.

I was also fortunate to grow up in a city (Vancouver, British Columbia) with some of the greatest talents in the Canadian scene who were very welcoming and eager to share their wisdom. I remember way back playing one of my first dance jobs with “the old guard” and Stew Barnett on lead trumpet (nobody could swing like him) and was a little too young and eager with my time. He leaned over, after we’d finished playing something like In The Mood, and told me, “You know, there’s no prizes for getting there first”. It was a very subtle but wonderful lesson that I’ll always remember.

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