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Miles Beyond: The New Sounds Of Trumpet

Nate Wooley doesn't play trumpet as much he plays <em>on</em> the trumpet.
Daniel Sheehan
/
EyeShotJazz
Nate Wooley doesn't play trumpet as much he plays on the trumpet.

No, the headline isn't just a clever pun. Like John Coltrane and the saxophone, Miles Davis' figure looms large over our ideas about jazz trumpet. The dulcet tones of Kind of Blue and the spaced-out blats of Bitches Brew (now available in beer form, by the way) still permeate the bells of trumpeters everywhere, and with good reason.

But there are hidden secrets in the horn, and a host of musical linguists who uncover new languages for an instrument imbued with a bop history. In fact, the Festival of New Trumpet Music brings out many of these sound explorers each year. Here are five trumpeters who reach deep inside the bells of their horns.

Of course, these are just a few examples — we didn't even get started on cornet. Tell us some of your favorite practitioners of "new trumpet" in the comments section below.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Lars Gotrich
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