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February 4, 2024 87 mins

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We spider-man meme with the Trombone Corner Podcast, an episode long overdue. Nick and Sebastian greet John Snell and Noah Gladstone and have an amazing discussion on the evolution of their friendship, careers and joys of mouthpiece making. Noah goes in depth about his varies endeavors including the Brass Ark, Hollywood Scoring, his studio career and love of collecting. This is the episode all you gear heads have been waiting for, enjoy!

Check out our interview on their podcast everywhere you download you podcasts at
Trombone Corner Podcast


Follow Bob Reeves on Instagram @bobreevesbrass
Follow Noah @noahgladstone
Follow the Brass Ark at @thebrassark

The long-awaited limited edition first batch JSV Signature Mouthpieces by Verus are now available for pre-order at Houghton Horns! Use limited time pre-sale offer code JSVPRESALE for 10% off at checkout! 

Also introducing special features with Patreon: www.patreon.com/tromboneretreat

Learn more about the Trombone Retreat and upcoming festival here: linktr.ee/tromboneretreat

Hosted by Sebastian Vera - @js.vera (insta) and Nick Schwartz - @basstrombone444 (insta)

Produced and edited by Sebastian Vera

Music: Firehorse: Mvt 1 - Trot by Steven Verhelst performed live by Brian Santero, Sebastian Vera and Nick Schwartz

Thank you to our season sponsor Houghton Horns: www.houghtonhorns.com

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Trombone retreat podcast of the
third coast Trombone retreat.
Today on the podcast, we hangout with a gentleman of the
Trombone Corner podcast, johnSnell and Noah Gladstone.
My name is Sebastian Vera andNick Schwartz is currently
making loud sounds in a pitsomewhere, and we'll join us
shortly.
So we've been wanting to dothis podcast actually ever since

(00:31):
we started.
Noah started his podcast withJohn Snell, his business partner
at Bob Reeves Brass, about thesame time we were starting ours,
and so I sent him a message andI said hey, man, that's a very
random coincidence, but I wishyou all the best of luck and we
got to do something togethersometime and he was definitely

(00:52):
game.
So we're Spider-Man memeingwith the the Trombone Corner.
So I'll be honest, I just spentabout two hours editing this
podcast and then everythingcrashed and this has never
happened to me before and so Ihad to start all over again and
edit another two hours.

(01:12):
So my brain is somewhat fried.
It's 11 30 at night and we needto post this in about 30
minutes.
But this is what I do for youbecause I love you.
So for you, equipment nerds,this is your podcast If you want
to take a break from us talkingabout our feelings and crying
and everything and just gettingdown to brass tacks.

(01:34):
This is.
This is a really cool episode.
Noah is an encyclopedia ofhistory, of mouth pieces and
brass instruments, especiallytrombones, and it was a
delightful conversation.
I really resonate with him in alot of ways.
He's just a doer and he'screated so many things and

(01:56):
continues to do things and hasan amazing production company
called Hollywood Scoring andhe's an active studio musician,
has the brass arc that manypeople probably know him from
and John Snow is partner, is atrumpet player, but we allowed
it.
He is a co-owner of Bob Riesbrass.

(02:18):
So I think you're really gonnaenjoy this episode.
So it's a crossover podcast.
They're also interviewing us ontheirs and we're releasing at
the same time and we're bothactually gonna be a team.
Ea coming up in a few days TexasMusic Educators Association
Conference in San Antonio, texas.
It's a gigantor music festivalwith every vendor you can

(02:40):
imagine it, so I'll be there atthe Houghton's Horns table.
Please come say hi.
I'll be hanging out withTrombone Timo and if you haven't
heard yet, check out theepisode we just did with social
media Trombone superstar,trombone Timo that we know as
Tim mains.
For some reason it posted onthe feed as coming out January
1st, even though it came outFebruary 1st, so it might not

(03:02):
have popped up in yournotification.
So double check it.
It might be further down thelist, but it was an awesome
episode with really fascinatinginsights into the world, social
media and how he's built hisfollowing.
He'll be there with Brasswichand I'll be releasing my first,
very limited batch JSV TenderTrombone Mouthpieces.

(03:23):
They just came out and theyjust arrived at Houghton Horns
and I'm clearly biased, butthey're absolutely beautiful.
I've been working on this fortwo years and it's been a long
process and we really wanted toget this right and they just
came out really special and I'mjust really excited to share it
with everyone.
So come by the table.

(03:44):
There's not many in the firstbatch, but they're also
available for pre-order forthose who can't make it.
So it's currently on theHoughton Horns website now and
if you order it now, you can get10% off with the offer code JSV
Presale.
So you can find all the specsand all the information on the
Houghton Horns website.

(04:04):
But we're trying somethingdifferent Purity of sound and
credible response andarticulation.
We're searching for the holygrail of rich overtones, ring
and sweetness, paired with depthof sound, and we really found
it.
So go check out Houghton Horns.
Come visit us at the table, govisit Bob Reeves table.
But yeah, if you want to listenin order, technically they
interviewed us first, so feelfree if you want to go listen to

(04:28):
theirs first and come back, orlisten to this and go back.
Either way, go check out theirpodcast.
These are amazing guys.
I really enjoy thisconversation.
It was really enlightening andI these are just really great
guys.
So I need to go.
I need to go edit this and fallasleep.
So enjoy the podcast.
We're here Cool.

(04:57):
Well, I mean, this is super fun.
I'm really glad we've beentalking about doing something
like this for a while and I'mglad we somehow navigated these
time zones and made it work.
Have you guys interviewedpeople in like eight hours away?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I mean it's yeah, we just had an Adam Wolf on.
Oh, he's amazing.
He's in Spain, a realinteresting guy, because he just
, you know, he walked away fromthe profession during the
pandemic.
I didn't know that he's doingfull-time software website
design now.
Wow, sold his sack butts and Imean it's crazy.

(05:35):
That guy is so incredible.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
I know, but he came back to play the.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Coronation.
He came back to play theCoronation.
He said he hadn't touched histrombone since the beginning of
the pandemic.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
So real interesting podcast.
I'll definitely check thatepisode out.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, really interesting fellow, lovely,
lovely person.
Yeah, I'm glad we're finallygetting around to this?

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, absolutely.
And now we know it's called asack buddhist or sack what's
here?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Or sack butter.
I mean sack butter gets alittle bit weird when you talk,
you know yeah what do you?
Mean.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Noah.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Go on.
Sack boner, I don't know.
I mean, there's so many weird,like you know.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Is that a base?
Sack butt behind you.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
That is a base sack butt.
Behind me, I actually have asack butt gig tonight, if you
can believe it or not.
So flex, I know this is one ofone of my base sack butts.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Do you know that?
You know, it's like everythingabout this at like.
Every day, someone putstogether a sentence in English
that may have not been utteredbefore.
Yeah, that's close.
Later on today, I was going tomy sack butt gig.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
My base sack butt gig tonight.
My base sack butt gig.
Well, you know they do happenfrom time to time.
It for very strange.
It's for the Los Angeles organguild party holiday.
That sounds like a rip warranttime it's going to be, great.
I don't really know what toexpect.
I mean, I know a lot of theseorganists from the early music

(07:02):
circles but they were like wereally like to have some early
brass and we're doing somePretorius and some Fresco Baldi
and we have a Cornetto and threetrombones, so should be fun and
organ.
I would love to hear that.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
You should just walk up and say track or organ sock
and see what happens.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
To the digital organs .
There are some good digitalorgans now, but some of the old
ones are.
They look, but actually theplace we're playing has like a
really beautiful reconstructionchamber of rogue organ in it, so
it's going to be a nice littlevenue for this organ guild party
.
Oh man, I don't know if therewill be costumes.
We won't be wearing costumes,but there could be some costumes

(07:44):
you should.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Coming on a penny farthing official transport of
the bass sack, but it's a pennyfarthing.
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Exactly.
I mean, you guys know I'm intoinstruments so I got into period
performance when I was inschool and luckily we had a
really excellent early musicdirector at USC when I was doing
my masters, named Adam Gilbert,who was just like next level
reincarnated early musician, andAlexandra Opsall from the Royal

(08:18):
Conservatory just moved to LA.
Her husband, ian Pritchard, isa continual player and he was
doing his doctorate at USC.
So all of a sudden we had thisworld class cornedo player in LA
so she was like let's start abrass group.
So that's how we kind ofstarted our nonprofit called
Tesseray, which is started as aperiod string and brass group,

(08:38):
and then now we've incorporatedvocalists and strings and all
sorts of things and grown thatgroup over the last 13 years,
something like that.
Are there recordings thatpeople can look up?
There are Our website's upthere and we don't do so much
stuff with brass anymore, maybeone or two concerts a year, but
it's just been great to do a lotof stuff with that.

(09:00):
And then recently anotherensemble's kind of popped up in
LA called Music at Transalpinaand very interesting.
The music director for that oneis really into period mass
reconstruction.
So he goes and he finds allthese mass manuscripts and
libraries.
He's very connected with theCatholic Church and he's got
access to these libraries inEurope that only the monks have

(09:22):
access to, with a lot of thesemanuscripts.
So he's finding all of thesethings and we're doing world
premieres from like 1600 in theUnited States, or US premieres
of some of these masses whichare just unbelievable.
Some of them have four or fivetrombones parts.
It's crazy.
I didn't know when I picked thetrombone how interesting it was

(09:42):
going to be, but tromboneplayers were the first legit
professional musicians that weregetting paid to play in
churches and in weddingceremonies and outdoor events
and things like that.
And since the instrument is sochromatic and the only one that
could play loud and soft at thetime, it was everywhere.
So who knew how the mighty havefallen?

