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October 31, 2005
Slide Hampton's Brother, Valve?
Just to change the subject to something a little more pleasant, I recently acquired a valve trombone -- actually, a valve section for my King 3B -- and have been practicing with it. It's early yet, but I have a feeling that after all this time, I may finally have found my voice. I've always been most comfortable in fairly quiet acoustic bands, either playing alongside cornet and clarinet (as opposed to trumpet and soprano sax, which are much brighter and louder). And my all-time favorite rhythm section collaborators are a couple from Sedona who play guitar and bass, always in the background and with impeccable taste.
The valve trombone is ideal for playing in that type of setting. It's got a dark sound, is easy to play in the low register, and is somehow well suited to playing at about a mezzo-piano dynamic level. I'm going to put in some serious work on the horn (well, as serious as my limited practice time these days will permit), and see what I can do with it.
The main limitation, at this point, is that my valve dexterity isn't that good -- I can play much faster on slide trombone than on a valve instrument -- so I'm going to have to put in some major work on the button-pushing aspect of it. However, I think it'll be worth it.
Posted by Urbie at October 31, 2005 08:23 AM