The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Good to get feedback. Keep it up.

gramophone-georg wrote:

Henry wrote:
In the personnel list at the beginning to the youtube post, I recognize the name of trombonist Bill Rank. He had a tart and angular playing style quite unlike the glossy smooth, lyrical sound of TD. Both were great players in their individual ways. Rank liked to do wide register leaps in his solos, and was delightfully unpredictable and inventive in his musical ideas, while TD was the epitome of the pure legato style.

Yep, that's Bill Rank alright, no doubt about it. I'd know that sound anywhere.

Many thanks for posting this one!

The Rust discography says it is, too. TD could play a lot more raw and jazz oriented than many people gave him credit for, though. He was also a more than adequate jazz trumpeter. I've collected his mostly uncredited trumpet playing records and not a one disappoints.

All true. TD could give out in a style I'd call "white dixieland" (pardon my redundancy), rather unlike his usual silky smooth lyrical production. BTW, trombonists were greatly influenced by TD, and not just jazz trombonists, but also "legit" players of all kinds, including symphony musicians (ask me how I know!). Of course, there is the debatable question of whether or not TD was a "real" jazzer. I guess compared to, say, Kid Ory, he wasn't, but OTOH he could cook in the Bix kitchen for sure.

As for TD's trumpet playing, he had a special set of chops to be able to do this double. Some guys can, most cannot. I personally had a tough time of it if I merely switched trombone mouthpieces, let alone tried to play something tiny like a trumpet mouthpiece. Same when I tried to play on a tuba mouthpiece: the thing felt like I could stick my whole head into it! I always advised my students of the risk of messing up their embouchures by switching. In the worst cases, you can't adjust to the new one, and when you try to go back to the old one, it doesn't feel good either.