Speaker 4 (10:06):
I guess Now we have to count 45 minutes of tacit and
operas Exactly.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Exactly, but I mean, there is nothing more exciting
than playing lines in a choirwith vocalists where you're an
independent line, like you'rethe playing tenor line, and then
there's three other vocalistsand to be contributing like that
as a chamber musician, like youwere saying, sebastian, is like
some of the most satisfyingplaying that I ever get to do.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh man, absolutely, john, I think you're the first.
Is this right, nick?
Is this the first trumpetplayer we've ever allowed?

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Well, he owns a soprano trombone and he has been
practicing through the Roshubook.
So Arbons.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
I've got Arbons.
You haven't done the Roshus yetI haven't done the.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Roshus, I thought you sent me a recording of one at
least you did one.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
Well, no well, I worked on.
What was it?
One, what's the famous one?
Two Four.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
I was working through one.
Four is a straight banger Four,I think Four.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
I think it was number four Hardware Straight fire.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yeah, no, no, I'm on page, I think 75 of the Arbons
book.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I'm just I'm playing through the whole thing and yeah
, so.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
I'm an honorary slide user, thanks to Noah In a
beautiful minute.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
You should register.
I did give John a soprano sack,but actually to noodle around
one because at some point we'regonna need.
We're gonna need that in aBoccantato or some like that
concert, so something like that.
We'll need it so.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Okay, I have a new idea for the hottest new podcast
on the planet.
Nick and Noah, you can start asack, but podcast.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
First of all, there's a million title To mine five
button.
It's amazing.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
It's a working title, but it's a good one.
I love it.
I like it.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
I like it.
There's a big niche audiencefor that.
I'm sure it's gonna be like 10.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
Very, very Would be actually prior wider amount of
listeners and you could then youimagine.
But if we said one slightlyfactually incorrect thing about
the sack but or the date of acomposer or composition, we
would get roasted like you wouldnot believe.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Here's, here's a good sack but story.
I can't remember who is tellingme this, but a friend of mine
was talking to William Shatnerabout sack but and he was like
they were done some projecttogether and it came up and he
was like really into the oh,tell me more about the sack.
But you know, like really,really into it.
So I'm hoping I get to meetShatner someday that's like a

(12:33):
life goal of mine and canexplain and I maybe even
demonstrate a sack.
But for him I think he would bevery into that.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
There's some trombone on some Star Trek episodes
right, there's a Spock Spocksolo plays from the bridge.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Well, in a mock time there's a big Dick Nash plays
the solo when he realizes he'skilled Kirk.
That's Dick Nash playing thetrombone solo on that.
Yeah, I asked him about it.
He came into the shop one dayand I was like hey, dick, I have
a question for a nerdy question.
You know, do you remember thisepisode where you play oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, a little glissything on there, low bass
trombone.
He's like.

(13:11):
You know, he's like yeah, itwas on bass trombone.
I'm not really comfortable onbass trombone but I had to do
bass trombone because thecontractor was like you got one
of those right yeah sure youknow, it's like one of the most
like significant moments in hisStar.
Trek, exactly.
So it's Dick Nash, in caseyou're wondering.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
That is awesome.
Okay, well, we'll do a formalintroduction, I guess in the
introduction to the episode, butof course we're here with Jon
Snow and Noah Gladstone, ourfriends from the trombone corner
, and Jon trumpet player, sothat's the one with the, with
the, you call it.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
They're like buttons yeah, the one, the one that you,
they're in your right ear andthey're talking to you like that
and you got a pushing yourtuning slide to play with them.
That is that one.

Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah well and
so and I I'm gonna use, sinceI'm outnumbered here, number one
, and since the honor is so bigto that you have allowed me into
the trombone retreat.
I should mention, after playingsoprano trombone for about two
or three months One, I realizedhow out of tune I played on the

(14:16):
trumpet and no matter how, nomatter how tuned in I was to the
center of the note and all thethings we were taught that you
can't just trust the valvesbeing pushed down, when I
actually had to trust my ear anduse a slide where the center of
the note actually was and wherethe intonation actually was.
On behalf of trumpet playersaround the world, I apologize.
You guys were right, we weregoing sharp through the gig.

(14:39):
You know we were raising thepitch higher as we were getting
tired or, you know, going in theupper register.
But I could go on and I'vetalked to Noah about this.
The things I learned from usinga slide, having to use your ear
and also having the bell, youknow, a foot and a half closer
to you Amazing, absolutelyamazing.
So I'm humbled by the trombone.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
And I'll be a fly on the wall because Noah's much
more interesting than I am.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
No, you're a trumpet player.
You're going to be telling uswhat to do by like half a step
right, the type A will come out.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Well, I know you know what?
Sorry, I didn't know if I toldyou guys, I have a Latin gig I
have to get to, so I'll see you.
Are there a lot of Noah?

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Can you book him some soprano trombone gigs?

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Well, I'm hoping you know.
The Moravian Choirunfortunately is no longer a
thing here and I, like JeffReynolds, had it for a long,
long time.
That was a big deal they made agreat record he directed, that
they did yeah.
So I mean that's really kind ofthe only opportunity for
soprano trombone.
I think it does come up onstudio calls from time to time
as like funny sound effects andthe trumpet players are like oh

(15:48):
great, I get to pull up mysoprano trombone and make noises
, but as far as like actuallyplaying music on the instrument,
I rarely get to hear that.
So I'm looking forward tohearing John as he tones his
craft.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Altar trombone's hard enough.
Those positions must be soclose together.
It is very, very small.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
It is very small.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
I don't know if I've ever encountered like a fully
proficient soprano trombonistJim, that was okay at it, you
know, malcolm.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
McNabb actually, Malcolm McNabb actually is very
good.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
You know, I think I heard that I have not heard him
play it, though I've heard heactually, because I know that's
he played on the Moraviantrombone.
He played on the Moraviantrombone.
That's where he learned, okay.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, yeah, he was really, really terrific, and Ray
Burkhart rested peace.
But he was also very, very goodon the soprano trombone.
Wow, but there's not a lot ofcalls for it, you know, and
there's that weird Mozart massthat's got like the fake soprano
trombone part.
It's not real.
It's like I think it was likeCalamus or something added as a
soprano trombone part.

(16:53):
Really, and it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, hey, we don't cuss on this podcast, so saying
Calamus, is a whole lot of words.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
It's an off sorry.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
Well, I mean, and there's stories that Chuck
Finley and Gary Grant knows thatC1 horns would use soprano
trombones or slide trumpets forsome of the licks they would do
back in the day.
And then, and there's a storythat Chuck Finley used used a
Calico soprano trombone for oneof the award shows.
He just showed up with it andthe contractor said you can't

(17:24):
use that.
And he said I'm using it anywayand still played the heck out
of the show, you know justbecause.
But that's a little differentthan playing in a Moravian group
.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
So tell me, tell me how you guys first became
friends.
Like, how did you first startworking together?
Right, john go?

Speaker 5 (17:43):
ahead Buddy Noah oh.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I love this story.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
So we had a friend in common again.
Uncle Maddie.
Rest in peace, dear friend ofours.
It passed.
We went to Cal State Northridgetogether and he kept talking
about this Buddy Noah you know,my buddy, I went to high school.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
I went to high school with Uncle Maddie and he wanted
to be called Uncle Maddie.
By the way, that's like how heintroduced himself.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
So yeah, and he's like you know, growing up you
know there was that friend thathad everything.
You know where you're playing avideo game, oh, my friend's got
that.
You know he's got the XBox.
Or my friend's got thismouthpiece, or my friend's got
this horn.
It's my buddy Noah.
Like, who is this guy?
Like, you know, you think thisguy doesn't actually exist,
right?
And then, sure enough, I thinkit was like a holiday or party
or something.
It was at your house, noah, Iremember we got invited and we

(18:25):
came over and Uncle Maddieintroduced us hey, john, this is
my buddy Noah.
And I think you said hi, noah.
And he's like I've got amouthpiece for you.
I think that was like the firstthing out of your mouth.
And he took me to the back roomat his house and he started
pulling out these like cases,like those old vintage box cases

(18:45):
, mouthpiece cases, like a dozenof them, and you're like going
through them like a madscientist.
And then you pulled out he'slike this is the best piccolo
mouthpiece I've ever.
You know, everyone wants this.
You need this mouthpiece.
And I was like I didn't evenknow I needed a piccolo
mouthpiece.
And I think, yeah, you saidokay, you know this is the price
.
I'll give you a good deal on itand, by God, I still use that

(19:09):
piccolo mouthpiece.
It was the best mouthpiece Iever played and that was it.
It was love at first sight.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
I get around.
I guess my reputation precedesme.
I've been collecting, obviouslybecause I'm a crazy person,
since I was a little kid.
So you know I had boxes of NewYork trumpet and trombone
mouthpieces in high school justbecause I was nuts and eBay was
a brand new thing and I was anearly person on eBay.
Just getting all this gear,Instruments and mouthpieces and

(19:41):
mouthpieces were the first thingthat I started collecting,
because it was obviously theywere less expensive than
instruments, so I could.
It was the gateway into the,into the other things.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Was the idea to be flipping them and selling them,
or did you just enjoy?
I just?

