Hello my trumpet-playing friends! If you’re curious about what’s inside the Terry Gibbs Dream Band: Lead Trumpet Transcriptions book, this post shares the book intro as well as the list of charts. Full clickable Youtube playlist / table of contents below!!!
Enjoy these swingers!
The Terry Gibbs Dream Band
This book is a passion-project. It was created to share the joy of some of the most swinging and fun big band jazz ever recorded – the Terry Gibbs Dream Band circa 1959 to 1961 in Hollywood, California.
These albums, along with many others, were introduced to me by my first lead-trumpet mentor, Jay Saunders at the University of North Texas. Up to that point, I was pretty much only hip to Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. I instantly fell in love with the Dream Band, and to this day nothing gets me hootin’ and hollerin’ like these cats.
The Dream Band albums, all led by front man and vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, were recorded live at three residencies that the band held between 1959 – 1961. Wally Heider was the sound engineer, and for something recorded more than 60 years ago – live – these records still sound superb.
The Dream Band was essentially a ‘reading’ band that performed at various clubs a few nights per week. If you aren’t familiar with reading bands, it basically means that the musicians were writing charts and showing up to play for the fun of it. That and about fifteen bucks. As such, the atmosphere was loose and rambunctious.
The members of the band were the cream-of-the-crop west coast jazz musicians of the time, and the writing and arranging is top-notch. With charts by Bill Holman, Al Cohn, Bob Brookmeyer, Manny Albam, Med Flory, et al. – you really can’t go wrong.
Vol. I was recorded live at the Seville over the course of three nights in March of 1959. Vol. II was recorded later that year at the Sundown during the month of November. And Vol. III contains tracks from both sets of dates.
Thereafter, the Sundown became the Summit and the band recorded again two years later in January, 1961. Volumes IV and V are the top tracks from those dates.
Finally, Vol. VI was released after Terry rediscovered 25 boxes of unreleased reel-to-reel tapes (in 2001) from the original 1959 recordings.
Why This Book?
The impetus of this book was as a sort of tribute to the great jazz lead trumpeter, Al Porcino. Al’s sound, dynamic shading and relaxed approach are requisite listening for anyone interested in lead trumpet playing in a jazz style. He knew how to take those little black dots on the page and turn them into something that you feel in your bones.
However, Al was not the only one shouldering the lead responsibilities on these albums. Notably, he split lead duties with John Audino – of the Tonight Show Band – and West Coast side-man Ray Triscari. Here are the credited lead trumpet tracks. For the uncredited tracks, I recommend listening to the albums so often that you can make a pretty good guess as to who’s playing which part.
Vol. I: Seville, Hollywood. 1959. March 17-19
- Al Porcino (lead trumpet)
Vol. II: Sundown, Hollywood. November 1959
- John Audino (lead trumpet)
Vol. III:
- Seville, Hollywood. March 17-19 1959 (Al Porcino: lead trumpet)
- Track 3 – Midnight Sun
- Track 4 – Evil Eyes
- Track 6 – Moten Swing
- Track 9 – I’m Getting Sentimental Over You
- Track 11 – Flying Home (Ray Triscari: scream solo)
- Sundown, Hollywood. November 1959 (John Audino: lead trumpet all but track 5)
- Track 1 – Airegin
- Track 2 – Just Plain Meyer
- Track 5 – Avalon (Al Porcino: lead trumpet)
- Track 7 – Bright Eyes
- Track 8 – Wonderful You
- Track 10 – It Might As Well Be Swing
Vol. IV: Summit, Hollywood. January 1961
- Day In, Day Out – Al Porcino (lead trumpet)
- Summit Blues – Ray Triscari (lead trumpet)
- Limerick Waltz – uncredited
- You Don’t Know What Love Is – uncredited
- Sweet Georgia Brown – Ray Triscari (lead trumpet)
- Nose Cone – Al Porcino (lead trumpet)
- Too Close for Comfort – uncredited
- Main Stem – uncredited lead \ Conte Condoli (scream solo)
- Ja-Da – uncredited
- T and S – Ray Triscari (lead trumpet)
Vol. V: Summit, Hollywood. January 1961
- Al Porcino (lead trumpet)
Vol. VI: Seville, Hollywood. 1959. March 17-19 \ Sundown, Hollywood. November 1959
- Al Porcino (lead trumpet tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10 and 14)
- John Audino (lead trumpet tracks 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13)
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Making the Most of This Book
Playing through these charts – especially along with the recordings – is a beneficial and worthwhile thing to do. You can work on your reading and ‘section’ playing by attempting to match the lead player as closely as possible. However, you’ll gain even more practical know-how by closely listening to the original recordings and taking note of how each note was played in relation to the written music.
