I don't want to blow my own trumpet but the aim of the game is to hit and not get hit and that is what I am doing.
I played the trumpet for nine years, and then I joined the choir after that, and then I was in musicals in high school.
I really love Dinah Washington and anything live from her - she had some of the greatest jazz musicians in the whole world, and sometimes she would be with a big band, and sometimes she'd just be on stage with a muted trumpet, upright bass, and a piano.
I spend a lot of time copying saxophone players and trumpet players. Not to say that it is not important to listen to guitar players, but there's so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.
Sometimes I feel like you can toot your own trumpet too much. I don't really like that.
I played trumpet in middle school, and then I had to get braces, so I had to stop playing trumpet and start playing drums.
I was inspired by my dad; he played trumpet in high school.
I fell in love with playing the trumpet because of what we call 'hot jazz' of the 1920s and 1930s, music that has a higher energy to it.
There's nothing worse than bad scatting, except maybe bad mouth trumpet. Mouth trumpet may sound like a trumpet, but it's really more like playing a kazoo. The instant you do your solo, the audience has a bit of a chuckle.
With my trumpet voice, I love gritty, plunger, growly sounds. But vocally, I love Anita O'Day - a raspier but definitely softer sound. Part of the fun has been finding vehicles or writing for both of those sounds.