Speaker 3 (19:56):
enjoyed the craftsmanship of them and the.
You know my teacher was ByronPeebles, who I love dearly.
He was like a second father tome and you know he was a big
gearhead too.
So I would go over to his housefor lessons and he would have
30 trombones out on stands youknow Mount Vernon's, elkhart,
kahn's and mouthpieceseverywhere.
And this mouthpiece RonaldChilke made for me when I was in

(20:18):
Chicago Symphony and this, thatand the other.
You know, as a 12 year oldcoming in to see that you're
like oh my God, this is like thecoolest stuff.
And you know I wrote him oneday and I said, or I phoned him
up and I said I found a thisMount Vernon 42 on trombone,
classified page.
What do you think?
Oh, you got to get it.
You know my mom was like youcan't get it, you can't get it,
and Byron called her and saidyou got to get him this trombone

(20:40):
.
So that was kind of how itstarted.
We would spend lessons, youknow, measuring mouthpieces and
try this and try this gear andyou know, kind of connected
there Like that.
And it just I got the bug reallyearly and started collecting
instruments and mouthpieces andlearning about the makers and
the craftsmanship and thedifferent things that made the

(21:01):
instrument work together.
Byron was really good friendswith George Strucil and Larry
Minick, so he had all thisMinick stuff and to, just you
know, see all of these creationsand custom trombones from this
guy, larry Minick, who I didn'tknow who he was, except that
everyone talked about him withsuch respect, you know, and he

(21:21):
had he had just passed at that.
At that time, you know, it wasreally really cool to see all
these custom bass, trombones andcustom bells and stuff that you
would never get exposed to as ayoung child, you know, anywhere
else other than being in LosAngeles where it all is.
It was pretty cool.
So I got into that really earlyand then, yeah, john came over

(21:44):
and we hit it off and then whenJohn started working for for Bob
Reeves, obviously I was havingmy mouthpiece stuffed on and I
wanted to start my ownmouthpiece line and I did a run
of 50 mouthpieces on my own.
I found a machinist from JPLthat was making Mars Rover parts
and he was like, yeah, I canmake a mouthpiece for you.

(22:07):
So like I had him make amouthpiece and I did 50 and I
put them up on the website andthey all sold within a day
Pretty crazy.
It was like, oh okay, there'ssomething here for this.
You know, it was a copy of oneof my really great Mount Vernons
and I did like a outer shapethat looked like a delosa
mouthpiece, which is a makerfrom Philadelphia very cool.

(22:28):
So I approached John and I said,hey, you know, this is really
hard to have this guy make themand then someone's got to finish
the mouthpieces and buff themand stamp them and plate them
and do all that stuff.
That's all in-house at Reeves.
So I said, hey, what about acollaboration where we could do
you know, trump, you guys needTrump own mouthpieces because
you're only doing trumpetmouthpieces and this is a good
win-win for everybody and we canreally spend some time and hone

(22:52):
in on the line.
And, you know, hand make these.
It was really important thatthey're all handmade for me and,
you know, done the old style.
So that's kind of how we becamebusiness partners and then
doing the podcast and all thethings.
And he lives down the streetfrom me, so we hang out a lot,
so it's nice.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I mean, there's nothing like as cheesy as it
sounds, but there's nothing likeworking with your friends.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Oh, it's the best.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
It's the best I wouldn't trade for anything.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I'll let you know when.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
I finally get to do that Wow.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
He, you beat me to that Yep, because he knew about
that same thing, get ahead of it.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
That's really awesome and you're in such a unique
location where there's so muchhappening and so many different
types of players, so I'm sureyou have to cater to so many
different types of musicians.
And I was reading a lot on yourwebsite and there's a really
cool video on the Bob Reeveswebsite about how everything
started and Bob Reeves soundslike a really awesome person and

(23:53):
you love when you see peoplethat just in.
You know we're runningbusinesses.
Sure, yeah, we're trying to beprofitable, we're trying to make
money, but it's reallyrefreshing seeing people that
especially craftsmen, that youknow they if no one was buying
them they'd still be in their.
You know warehouse buildingstuff because they just love the
art of it the engineer brain.

(24:15):
So how did you first startworking for Bob John?

Speaker 5 (24:19):
Yeah, well, it's kind of a interesting story because
I was in school at the time andI was actually doing computers
and web design and stuff for anonline casino.
It was kind of an illegal grayarea but it paid really well.
You know, very interesting job.
But I was on my lunch breakstrying to, you know, thinking
about what I was going to dowith my life, because that paid

(24:40):
well but it wasn't veryfulfilling.
And Bob actually Bob's managerat the time called me literally
on my lunch break as I waspondering the world, and asked
if I wanted to come in for aninterview and honestly, I'd
never heard of Bob Reeves.
You know, I was, my dad was atrumpet player and between him
and my trumpet teachers theysaid you play on this and you

(25:00):
practice and, you know, never,didn't even know the shop was
here and but I was like, hey, atleast it's somewhere around
trumpet and music and stuff.
And they said they would beflexible with, like you know,
knowing someone's going to be aperformer might have to take
time off for tours or gigs.
And yeah, that was in 2001.
And now it's been, yeah, 22years, almost 23 years, and I'm

(25:24):
a co-owner of the business now.
Bob left the business to myselfand Brett, who does the, he's
the runs the shop, part of theshop, and yeah, it's been an
amazing run.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
And it and it's start .
Did it start primarily astrumpet mouthpieces?
Yeah, so.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
Bob.
I mean this shop started in1968 and Bob was a trumpet
player and although he didcustom work for all the brasses
but he knew the trumpet, hecould hear the trumpet and he
was building trumpets at Benj aswell.
Yeah, right, exactly.
And and I asked him years agowhy he didn't make horn

(26:00):
mouthpieces and trombonemouthpieces and whatnot, and he
said, well, I don't, I don't, Ican't hear the sound, I don't, I
don't know the sound of thetrombone.
I mean, he could appreciate it,but he knows the sound of the
trumpet or knew the sound of thetrumpet intimately, which is
why the you know collaborationwith Noah is perfect, because
you know, we know how to buildthings, but Noah knows the sound
of the trombone and he knowshow to solve the problems of

(26:21):
trombone players.
And since we've been doing themouthpieces, we hired Robert
Coomba, from you know basedtrombonist out here, so someone
could speak the language.
And then we just hired anothertrombone, spencer, great tenor
trombone player Again, so we canspeak the common language now
because, when it comes down toit, I'm just a jump trumpet
player.

(26:41):
So even though I know themodels, I can't speak the same
language.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
If you had to describe and yeah, you have so
many diverse mouthpieces anddifferent types and custom
things but if you had todescribe the identity of what
you're going for, or what a BobReeves mouthpiece kind of has,
how would you do it?

Speaker 5 (27:03):
Noah, do you want to?
I mean for the trombonemouthpieces, for the trombone
mouthpieces for sure.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
So I mean, you know I'm a big lover of like a
classic trombone sound.
I listened to a lot of the oldtimers and you know vintage gear
.
I love vintage gear but there'sa way to get like a lot of
those colors and timbers in amodern mouthpiece that will hold
up to like the rigors that wehave to play.
So you know, when we design themouthpieces and I have so many

(27:32):
in my archive of just great-understatement of the day I'm
not going to tell you how many Ihave, but it's ballpark
Mouthpieces.
Yeah, a lot, a significantnumber of mouthpieces More than
500?

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Maybe.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Definitely that means definitely Maybe.
Yes.
Maybe, A lot.
I mean, I have a very patientwife I she is very understanding
.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Do you store them at your house?
I have cases.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
I have cases that I have handmade and I have like
the Bach case and like the Minutcase and the other Bach case
and you know Colechio case andthe weird case and the all
historic case.
You know it's nuts, they'resemi-organized.
Then it's crazy.
I mean, lately I'm into likeGerman trombones, like antique

(28:27):
German trombones, romantictrombones, because I just think
they're fascinating.
So I've been like collectingthose mouthpieces now trying to
get into that stuff.
Just there's so many funtrombone toys to get, eventually
I guess I'll donate them all tothe Smithsonian or something I
don't know what.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
I'm going to do with it.
What about?
What are the what?
You should look at that.
Have you been to the MIM inScottsdale?

