专辑简介

My journey as a trumpet player started with Louis Armstrong. When I asked my dad how to improvise as a kid he said “just embellish the melody like Louie”. That advice carried me through my whole career even as those embellishments got more advanced with Charlie Parker. Miles Davis summed up jazz with two names Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. I agree they were the Alpha and Omega of the golden age of jazz in my opinion 1920 to 1950. On my journey as a trumpet player I went through Louis Armstrong, Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown. I wasn't mature enough to fully appreciate Miles until about 16 years old in 1964 I recorded my first album with that influence which is the first track “Greensleeves” on my anthology in which I played Flugelhorn for the first time as Miles did on the first Gil Evans album. I first met Miles at Birdland in

1961 when I was 13 years old with his famous sextet with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly. I was primarily there to hear Maynard’s big band as that powerhouse trumpet playing really had me enamored at the time. After that encounter at Birdland Miles began to seep into my playing. I wore out that first Miles/Gil Evans album at that time along with other albums with his sextet. Miles was the first jazz trumpet player to play with little or no vibrato almost an orchestral approach to the trumpet possibly because of his association with Julliard being a student there early on. That is what caught Gil Evans attention writing for Miles as Gil was very steeped into classical music and orchestration. Miles approach during this period was much more “cerebral” compared to the “hot" trumpet playing school before him and as a result of his work in the 50s both with small group and with Gil Evans the cool school was born changing the direction of jazz. This album concentrates on that period of the 50s, half with a small group and half with orchestra as opposed to the later period of Miles that most people put attention to, also ground breaking. On the orchestra tracks I didn’t re-create any of the material Miles and Gil did on those historic albums but instead tried to adapt my material to get that flavor and mood that caught my attention at that time. The two key factors here that are “signature" for Miles is that straight no vibrato approach to open trumpet and the delicate use of the mute. I hope

you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making this music. - Glenn Zottola