Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet [Paperback]

Scott Yanow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

This engaging book unveils the personal and musical lives of 479 brilliant jazz trumpeters, past and present, through intimate biographical profiles that describe each artist's unique traits, intriguing life experiences, relationships with other influential players, career milestones and key recordings. Artist covered include: Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Arturo Sandoval, Red Allen, Chet Baker, Bunny Berrigan, Roy Eldridge, Freddie Hubbard, Freddie Keppard, Lee Morgan, Fats Navarro, King Oliver and hundreds of others - plus jazz figures who seem unlikely to have recorded on trumpet but did, such as Benny Goodman and Mose Allison. A fascinating read!

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Yanow wants his most recent work (after Afro-Cuban Jazz, LJ 3/15/01) to read like "a series of short stories," and readers will indeed often forget that they are perusing what boils down to an encyclopedia. A prolific and respected jazz writer, Yanow manages to cover the gamut of styles from Dixieland to avant-garde in 479 short biographies, which are accurate (if sometimes opinionated) as well as refreshingly entertaining. Featured are Red Allen, Chet Baker, Fats Navarro, and King Oliver. Also included are an essay on the history of the jazz trumpet, a bibliography of other important reference works, and 29 additional short biographies of other famous musicians/composers who recorded with the trumpet (e.g., Benny Goodman). Some of the entries may be found in more general references like The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (St. Martin's, 1994. reprint) or Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler's The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (Oxford Univ., 2001. 2d ed.), but neither of these works contains all the entries found here. Recommended for large public and academic libraries as well as libraries with a jazz focus. Ronald S. Russ, Arkansas State Univ., Beebe
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Scott Yanow wrote the Third Ear guides Swing and Behop, and edited the All Music Guide to Jazz. He lives in Burbank, CA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879306408
• ISBN-13: 978-0879306403
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #709,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to quickly access, October 11, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet (Paperback)

Fans of jazz music in general and the trumpet in particular will appreciate this survey of the great jazz trumpeters from Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis to lesser-known players. The profiles read like fiction, providing dramatic biographical coverage of each player's life and musical abilities. An A-Z reference type approach makes this easy to quickly access.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overall, very shoddy and full of nonsense, November 3, 2011

By 

BJNick (GOLETA, CA, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book, and as a semi-prof'l trumpet player, the subject is of course very interesting to me. If I only selectively read a few of his little bios, of players I didn't know much about, I'd probably enjoy it; hey, I learned some things. But because of the fact that I DO know a lot about many of the players he writes about, I am just appalled by the BS he writes.

Two quick examples: Doc Severinsen, one of the greatest players in the world, he labels a "high note artist." Doc is a spectacular performer for whom high notes are one aspect of his mastery of the instrument. To reduce him to that status is so silly it just makes you shake your head.

Of Allan Vizzutti, another of the finest performers in the world, who travels internationally performing with orchestras and groups of every description, and who is revered by the trumpet community as one of the best ever, he concludes with (paraphrasing)"He is content to sit in studio orchestras adding high notes to anonymous recordings." That is just ridiculous.....beyond ridiculous.

Anyway, much more like that. Just drivel. This guy does not know what he is talking....or writing....about. When you read stuff like that, what kind of credibility can he have? Doc Severinsen: "high note artist." What a waste of money.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trumpet is King, December 15, 2010

By 

Clarence - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet (Paperback)

No wonder these Trumpet Kings play the trumpet with such soul and meaning. This book charts the back story to some of the best trumpet players in the world. Another book I intend to take back to the arctic with me to share with my nieces and nephews.