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Yeah, the MIM is pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
That's an amazing place.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
So there's, there's, there's opportunities that they
would need to give me a wholewing.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, that's, true At some point.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
You know it's it's kind of crazy, but but you know
the mouthpiece design.
We were really trying to getthis like classic stuff.
So you know, for the basstrombone we wanted to do like I
don't think anyone really made areally great one and a half G.
Like you know a lot of peoplesearch, search for mint.
You know Mount Vernon one and ahalf Gs.
There's so many variations andI have this really great Bert
Harrick one and a half G, thatthat was made for George Roberts

(29:21):
, that I got from George andit's really weird.
Like he probably made it with ascrewdriver.
Who?
knows what he made it with.
It's like really, really wonky.
The cup is kind of wonky, it'slike kind of step in there, but
you put it into horn and you'relike, wow, it sounds like George
Roberts.
It really does.
So I was like let's make this,because this is something that's
really cool.
You can't get it.
It's one of a kind you know,and if you want that sound, you

(29:44):
kind of need that piece.
So that's our Mr Bass Trombone.
So, you know, people ask us forlike one and a half Gs.
We don't necessarily do a oneand a half G in a box style, but
it's something different, butit is around that size.
So you know, that was reallycool.
And when we were doing theMartin Skipper's mouthpiece, he
was playing on one of those andhe was like, can we adjust the

(30:06):
size of the rim?
But use this cup because it'ssuch a unique cup and it's
interesting because it's like,you know, it sounds kind of
tenorish when the middle upperregister, like George, but then
when you're in the bottom it'slike super, super punchy and
fardy, which is great so, butbut bold, and especially on a
microphone it really picks up.
So so that's a really coolpiece.
Well, like no one makes that,let's let's bring that to market

(30:28):
.
And then, you know, for ourorchestra base we wanted to do
something a little bit like aone and a quarter size, you know
.
And then I was talking toCharlie Vernon and he was like I
really like these really thinrims, you know, the old school
with a giant cup, and you know,but Charlie's mouthpiece is very
, very tight in the backboardbecause he likes a lot of
resistance because he plays suchlarge equipment.

(30:48):
So you know, we made a piecefor Charlie and it turned out
that Bob had this cutter fromProviance that was like exactly
this profile of Charlie's rimand it worked out perfect.
So I was like, okay, that'scool.
And then we were doing Jay'smouthpiece.
You know Jay had ReynoldsShilke make him this thing.
I think it was called like aGepford cup, which is like a V

(31:09):
cup from the Gepford cutter thatShilke had from some mouthpiece
from the thirties and you knowit's a really, really unique
shape.
And it turns out that Bob alsohad a Proviance cutter that was
like the same cup V cup.
So it was like we had all ofthese tools that Bob had from
inherited or made.
Over the years we made sometools and were able to really

(31:33):
create a really unique line ofmouthpieces.
That's not really like anythingelse and they're not
necessarily just straight up Bokcopies, like I didn't want to
do that.
You know, we kind of took somebox pieces that I like the 4g,
the 5g I have really good MountVernon examples and tweaked them
a bit.
The rims are.
I picked those rims becausethey're comfortable, but they're

(31:55):
kind of old school.
They have a nice bite to thembut they're still comfortable.
So you know, it's it's myaesthetic in a sense, in
consultation with John and Brett.
Brett is terrific, he's theirmachinist and he really I mean
understands how to makemouthpieces.
He made we did a pandemicproject where we made a solid
sterling silver trombonemouthpiece Whoa which is crazy.

(32:16):
Like we.
We melted silver and Then madea piece.
Because you know, almont was aguy yeah, big Al Was a
mouthpiece maker that mademouthpieces for Tommy Dorsey's
band and he made sterling silvermouthpieces.
So we're like, oh, let's makeone of ours, just to see for fun
.
So how did that sound?
It's great.
I use it every day.

(32:36):
It's my mouthpiece.
It's great.
You know, it's interesting.
The sterling is like 25% denserthan brass, so you can make a
lightweight mouthpiece thatstill has weight to it but it
responds like a lightweightmouthpiece, so Really
fascinating project it's been.
It's been fun, it's been agreat collaboration.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
I Don't know how you.
I mean, if I have, like I get,I get upset if I go to a
restaurant in the the menus toobig, like I can't make a
decision.
If I, if I have too manyoptions Customized for my
trombone, it breaks my brain andI don't know how you walk out
the door and make an equipmentdecision based on, like, what

(33:15):
gig you're doing that day withme Personally.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
You know it's funny.
Like it's kind of like my mood.
You know I'll be like in themood for like vintage cons.
So I like last week I wasplaying my 1916 con symphony On
a concert, just because I waslike this one's great, I'm gonna
play it this week.
And then the other day I was ina section of box.
So I was like, okay, I'll takemy 42 today, and it keeps it

(33:42):
interesting, it keeps itexciting.
We just did a divorce act sevena couple weeks ago and I gave
everyone in the section toGerman trombones.
So like let's do full Germanromantic trombones for this.
And so you know, I gaveeveryone a 110 year old trombone
and we had a little sectionaland worked it out and and for
them it was really excitingbecause like you've played
divorce act seven a bunch.
But then to add the challengeof having the instrument Makes

(34:07):
it a lot more interesting on thejob and people appreciate it
too.
Like the conductor was like,wow, I've never heard this sound
and it is definitely adrastically different sound and
it's funny.
It's like I don't know that Icould actually play divorce X
seven again on a modern trombone.
I would be missing kind of thenuance of of a German instrument
, because you know, for thosethey're like really big sack
butts.
They're, you know, big bells,big bore.

(34:29):
But the bells are so thin,they're so responsive, and and
the color I mean, nick, you knowhow it is.
You, you have it.
You have some German trombones.
I have the colors that you canget on a on a German instrument.
It's just drastically differentthan what you know.
The American instruments aremade to be very, very uniform
sound and the German instrumentsare made to be very colorful
sounds.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Yeah, I think at some point I'm gonna try to steal
that that that a loiter confuchs, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Well, exact, exactly like.
That's another project where Iwas like you know, nobody makes
this instrument, and For me itwas fun to be able to bring a
Modern idea on a hundred and tenyear old trombone that makes
this classic sound, because,like it's just, you know, you
can't get that anywhere else andthere are people out there that

(35:18):
appreciate those kinds ofthings and you know, these are
the things that I look for whenI'm kind of bored and looking on
the internet for trombone stuff.
You know who makes a reallycool thing, you know.
So I'm like, well, why don't wemake it really cool?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
No, I have an idea.
I've been.
Nick knows I've been wanting todo this for a long time.
So you and I, we're gonna flyto Germany.
Yeah, we're gonna.
We're gonna get some people, Ican't you would tape us.
Nick, you can hold the camera,you can come, you can hold the
camera, because there's the coolthing about Germany there's so
many small makers, so many smallmakers.
We're both.
You and I are both fans ofMarcus Lüfter, and and that's

(35:55):
how I one of the first times Italked to you is when I ordered
my Marcus Lüfter alto, which Ithink it's like serial number
four and I'm in love with it andeveryone that I let let try.
It is like that is the bestalto trombone I've ever played
and I've always thought it wouldbe really cool.
It'd be for a very nicheaudience.
But we go to Germany, we visitthese makers, we hang out with a

(36:15):
local trombonus in town, we tryout trombones, we talk about
them, we talk with the craftsmenand then we go to the local
brewery and and drink beer andTalk with the the trombonus
about life there and make like amini YouTube series.
I'd be.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
So I would love to do it.
I've been talking with ThomasSchiffkiewicz to my, my dear
friend from Austria, who alsohas his own podcast, you know,
so he could translate for us.
We've been talking about it foryears to do this.
In fact, he actually, when Iwent to visit Marcus when we
were working on the babyfuchsproject, marcus was like I have
a prototype, I'm not gonna sendit to you.
You need to fly to Germany andcome to my shop and we need to

(36:51):
drink beers together and youneed to finish this trombone
with me.
And that was part of like thepart of like the read, like he's
like, this is how I do businessand if, if that's okay with you
, I'll build this trombone foryou.
So, so I went over to Germanyand Tom came and met, met me
there and we spent a weekend atMarcus's shop, you know, and his

(37:13):
shop is fun because it'sliterally like next to his house
.
So he's got his house and thenhe's got this like little tiny
shop and it's tiny but he makeseverything there, you know, he's
got just enough space for hislathe, and then downstairs he's
got his drawbench and then, like, he's got his buffing room off
to the side and he's doing allthese.
You know every piece is madewith love and hand.

(37:33):
You know handwork from Marcus,like even the screws.
He's making the screws.
On no way really.
So yeah, yeah, every piece,every brace, every, every lever,
every bracket every federal.
He makes, he does, and that'swhy it takes so long to get an
instrument.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, that's my next question.
Where's my look, your contrabase from on?

Speaker 3 (37:54):
It's well.
You know he's working on theconchers right now.
I saw that picture.
I got really excited.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
I was hoping.
Yeah, yeah, I hope yeah, youare.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
So it's, it's, it's, it's very, very cool to have an
instrument from him.
You can feel the love and youknow.
So I love that.
I mean he does it all himself.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
He does everything himself.
He doesn't have any, he doesn'thave any help.
He does it all himself.
Wow.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, he gets the bells, the bells or he gets from
burn sander, because burn islike an excellent bell maker and
Marcus is like I could do thebells but burn is better than I
am, so I just ordered the bells.
But you know he does his likeyearly trip to see burned and
they have beers for a week andyou know, like that's part of
the, that's part of the way thatpeople do business.

