Moving to Flugelhorn

Hopefully the picture above speaks for itself.  I am not comparing myself to monster horn players like the legendary Art Farmer and his amazingly talented student Dmitri Metheny.  I wish I was that good!  They both keep me inspired and practicing.  They have also helped me making a change that has been in the works for a long time. 

I have decided to answer the call of the "big horn" and play flugelhorn exclusively.

I stated in an earlier journal entry that my reasons for going to flugelhorn were probably the wrong ones.  Over time I've come to realize that they were not the only factors as to why I found myself less and less in love with the sound of my trumpet playing.  When I attended the Aebersold workshop this year I was feeling so negatively about my trumpet sound that I took my flugelhorn instead.  The experience that I had at the camp combined with my playing in general sealed the deal.  I haven't touched my trumpet since getting back and I honestly don't intend to do so again. 

One of the cool things about this journal is I was able to do some checking into when this whole flugel thing started. I found old entries that show I have been considering this for some time - as far back as 2004.

Art Farmer is probably most known for leaving the trumpet in favor of the flugelhorn.  In an interview taken by Les Tomkins in 1965 Art said regarding the change:

"Everyone has to find their own voice as an instrumentalist, in jazz more than other kinds of music. You want to sound as much like yourself as you can, and still retain your musical values. If you put one thing in place of another, it should be just as good as the one that came first, if not better. I don't like change just for its own sake, but for improvement. Which is a matter for the artist to decide. You may be wrong, but as long as you have the conviction, who's to tell you? My decision, seven years or so ago, to concentrate on the flugelhorn was not as strange to me as it was to other people. I've still been trying to do what I was doing on trumpet, I'm just able to do it more often with the flugelhorn. My attitude to the horn hasn't changed it's just a certain sound that I'm looking for."

He goes on to say:

"So I have more facility, inasmuch as the sound is the beginning to me. If I play a sound and it doesn't come out right, I don't feel like going on to the next; I have to get that right first. Every note I play has got to sound more or less the way I want it to, before I'm free to think of melodic ideas."

"I don't care too much for that shrill, thin sound that you get on the trumpet sometimes. I can take a little bit of it, but as a contrast more than anything else. It's not that I only want to play the soft thing; I want a wider range than that. When things are working well; I get it."

Dave Douglas also wrote a fantastic blog entry describing the reasons why he has been playing cornet instead of trumpet. Most of his reasons mirror my own although mine are probably more extreme since I'm picking flugelhorn. "Thinking like a tenor sax" and "blending like a trombone" are phrases that I feel whole heartedly with regards to my idea sound.  The lighter and less edgy sound of the flugelhorn feels more like my voice. It also lends itself better to my style of playing.

All of the musicians that I play with regularly are cool with the change.  Many of them have been encouraging me to do this for a long time because my playing seemed so much better on flugelhorn.  Not just in sound but in ideas and confidence.  I know already that this choice will not go over well with trumpet players.  To most of them flugelhorn will always be considered a secondary horn and I am sure to lose gigs if I cannot play both.  The fact of the matter is I am fine losing some trumpet gigs and opportunities like big band, r&b, studio and section work.  I picked up jazz for improvisation and I can do just fine on flugelhorn.  Maybe even better than if I stay with trumpet.

I have talked with trumpet teachers/experts and they all told me that I can continue to practice my fundamentals on flugelhorn just as I did on trumpet.  While many have encouraged me to practice on trumpet and just use flugelhorn for gigs I feel I am selling myself short by not fully exploring the possibilities of flugelhorn.  Art Farmer once told Dmitri Metheny that he'd never get the sound that he wanted on flugelhorn if he kept practicing on the "little horn."  Coming from Art this means a lot and I intend to follow that advice.

I'll close out this journal entry with a few YouTube videos that feature flugelhorn playing that I really enjoy.  Thanks to everyone who helped me through this decision and I appreciate both the positive and negative responses to it.  A very special thanks to Dmitri Metheny for his advice and feedback.

Flugel-ly yours,
JazzBrew

Art Farmer

Tom Harrell

Roy Hargrove

Stephane Belmondo

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