JOv2
Well-Known Member
Thanks, Rudy...good assessment!
Shorty played a lot of flugelhorn in the late '50s (check out his Wikipedia entry ā heās even pictured holding one). The flugelhorn requires its own special mouthpiece. I read that in the '50s/'60s it was commonplace for jazz players to use a trumpet mouthpiece instead; but doing so short-changes the velvety timbre of the horn among other things... Miles played flugel on much of Porgy And Bess, but listening to his tone strongly suggests heās using a trumpet mouthpiece given the sound is neither full-bodied nor mellow and that he has intonation and upper-register slotting issues.
To take advantage of the conical bore and slow bell flare -- which produces that supple, mellow tone -- I have a gold brass bell (higher copper content ā as you can see by the darker color) and my go-to mouthpiece has essentially no cup, which is similar to a French Horn mouth piece (another mellow-timbre brass instrument).
(All this mellowness actually never worked well in 2- or 3-horn front lines because the other horns would always overpower me; but in a larger ensemble setting they are nice. In studio work I could build voicings by over-dubbing multiple flugel parts not unlike Hank Manciniās french horns or Stan Kentronās mellophones.)
Another key characteristic of the flugel is that is has no bite with its attack. Burt loved his trumpets. Listen to Come Touch The Sun. A trumpet takes the melody at the head; then at 0:46 thereās a brief trade-off to a flugelhorn for a few notes ā youāll note the attack of each flugel note is very much subdued. An even better example is the segue to the coda: the solo trumpetās final notes are bright and gleaming ā then at 1:21 the flugel takes over with its buttery, somber tone.
As for cornet vs. trumpet: unless one utilizes a copper bell (which you can see is yet darker colour than the "gold brass" flugel and much darker than the "yellow brass" of the balance of the cornet tubing) and a deep-cup mouthpiece, thereās not going to be much sonic difference between the two. Since I utilize those two aspects with my cornet, when I play it I feel and hear notable differences that are just not captured when recorded (e.g., the smaller horn cradles nicely in your palm; the center-of-gravity is more natural; the sound is closer to your ears and face so you vibrate more with the horn, etc.). With the exception of Ruby Braff, ā50s/'60s jazz cornet players probably played with shallow-cup mouthpieces to project more. To this day I cannot confidently distinguish between cornet and trumpet when recorded ā even on my one playing! One thing about the cornet is that is hits nice in the low-to-midrange (from low F# to G below high C); but doesnāt slot well above above high C ā this is why nearly all jazz players of the mid/late 1920s switched to trumpet en masse to better manage all that high note playing that Pops (Louis Armstrong) introduced into the jazz vernacular. The cornet is quite unruly above high C ā just listen to some of those Nat Adderley recordings from the late '50s!
OK. I better stop thereā¦probably 95% more than you wanted to know!
Shorty played a lot of flugelhorn in the late '50s (check out his Wikipedia entry ā heās even pictured holding one). The flugelhorn requires its own special mouthpiece. I read that in the '50s/'60s it was commonplace for jazz players to use a trumpet mouthpiece instead; but doing so short-changes the velvety timbre of the horn among other things... Miles played flugel on much of Porgy And Bess, but listening to his tone strongly suggests heās using a trumpet mouthpiece given the sound is neither full-bodied nor mellow and that he has intonation and upper-register slotting issues.
To take advantage of the conical bore and slow bell flare -- which produces that supple, mellow tone -- I have a gold brass bell (higher copper content ā as you can see by the darker color) and my go-to mouthpiece has essentially no cup, which is similar to a French Horn mouth piece (another mellow-timbre brass instrument).
(All this mellowness actually never worked well in 2- or 3-horn front lines because the other horns would always overpower me; but in a larger ensemble setting they are nice. In studio work I could build voicings by over-dubbing multiple flugel parts not unlike Hank Manciniās french horns or Stan Kentronās mellophones.)
Another key characteristic of the flugel is that is has no bite with its attack. Burt loved his trumpets. Listen to Come Touch The Sun. A trumpet takes the melody at the head; then at 0:46 thereās a brief trade-off to a flugelhorn for a few notes ā youāll note the attack of each flugel note is very much subdued. An even better example is the segue to the coda: the solo trumpetās final notes are bright and gleaming ā then at 1:21 the flugel takes over with its buttery, somber tone.
As for cornet vs. trumpet: unless one utilizes a copper bell (which you can see is yet darker colour than the "gold brass" flugel and much darker than the "yellow brass" of the balance of the cornet tubing) and a deep-cup mouthpiece, thereās not going to be much sonic difference between the two. Since I utilize those two aspects with my cornet, when I play it I feel and hear notable differences that are just not captured when recorded (e.g., the smaller horn cradles nicely in your palm; the center-of-gravity is more natural; the sound is closer to your ears and face so you vibrate more with the horn, etc.). With the exception of Ruby Braff, ā50s/'60s jazz cornet players probably played with shallow-cup mouthpieces to project more. To this day I cannot confidently distinguish between cornet and trumpet when recorded ā even on my one playing! One thing about the cornet is that is hits nice in the low-to-midrange (from low F# to G below high C); but doesnāt slot well above above high C ā this is why nearly all jazz players of the mid/late 1920s switched to trumpet en masse to better manage all that high note playing that Pops (Louis Armstrong) introduced into the jazz vernacular. The cornet is quite unruly above high C ā just listen to some of those Nat Adderley recordings from the late '50s!
OK. I better stop thereā¦probably 95% more than you wanted to know!