(38:38):
I think a lot of theseinstrument makers do business is
like you have to have apersonal relationship because
you know they need to know thatthey can trust you and that your
friends and like real friendsand and have that bond of Doing
business face-to-face and andMarcus and I we talked on Skype.
You know, once every couplemonths about how's things going
in the shop.
You know he's given me updatesand things like that and we talk

(38:59):
about design ideas.
So it was a really cool projectto do the food and I think the
instrument definitely benefitedfrom from all of that.
You know I could have said, hey, make this and make this.
You know, and he could havedone it, but like to have that
actual attention from both of usand the love and passion from
both of us to make it, I thinkreally helped elevate the
instrument.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
You have a pretty long waiting list for it now.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah, we, we did seven, Including the prototype.
The prototype lives at Marcus'sshop.
And then I have one here thatyou tried, nick, that's number
two.
And then we, we sold I thinkthere were seven total in the
first batch and then he wasn'tgonna make anymore.
After that we're like, okay,this is because it's a lot of
work.
Each, each one of those tubeson that, on that, baby Fuchs is

(39:45):
seemed and hand roll.
I mean everything, includingthe slide tubes.
It's nuts the amount of timethat goes into that.
So he wasn't really gonna doany more, but there was so much
demand and people really likethem, so I think he's gonna do
one more batch.
We'll see Wow.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Exciting, yeah, just charge like 40,000.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Nick and I signed you up for 40 thousand won, it sold
.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Yeah.
So If you had to have, if youhad to name a favorite, I guess
peace in the shop what would itbe?

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Well, I know John's go ahead, john Favorite like
favorite any, any Pete.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
It could be anything.
Instrument could be anything.
How about instrument?

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Because it's because it's a trombone retreat, then I
have to say my, my minix ofprano, oh.
What's a pretty cool yeah, wow.
Yeah yeah, I was gonna say myKing Liberty mini trumpet, but
no one would appreciate that inthis.
I know what that instrument isrealm.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I Think some trumpet players might listen to us.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Yeah, let's see my, my favorite instrument.
I mean I have so many so it'shard to like pick one, but I
think my crown jewel I have thecon Contra base.
That was Roger Bobo's, oh, andthen Murray crew had it.
It's from 1902 and it's just astunning instrument.

(41:15):
It's a the best B flat contraever, I think, and it's it's so
lightweight and it's reallyreally really cool.
So I think that's probably oneof my favorite instruments that
I have.
It's really a Fun instrument andthere's so many cool pictures

(41:36):
of you know, bobo and JeffReynolds and all these famous
people playing it.
You know, george, that GeorgeRoberts played it on Jaws, so no
kidding, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, it's a pretty coolinstrument with a lot of history
.
Abe Turchinsky had it and then,you know, it just passed around
and Bill Reichenbach owned itfor a while and Murray, of
course, is the famous video onYouTube I'm playing the bar talk

(41:58):
.
So I'm really, really fortunatethat I have I am the caretaker
for that instrument right nowand then Some of the other ones
that I really really like.
I'm actually I'm having atrombone restored right now In
Switzerland by Aaron Vajna.
It's a from 1671.
It's an original Holy hell thatI was able to pick up last year

(42:21):
from a private collector inGeneva and I'm really excited to
get that instrument becauseit's made by a maker named Jakob
Schmidt, who actually lived along time.
He lived almost 90 years and hehad two sons that also made
trumpets and trombones.
He was in Nuremberg, so thiswas made 1671, which is pretty
cool because I think it's 12 or13 years before Johann Sebastian

(42:43):
Bach was born, which is crazy.
And the instrument issurprisingly in excellent shape.
There's no cracks in it and theimportant bits are are intact
the bell is there, the slideStiff brace, the bell braces
there and the neck pipe is there.
So Aaron's making me a new bowfor the back there's no tuning
slide, obviously and then he'smaking a new slide.

(43:04):
It's missing the slide, but hesaid he'd got it mocked up.
He wrote me a message a coupledays ago and said that he had a
sack Buddhist in.
That was said.
It's the finest trombone.
He's so I'm really excited toget this and I'm planning on
using it.
He's gonna make it so that it'smodern pitch and that's gonna
be really fun to have a 352 yearold playable trombone to show

(43:25):
around, wow.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Would you say no other, you're into gear.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
I have a gear problem for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
I almost want to interview your wife now, because
I just can't imagine I foundthis new thing I bid on in
Switzerland.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Oh, she, yeah, I mean .
So Doug Yeo wrote me because Iwas playing a serpent job a
couple months ago and I was like, oh, I'd really like to get a
Boudouan serpent.
And he said, oh well, I'll sellyou mine, I'm retiring, so.
So then I was like, oh honey, Ineed to buy Doug's serpent from
1810.

(44:02):
You know, because when am Igoing to get an opportunity?
To do that again.
So you know, now I have thatthat's a lovely instrument and
that was made when Napoleon wasthe emperor of France.
So it's pretty cool just tohave these things and when
you're playing them you knowthey're worn in like perfectly,
especially on the serpent, likethe finger.
The finger holes are just likeyou can feel they're worn in
from all of the players thathave played it.

(44:23):
It's pretty cool.
Apparently, this serpent mayhave been owned by Charles Sacks
, who's, of course, adolf Sacks,his father, who made serpents
and officalides around that time.
This one may have been on hiswall as his model, so, which is
why it's in good shape and notrotted out.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
So we should make like a movie like the red,
violin, the black the blackserpent the serpent Doug Doug
Yeo's serpent.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Yeah, the black serpent passed on to generations
.
I don't know, it's fun.
That kind of stuff makes itinteresting when you're playing
stuff you know.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
I mean I can tell you love it.
I mean it's really justwonderful to hear about and you
need a museum.
I mean, is there a way forpeople that visit you to just
see all the things you have, oris it kind of just more of a
private?

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Well, you know, on the website on the Brass Arc I
have a museum page and I kind oftry to update that, although
I'm pretty bad about updating itlately.
But I have a lot of theseinstruments there and like a
little write up about each one,some of the history on it, some
pictures.
I need to do an update and thenon Instagram for a while I was
doing like I'll post a picture,you know, once a week of an

(45:33):
instrument from the collectionand kind of tell some history
and show some of the neatfeatures of it and, you know,
some of the innovative designs,things like that.
But you know, I don't know.
I mean, if someone reallywanted to see something and they
made an appointment, I wouldbring it in to show them.
People have wanted to see thecon contra before and I've taken
that into the shop.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
So I mean you have an appreciation for history and
the way sound has evolved overtime I'd be really curious to
hear your thoughts on.
You know, even in the last 20years, how much trombones have
changed, and you know we hadthat trend in the early what
2000s, late 90s worth.
We couldn't get big enoughRight, couldn't get dark enough.

(46:16):
These tenor trombones arebasically base trombones from
back then.
You know, like keeping thattenor voice and that purity of
sound.
I feel like some people reallyappreciate that and I love that
so much and of course my mouthbe some developing.
That's what I'm going for too,that classic sign with
modernized feel.
But like what?
Are your thoughts on how thevoice of trombone has changed

(46:38):
and would you like it to go backto?

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah, that's a great question, I think, you know, for
me, having to, you know,getting to do all of this period
performance stuff and gettingto experience some of these
pieces as they were as close tooriginally intended in the ear
of the composer, by playing thecorrect instrument or period
accurate instrument, definitelykind of gives you some food for

(47:03):
thought.
You know, when you approachkind of the modern trombone,
first things first, you knowobviously these older trombones
they just don't play as loud asa modern trombone and that's
okay because the sound stillgets out there.
So I think you know some of usare trying to fool ourselves, I
think, and there was that trendto go, you know, huge equipment
and really really dark andreally dull and that's not

(47:25):
really what a trombone issupposed to sound like, at least
for me, in my opinion and mykind of sound concepts.
You know it really is this kindof sparkly clarity, you know
foundation for the orchestra tosit on.
And you know, and it's fun whenyou're playing these period
instruments and you play achorale or something like that

(47:46):
or you just ring a chord out andthe viola section turns around
and looks at you and smiles andyou're like, oh, they're not
scowling at me, how about that?
You know, that's kind of a nicevalidation, I think, of
approaching things and maybe adifferent mindset, as opposed to
being the trombone jock.

(48:07):
Now, there are certainly timeswhen you have to be a trombone
jock, especially in the studioworld where you know they want
it as loud and disgusting aspossible because that's kind of
the they're using it more of asound design thing.
But you know, in an orchestralsetting I think there is some
validity to kind of, you know,making things a little bit
brighter, making things clearand a good foundation and a pure

(48:30):
sound rather than any kind offuzz sound.
And that's hard to get tobecause a lot of the noise in
our heads that we're hearingback you have mouthpiece noise,
you have articulation noise, youknow you're hearing the sound
coming back at you and the bellsis in front of you definitely
kind of changes your concept ofwhat you actually sound like.

