08/11/2008

Sounds I'd Like To Hear More Of In Popular Music: Mouth Trumpet


I can't get enough of the mouth trumpet (and other brass), which is a bit of luck, as I hardly ever hear it anywhere. But here are two examples that I have heard in the last couple of months.





I think I like it because it's reassuringly rubbish sounding, no one is ever going to be described as the Miles Davis of mouth brass. It's something any of us could do, with five minutes practice, without all that bothersome skill and technique. I am particularly keen on Robert Wyatt's track, as he can actually play the trumpet, but must have decided that what this track needed was, in fact, a more rubbishy sounding version. I applaud you, Mr Wyatt, and encourage other musicians to follow your lead.

If you can think of other tracks with mouth trumpet, or have suggestions for other noises that we need more of in popular music, please leave them in the comments. Thanks, I'm off to try and find Vincent Hinds back catalogue.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice work. can i also point you in the direction of rex stewart's conversation piece, which sadly i can't find on youtube (think it's on itunes) but displays kind of the opposite to the mouth trumpet. rex can play really well (he played for duke ellington for a while) but chooses to make his cornet (not a trumpet, but close) sound like people having an argument, rather than any of these other petty concerns like melody or rhythm.

hf,c,.jgvkhbj,. said...

Thanks Joe. You can listen to a snippet of it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Conversation-Piece/dp/B0015R677W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1226373255&sr=8-2

Petty concerns indeed. Bravo!

Anonymous said...

that is great. I'm going in search of more on last.fm... I may be some time.

hf,c,.jgvkhbj,. said...

Good luck! Happy hunting.