The Trumpet Summit : Study and Analysis of Five Significant Jazz Trumpet Players in the 20th Century.

Abstract: In this essay I will be exploring the work of five significant jazz trumpet players of the 20th century: Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. I will be delving deeper into the styles of these five trumpeters to find some characteristics of their improvisation. After that I will implement them into my own jazz improvisation vocabulary. By studying transcriptions of their solos, reading articles and watching videos about these trumpeters and their playing style, I intend to create exercises in order to add these aspects of their playing into my own improvisation. I will also explore the mental aspect of playing specifically jazz trumpet, and how the mindset can help develop my playing by studying how the aforementioned players’ mindset and attitude appears in their playing. The results will be a host of exercises which I created on my own, or acquired from other musicians, and different ways of approaching jazz improvisation on the trumpet.