(48:50):
You might think you're soundingamazing and then you listen to
a recording and you're like, oh,I didn't know I was sounding
like that at all.
So I think it's reallyimportant for people to get
friends to listen to themselvesand, you know, reassess the
equipment, because what thesound that you think you're
making is not necessarily alwaysthe case Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
But you could just always think you sound great and
never get the feedback, andthen you feel good about
yourself.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Well, there's that too, there's that too.
So I mean there's two schools,I guess.
So you know, when I'm pickinginstruments and again, like you
were saying, what instrument doyou pick?
You know, sometimes it's like,well, I'd like to pick an old
con, because they kind of feellike a German trombone, and you
know a heavy red brassinstrument, you know all red

(49:34):
brass and that makes a specificsound.
And then there's other times,you know, I'll have a studio
session or a big band session Ihave to do, and it's like, oh,
I'll pick an instrument that'skind of more tailored to that
kind of sound concept, you know.
So it's a constant evolvingprocess.
I'm lucky that I have access toall of this gear because I can
kind of experiment and, you know, see all of these different

(49:57):
colors and you know what thisdoes and what this does and what
this piece of mouthpiece doesto this instrument and what this
alloy does to this instrument,which also informs me when I'm
doing these trombone projectswith various makers and
approaching kind of the designconcepts, because I have it all
and I can just reference myactual instrument.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
I'm lucky yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Living museum.
You know, living in a museum,it's cool.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
There's so many directions you can go and it's
like, yeah, having that.
I don't know if I generalizedtrombone trends of you know the
heavier mouthpiece.
My only guess was that ifsometimes it feels good where a
younger person, that or anyonethat maybe their embouchure has

(50:44):
developed or their endurance andfacility on the horn isn't
developed, and you put this bigheavy mouthpiece in, oh, I can
play really loud without mysound breaking up, cool fun.
But then you lose articulation,you lose color, you look like,
especially in the softs, totallythere's something like getting
that sparkle and just likesighing through the trombone and

(51:05):
just sparkles and projects tothe back of the hall and not
this dull sound and I.
That's just so fun, I don'tknow.
I wish more people would.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Well, I think some of it is chamber music too,
because when you're in thatsetting you have to listen and
you can't play necessarilyoverbalance from anybody else.
So you know it opens your mindto like, oh, there's other
things in the world than just,you know, raw meat through your
nose from on playing all thetime.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
I have a good question for you guys.
I'm going to use that line.
I feel like sorry to interruptsome pressure.
I'm going to use that.
Oh no, you're good.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Well, something I've been talking about with people
lately, I think in general, ifyou compare trumpet players to a
trombone player, in generaltrombone players want to play
one mouthpiece all the time,especially on a gig.
And you look over and trumpetplayers will have like a
different mouthpiece permovement and I think you know
sometimes we're afraid of thechange of feel and everything.

(52:01):
But do you think tromboneplayers could do that more often
, more tailored things to thepiece of the line?

Speaker 3 (52:07):
You know, I actually we just talked about this with
Brett Baker and it's funnybecause you know, there is a
stigma, like if you bring abunch of mouthpieces and you're
changing mouthpieces mid gig,everyone's kind of looking at
you like, oh, you know, are youhaving chop issues?
Or like you know what's goingon over there?
And there is definitely likesome judgment about that, like
you have to just play the samemouthpiece.
I don't know that that'snecessarily the case and you

(52:30):
know, especially when I'mplaying certain repertoire, I
have various historicmouthpieces that I use,
depending on the rep that I'musing Um, flat rims, sharp
throats, et cetera, et cetera,to get a certain kind of
articulation or color that'sappropriate for the piece that
I'm performing.
So why not, I think, if itmakes the job easier and it

(52:52):
makes the sound that you'reafter?
What's wrong with changingmouthpieces mid gig?
Like John said, we'll trumpetplayer come back when you're
changing mid phrase, you knowthat was a good one.
Yeah, I like that one, that'strue.
It's true.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
And then, when it comes down to it, I mean the
mouthpiece is a tool.
You know, it's all a tool thehorn, the mouthpiece, the mute,
whatever it is.
And uh, especially as modernplaying gets more demanding or
the job gets more demanding, youknow, I mean, if you're showing
up and playing, you know Haydnor Mozart, fine, yeah, I'm sure
one mouthpiece will do it.
But you know, if you're playingup at a, you know the Hollywood

(53:27):
Bowl, and you've got five orsix different styles, yeah, if
you can get it all done with onemouthpiece, great.
But that's also, like, you know, getting out on the golf course
with a putter.
You know like, yeah, can I hitthe ball 300 yards with a putter
?
Yeah, for enough time andenough practice.
But why not use this toolthat's designed to do this
specific job?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
So, I think that also translates to, you know, using
alto trombone when alto tromboneis appropriate, using a small
tenor, using a smaller basstrombone.
You know, I even have like likea modern F bass trombone
straight.
F bass trombone that I had forsome repertoire or it's like you
know, this is what they wouldhave used originally, but I
can't pull out my sack but to doit.
But I still want to play it onan F trombone and, you know,

(54:12):
with modern trombones in thesection, and I think that was
really fun.
Again, it keeps it interestingand it's like a little bit
closer.
I mean, an F trombone soundsdifferent than a flat bass
trombone, so it's kind of fun.
There's repertoire for that andit's like why not?
You know makes it interesting.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Noah, I'm still looking for the perfect alto
trombone mouthpiece.
Okay, for this horn.
Can you please help?

Speaker 3 (54:36):
We'll send something your way.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
We'll talk, we'll talk.
I will.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
I will.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
I will strip you through your alto trombone
mouthpiece, journey oh please.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yes, I did want to ask a little.
I mean, we kind of just followwhere we're going.
It was just so interesting totalk about and, noah, you also
have such a big contractingcareer and I could, could you
just briefly talk about how yougot into all that and basically
what?
What you do?
A lot of trombones.
Know you from the brass?

(55:04):
Arc but I don't know if it'spossible to Sure.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
I'll kind of give a quick, a quick overview.
So you know I was at, I was atUSC.
I did my undergrad at USC outin Los Angeles with Terry
Cravens I had studied with withByron Peebles from the LA, phil
and Ralph Sauer, so pretty goodpedigree.
You know it was like, okay,well, I want to play in
orchestras and I want to win anorchestra job and do all the

(55:28):
things that you do when you'rekind of on that mindset.
And USC is, you know, in LA andthere's a big film scoring
component to the school and thefilm school there they have a
bunch of film composers.
So one night randomly, I was ata house party at USC and made
kind of small talk with theskyline next to me.

(55:49):
He was in the film scoringprogram and needed some players
for a small project he was doingfor a student project.
I know I can do that for you.
So I always been like a goodconnector of people through high
school and college.
I just knew a lot of people,was playing a lot of gigs and

(56:09):
knew a lot of musicians in thecommunity and you know, people
generally seemed to like me,which is nice, and I got 40 of
my colleagues to come and dothis session.
And his roommate orchestratedthe project and called me the
next day and said hey, I reallylike your contracting style.

(56:30):
Would you be able to contractthis movie for my friend who's
doing a project with the actressfrom Buffy the vampire slayer?
Oh, okay, sure it's going to beUnion, and can you budget all
that stuff out and just handleall the bookings and everything?
So I said, sure, I can do that,no problem, I know what to do.
And I lied and didn't, butfigured it out.

(56:50):
You know, got some help fromthe Union and kind of did my
budget and I booked a studiocalled oh Henry and an engineer
named Bobby Fernandez who waspretty famous.
And we did this session.
It was two days, doubles and mybudget came like right on the
dollar.
It was a great on spot.
So I was like, hey, I'm prettygood at this.
You know, called the breaks andyou know everyone was like,

(57:13):
yeah, hey, you did pretty goodat this.
So I was like, okay, well, me,you know, maybe I should kind of
do this on the side, who knows?
I mean, you know, I'll kind ofstudy the union rules and learn
more about contracting and stuff, because it's very complicated.
There's a lot of gotchas.
There's, you know, dozens ofcontracts you have to memorize
and recording stuff is is very,very complicated.

(57:35):
Especially the recordingcontracts are extremely 200
pages long, with you know lotsof gotchas.
So you know, jump forward.
I'm playing in a brass quintetwith a friend of mine named Greg
Curtis and he was engineering alot of our projects at USC and
his father-in-law wanted toinvest in him building a

(57:57):
recording studio in LA.
So he asked me if I wanted theproject, managed the project.
So we built a scoring stagecalled the bridge recording in
Glendale.
From the ground up it was anempty warehouse.
He purchased the building andwe built the whole project over
three years.
I project managed the wholething the design, in
collaboration with theAcousticians and the contractors

(58:17):
that built it, and learned alot about studio construction,
mistakes and all.
We made a lot of mistakes.
We did a lot of good things atthat studio and learned a lot
about studio craft, studio craft.
As I was coming out of thatproject he was like do you want
to stay on and be the studiomanager or do you want to
continue to contract and playtrombone?
Because you can't do both.

(58:38):
And I said, well, I can't justbe a studio manager, so I'm
going to kind of double down onmy trombone playing.
At this point I was like, well,I don't know that I really want
to sit in an orchestra job.
I kind of like doing all ofthese different things.
So I had been working at Hornguys for years, during this
whole period as well, kind of onmy off days and helping out

(58:59):
Steve Ferguson build hisbusiness.
So I said, well, why don't Istart my own trombone shop on
the side?
And you know, I'll try to makea go of playing freelance and
being a contractor.
And I kind of fell into it.
I started getting some localorchestras to be personal
manager for and my friends MikeBarry who, and Michael Patty

(59:19):
from USC, called me up and saidhey, we're starting this company
called Cine samples.
Would you help us contract somesample libraries union?
We want to do a union which isvery complicated and there was
lots of drama on all that and Iwon't really go into that, but
there was lots of drama.
But we did it and we did theseamazing Cine Brass which people
still use to this day.
It's kind of ubiquitous andfilm scoring mock-up world and

(59:42):
it was a big success and theymade a lot of money and they
said, hey, we'd like to investin another business with you.
What are you interested in?
I said, well, I'd really liketo do a music production company
.
So we started our company,hollywood scoring in 2011 and I
always tell people fortunefavors the bold.
If you're scared of failing andnot taking any risks, then
you're never rewarded foranything.