Listen for the use of vibrato, the time and swing feel, how the lead trumpeter relates to the drummer, which notes are accented, different note endings, and how dynamics are used to add excitement to the line. There are many ways that you can bring the written page to life – and these recordings are a veritable goldmine.
In that light, the challenge of this project was making decisions about how to notate the parts while making good judgments as to what the players were seeing vs. what they actually played.
In other words, these are transcriptions, and the original manuscripts were not referenced. This book reflects decisions based on my own experience playing many of these charts and others by the same writers. In some cases, later recordings – and other bands – were referred to as a way to spot-check some of the live playing errors and crunchier ensemble sections. As such, you can think of these charts as being close to what was ‘probably’ written.
In that vein, I’d like to give a special thanks to my old pal, Dave Richards. Dave edited the original rough drafts of these transcriptions and the current form of this book is much more accurate and readable thanks to his expertise. As I was double-checking Dave’s edits, I found myself repeating, almost mantra-like, “you win again this time, Dave.” Any remaining typos are because I didn’t change something that I was supposed to.
Still, there remain certain notations that you will have to be the judge of for yourself. For example, Al uses open-ended notes almost exclusively – rather than the hard tongue cut-offs sometimes utilized in big band jazz playing. In certain spots, it’s difficult to know whether he was reading a half-note, a dotted quarter note, or even a long quarter note with a little extra ‘love’ on it (Dave’s term).
You’ll also notice that some stylistic nuances have been notated and others not. For example, these charts are purposefully light on written dynamics – the reason being that the lead trumpet player sets the overall volume of the band. Beyond that, Al uses dynamic contrast within a line as a means of stylistic interpretation. This was almost certainly not notated, and is, instead, Al’s way of making the music swing harder.
Along these lines, there are also plenty of examples on these recordings of the guys in the back-row having maybe, just maybe, a little too much fun ad-libbing. It’s hard to believe that the charts clearly stated, ‘play a bunch of high notes – or anything else that comes to mind – whenever you feel like it.’ Likewise, some melody lines have been included that probably weren’t originally in the lead trumpet part.
I mention all of this just so the charts are not taken too literally. Study the recordings and compare them to these notations. Then, come up with some possible alternatives. This process will improve your reading and instincts on the bandstand immeasurably.
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Keeping the Heritage Going
At the end of the day, it is the role of the lead trumpet player to lead the ensemble stylistically. This takes confidence and consistency in interpreting the written music. By studying the masters you will learn these skills for yourself, and eventually your own unique and identifiable playing style will emerge.
As a personal anecdote, I had the awesome opportunity to play many of these charts with the Terry Gibbs Dream Band as part of a reunion concert for the Los Angeles Jazz Institute. At the time, Terry was 92 years old and filled with energy. When I introduced myself after the gig, he was friendly, warm and treated me like an old friend.
That night, another mentor of mine, the great Carl Saunders, was playing lead trumpet. After our set – and hearing Carl stylize these charts just about identically to the original recordings – I looked over and said something stupid like, “Wow. Sure sounds like you’ve listened to the records.”
In reply, Carl turned in his chair, stared me straight in the eyes and said, “every note.”
Actually, now that I think about it, there might have been a friendly expletive thrown in there as well.
In parting, you are in for a treat with these albums, and I’m certain you will have some fun while soaking up this superb big band jazz playing. Be sure to keep listening until you hear every note.
Happy lead trumpeting,
James Michael Blackwell
The Dream Band circa 201? (Terry is in the back with the light-colored suit).