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Jazz Trumpet

Jazz trumpet players are largely responsible for the evolution and popularity of jazz itself. Born in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century, jazz is the original American art form. The basis for nearly all jazz improvisation can be easily traced to a variety of trumpet players from this time and place.

Buddy Bolden and Joe Oliver are generally cited as the fathers of jazz trumpet. Their influence on their early contemporaries, including the great Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, cannot be overstated. Their improvisational style has been studied by nearly every serious jazz musician over the last century.

Beginning in the 1940’s, jazz trumpet players such as Dizzie Gillespie mastered the style of these early pioneers and expanded upon them, thereby helping to create a much more virtuosic style called Be-Bop. During the 1950’s, players like Miles Davis turned away from this fast, high energy style and instead focused on stagnant, modal chord progressions which became known as “cool jazz”. This style further influenced players like Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan.

 

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