(01:00:02):
So we I sold a bunch oftrombones and we raised a lot of
money and we basically put inover $100,000 into the business.
We made a big video at the time.
A lot of orchestras were goingto Prague or a lot of composers
were going to Prague to recordorchestras.
It was like a.
It was really in, prague wasreally in.
They've been doing a lot ofnon-union stuff in Seattle.

(01:00:23):
Prague was really really big.
So people were doing theseearly remote sessions to Prague.
So I was like let's make avideo about recording the United
States, recording LA with thebest studio players in the world
.
Blah, blah, blah.
You know, rally around the flag.
Let's make a video and send itout to all the 10,000 composers
on your composing mailing listfor Cine samples.
So we made this really polishedvideo at Sony scoring stage.

(01:00:43):
We spent all this money and wesent out the video and I woke up
the next morning and I had 500emails in my inbox and the first
one was from a company calledRiot Games which is doing League
of Legends, and they said wewant to take a meeting with you.
So we went down the next dayand had a meeting and they said
you know, we have no musicdepartment.
We're really looking to getinto original composition,

(01:01:04):
original scoring, can you helpus with this?
And we became their in-housemusic department and we still
are, to this day, beautiful.
So through that, you know, andkind of getting skin in the game
and you know treating peoplewell, I really wanted to be kind
of an advocate, having sat onall sides of the glass as a
studio owner, as a contractor,as a trombonist, as just a human

(01:01:28):
being, you know, approaching itand being an advocate for
players but also an advocate formanagement.
And I think that's one of thethings that has a lot of
disconnect and there's a lot ofturmoil between musicians and
management.
And this is for a lot of liveorchestras as well, where, you
know, there's just a generallack of communication and
understanding of what each groupdoes and what their interests

(01:01:51):
are and you know what theirmotivations are and I think when
I approach my contracting, Iapproach that from that aspect.
You know I am first and foremosta trombone player and I'm happy
to sit and do a $50 church jobstill to this day to keep myself
grounded and to work with mycolleagues and be seen, you know
, on par with my colleagues, andthen I will absolutely get up

(01:02:14):
and go to bat when someone'sbeing treated wrong and advocate
for people to make the mostmoney for their careers, to
facilitate a lifestyle andcommitment to the art and the
craft as possible.
So that's kind of how I gotinto it.
We built our own scoring stagein 2018.
I just expanded.
So I have two large scoringrooms in Atwater Village and

(01:02:34):
downtown LA and you know I putmy money where my mouth is.
I invest everything that we getin the business if it's brass,
arc or Hollywood scoring and Iput it all into the business to
bring, you know, some kind ofstability and joy to people and
advocate for people any chancethat I can.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Wow, fascinating, it's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
I love it.
I love it, you're doing it.
You're doing all the things.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Someone's got to do it, you know.
I mean, musicians arenotoriously bad for managing
business, like you said.
You know yes we're not taughthow to do it and I realized
early on that I was good at thisand can be a good leader for
people and lead by example,which is rare.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
So much is like understanding your personal
strengths and accepting like hey, I actually am pretty good at
this, why don't you apply Right?

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
And it would be a shame if I didn't.
I think so, you know, and it'sfine and I'm really glad I can
do it.
It makes me very happy when Isend out, you know, a full
payroll for all my colleaguesand friends that deserve it.
You know spent their wholelives learning how to play an
instrument and it gives mereally really great pride to be

(01:03:48):
able to facilitate so that Iknow that they're able to send
their kids to college or paytheir mortgage or buy groceries
that week or buy a newinstrument.
You know brings me great joy,so that's one of the motivations
that makes me keep me workingreally, really hard.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
I love that and I loved how you talked about
understanding both sides.
You know it's so easy to what Icall othering other people.
You know, just assumingeverything they want is the
opposite of what you want andassuming that they don't have
needs to and that they're justout to get you.
You know there's so much mutualground, but I think that that's

(01:04:23):
a good transition to it.
We always kind of have a rapidfire questions to close out and
something I wanted to ask bothof you what's, what's the most
fun part of your job?
If you had to pick one thingthe most fun part of your job
and the most challenging part ofthe work you do.

Speaker 5 (01:04:36):
John, how about you first?
Most fun, most challenging, Ithink for us most fun is the
travel.
You know, as much as I love theshop, like getting out on the
road, getting in front of people, I mean we used to do when I
first started here.
We do one or two conventions ayear and now we do Japan.
Every year we do probably dofour or five conventions in

(01:04:56):
store events, you know, andalthough we're great at
consulting over email or overphone, when you're in front of
you know a person and they'retrying mouthpieces or something
like that.
You know you're hanging out atthe pub or whatever.
You know, it's those kind ofconnections that at the end of
the day it's just the mostfulfilling.
The hardest part man I don'tknow Probably dealing with the

(01:05:21):
IRS right.
You know, you just don't, justjust don't answer their emails
Exactly, yeah, yeah, I mean Ithink it's anything about
running a business, you know.
I think you guys talked about,you know, setting up your
trombone retreat.
You know it's just runningaround, maybe not even having
the confidence to think that youhave the skill set, you know,

(01:05:44):
so you self sabotage or gothrough all of those negative
thoughts that you know don't doanyone good.
So it's just having thatperseverance to know, hey, I'm
in the arena, I can learn and,you know, fake it till you make
it.
So that's probably the mostdifficult part.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
That's good.
How about you, Noah?

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Well, I think the most fun I mean I get to travel
around and do lots of things, sothat's lots of fun and produce
events and get to be reallycreative, you know, outside of
like presenting a show, that'sreally fun.
But for me, like the most joy Iget actually is, you know, when
you're on the job and you'remaking music live and it's
happening and you get to hear acolleague play a really great

(01:06:24):
solo or you know just somethingreally great and you get to look
across and, like you know I'mpart of this like to me that's
really really fun, like justthat communication and dialogue
between your colleagues and thenthe hang afterwards and you get
to congratulate people and youdid a really great job.
The least fun, I think, is frombeing a personal manager.

(01:06:44):
You know, there's always likeconflicts that come up and
dealing with issues with peoplethat maybe aren't getting along
so well, or there's an issuewhere you have, you know,
players that are maybe notnecessarily cutting or pulling
their weight and you have toaddress those things and that's

(01:07:04):
always really uncomfortable andsad because, like I said, you,
if you're an empathetic personand you understand why we all
got into music in the firstplace.
To have to deal with those kindsof things is really awful, and
it does come up as a personalmanager.
So those are the things that Idon't look forward to and

(01:07:28):
they're really really hard anddifficult conversations to have
sometimes, and but it is part ofthe job.
Letting someone go firingsomeone from a job or, you know,
if it's a freelance job, whenthey're like, hey, how come you
didn't call me back for that?
That's always an awkwardconversation and there's.
You know, all I usually tellpeople, which is the truth, is,

(01:07:49):
you know, sometimes there arethings that's happening behind
the scenes that maybe it's notyour playing or maybe it's not,
you know, has nothing to do withyou.
It's just the way that the jobis working out and but obviously
, like it's my name on it.
So, like you know, you kind ofhave an awkward situation with
people that you know.

(01:08:09):
Maybe friendships are sometimesdamaged from that.
So I'd like to hope not, butthat is the not fun part of
being a personal manager.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
It's like literally in the title.
It really is.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
And it's, you know, we've all had to deal with it
and we all have, you know, know,those kinds of situations and
it's just really a tough one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
What would you say the best advice you would give
to a young player that is juststarting out, and how they
communicate with a person.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Good question.
Being overly pushy is not great, but you do want to be
recognized.
But I always tell people thebest recommendations I get are
from your colleagues.
So it's always an audition.

(01:09:00):
Every job is an audition.
In that sense, your playing ishalf of it, but your
communication and your personalskill set and your social skill
set is nearly as important, ifnot more important, than how
well you play.
A lot of this stuff is notnecessarily the most difficult
things possible, and I do, as aplayer, like to pick people for
certain jobs that I know thatthey're going to excel at,

(01:09:22):
because I know they're playingand I know they're going to do a
good job.
I would never try to putsomeone in a situation that I
know they're going to not dowell, and I think that's one of
the nice things about having acontractor that also is a player
is you tend to be able toprotect people better.
But work ethic comes down to it.

(01:09:43):
I think a lot and just sayknowing how to behave in a
professional setting and beingdoing your best work.
The cream always rises to thetop.
People will pass along your nameand I always, you know, someone
will say, hey, here's my resume, I'm new in town.
Okay, send me some examples ofyour playing Great.
I usually won't call them rightaway until someone mentions

(01:10:06):
their name.
Oh, hey, I played a gig withso-and-so and they were you know
.
Oh, how was that?
You know it was great.
Great, you're on the list.
That's kind of how it works andthat's the best way to have it
kind of happen organically,rather than you know.
You shouldn't wait around forthe phone to call, but starting
your own ensembles, getting outthere, you know, kind of taking
control of your own destiny, ina sense of working on yourself

(01:10:28):
and your own artistry, willultimately get you recognized
faster than just sending aresume and say, hey, I'm
available for work.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
You know I got great advice once about thinking.
You know you always think aboutwell, what is this gig pay?
Or you know how many hours isit, things like that.
But like switching it aroundand thinking about, like, what
value can I provide?
You know, if you're auditioningfor an orchestra, you know what
value am I bringing to theorchestra, what skill set, what
am I providing to the, you know,to the section?
Or if it's a professor position, what value am I bringing to

(01:10:59):
the school, to my students?
Or if it's just a freelance gigand it's, and then it combines
all of those elements and it'sbecause it's not just the
playing skills.
But you know, are you arranging, can you provide charts?
Are you a good person, are youa fun hang?
You know those are all, that'sall value that you're bringing
to the performance.
And instead of I mean it isimportant to know what you're

(01:11:19):
getting paid, you know, and whatyou're getting in return.
But you know, I feel like themore you give, then the more
that's going to come back, ifyou don't even have to think
about that part, because ifyou're providing that much value
, stuff will come your way.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Absolutely.
That's beautiful advice, andthat's the same for any type of
human relationship in this world.
Giving more, not expectingthings to just be given to you
that's a beautiful thing, John.
Advice to your 18 year old self.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think it comes to mindset, you know,
I mean I was always introverted.
I was always, you know, nervousto jump into the ring, you know,
and I'm very fortunate that Iam where I am now Despite all of
that.
But thinking about what I couldhave done had I not had self

(01:12:13):
doubt, that I not had, you know,that voice in my head that said
, you know, maybe you shouldn'tapply there, yeah, maybe you
shouldn't call this person andask for a lesson.
You know, and my biggest, one ofmy biggest regrets, at least in
the trumpet world you on Racy,you know one of the nicest human
beings in the world, amazingstudio trumpet player, and he
lived literally down the streetfrom me and at any point I could

(01:12:35):
have called him and taken alesson, you know, but I didn't.
I didn't even have, you know,the wherewithal to do that
because I would talk myself outof it before I'd even pick up
the phone, and then he passesaway and now I have no chance to
, you know, have a lesson, andhe's.
There's countless stories oftrumpet players that took a
lesson from him and changedtheir playing, changed their

(01:12:57):
life, changed their careertrajectory, things like that.
So if I go back to my 18 yearold self, I'd, you know, kick
myself in the seat and say, look, just do it.
Who cares?
No?

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
I think I would give myself advice to travel more.
I travel a lot now as an olderperson an elderly person.
But I got your cane Exactly.
I think you know I would have.
If I could do it again, I wouldgo and travel and meet more
musicians and get around alittle bit more outside of Los

(01:13:28):
Angeles.
It was great to grow up hereand go to school here, but I
think I missed out on, you know,doing festivals and traveling
around the world because I wasso focused on working in town
and I think I missed out on alot of that stuff.
I think you meet a lot ofpeople.
You meet a lot a lot of greatmusic together and see the world

(01:13:49):
as a younger person.
I think that gives you someperspective.
Certainly now that I get totravel for work, I try to do all
of those things now and kind oftake in the culture.
I definitely, you know youdon't really realize that it's
affecting your musicianship, butI think a lot of that does
actually affect yourmusicianship.

(01:14:10):
Having perspective of how bigand special the world is, kind
of bringing those experiences toyour own art is important.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
I have a spare bedroom I got to come yeah when
we got to do our trip, ourYouTube trip, around Germany,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
I'm not joking, because I need to go there soon,
so that makes me think about myother.
They're filming so many thingsin Pittsburgh now.
So many movies because it'slike you know, it's a lot
cheaper here, I think, and theyget a lot of tax breaks in it.
It looks very iconic.
There needs to.
You need to come visit and getscoring and more live recordings
happening here.

(01:14:45):
That'd be awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
But you know, again high tide brings raises all
shifts right.
So, as far as the scoring worldgoes like, it's really
interesting to see a lot of, youknow, back then there wasn't a
lot of places to do it and it'skind of you know just kind of
expanded around the globe.
It's a global marketplace.
You have, you know, budapestand Prague and Iceland and

(01:15:08):
Nashville and Seattle and LA andNew York and all these places.
It's interesting.
It's very expensive to doscoring the right way, but you
need to find people that knowhow to do the workflow.
That's really what it comesdown to and setting up the shop
the correct way, and that's alot of it.
And part of that is one of thereasons why LA is so good is the

(01:15:31):
infrastructure here, and I haveto give a shout out to my own
crew at my studio.
But all the crews around in allthe studios they've been doing,
you know, working in thatfilming environment for some of
them 40, 50 years, and that'sreally where the experience
comes in on the scoring stageand you can see in that setup

(01:15:52):
and stuff and the, you know,engineering side of it.
That's really really important.
That's one of the areas that Ithink a lot of the scoring
places around the world sufferbecause they don't.
You know, not all of them.
Some of them have good people,but some of them don't really
know the workflow and that endsup slowing down and diminishing
the product.
So if there's anyone inPittsburgh that has some scoring

(01:16:12):
experience, you can certainlyget that going as well.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
Oh man, that'd be fun .
Quick one.
There's a billboard that theentire world can see and you can
write anything you want on it.
What would it say?
Hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
This is a PG podcast right now.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
No, it's definitely not PG.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Gosh, that's a weird question, John.
What do you got?
Whoa Practice?
I think I would just put agiant picture of the con
controversy, yeah, and all itsepic glory, and just be like and
everyone will drive by you like, what the hell is that?

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Put brass art at the bottom.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Exactly Nothing else, just the con controversy.
It's so epic it deserves itsown billboard.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
Well, I have an idea for your birthday now.
Oh good, For the person who haseverything, the most difficult
person to shop for.
Can you send me a picture ofthat trombone Because I have to
talk to my ad agency?

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
Nick, do you want to do your last?

Speaker 4 (01:17:16):
question you know, with this particular group of
people.
I think that the question aboutadvice to your 18-year-old self
covers the same premise, so Ithink that we would be double
covered if I asked it again.
Cool.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Well, I'm going to ask you guys a question, because
we didn't ask you on ourpodcast about the gear that you
play, and since we've talkedabout a lot of the gear that
I've played, so I'm going toflip this back on you guys and
tell us about the trombones thatyou own and you play.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
You know I've played, I've been an Edward's artist
for a very long time, and so Ialready talked about my Marcus
Lyft Droughto, which I love verymuch, and I thank you so much
for bringing the ease to getthat in America.
I think he's doing brilliantthings.
I have a King 2B from I thinkit's like a 1969 King 2B that I

(01:18:09):
love.
One thing I kind of actuallywanted to talk to you about it I
have a, I think early 70s Bach36, it's not Mount Vernon but
it's you know, they're all,they're all handmade.
You know, like you know, I wentand tried like 15 of them and I
picked this one up and everyonewas instantly, you know, and I
think we've lost the art of themedium horn.

(01:18:30):
And I think it serves such afunction, like playing a medium
board like a straight horn,especially with with piano and
all of our solo repertoire, isso much more fun to play, so
much easier.
You get so much color, youdon't have to worry about
projecting, but I mean they can,they can be plenty loud playing
in it.
Oh yeah, and it's just adifferent cone of projection,

(01:18:51):
you know, and it's it's playingin a British style brass band.
It really blends well and cutswell with trumpet players.
So I love that horn.
Is that?
I'm like, looking at all myinstruments now, it's like
nothing compared to what Noahhas.
Yeah, that's why I've beenplaying and I have, you know,
found some old trumpets atgarage sales that I need to
donate or something.
Donate them to Noah.
And I have.

(01:19:11):
I have a theremin, oh God, no,I don't deal, I don't deal with
trumpet players.
I have a theremin for somereason.
And I have yeah, I think thatcovers most things.
Nick, Nick.

Speaker 4 (01:19:24):
Nick, I do a lot of fun toys.
My main instrument is a M&Wbased Ramon.
Do you, do you want to know allthe details, or I want all?

Speaker 3 (01:19:34):
the details.

Speaker 5 (01:19:34):
Man, I want to know, give me the specs, tuning in
slide or any of that stuff thatyou guys talk about.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Different valves and rotors.
It's not tuning in slide.
It's got a.
It's got a red brass bell.
I both.
I have a uncut one, I have acut one.
I mainly use the cut one and Ihave.
Yours is cut right, noah.

Speaker 5 (01:19:59):
Mine.
What Is yours cut Mine's?

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
cut Mine's cut.
Yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, thattook a second to process, thanks
, I got there right away.

Speaker 5 (01:20:12):
You guys have to be on your toes.
You let a trumpet player inhere.
You guys have to stay on yourtoes.
That's what we're for.
We can't play in tune, but wecan keep you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
I have a really unique instrument.
It was a.
It's a Raph trombone with greenhoe valves.
He only made one of the.
He made a couple of them intenor tremone, but he only made
one.
He just made a prototype.
And then Gary Greenhoe foundout what he was doing with them,
because he bought the valvesections from Gary and then just
threw everything away and keptthe valve and made his own wrap.

Speaker 5 (01:20:43):
And Gary really didn't like that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
But I have that horn.
That's a great horn.
That's what I won my edition atballet with.
I have my Marcus Loichter thatI bought from you.
It's actually in the shop rightnow.
I'm supposed to get it just forlike cleaning.
I'm supposed to get it backlike tomorrow.
Plus, I have I have a Chinesesack but a Wessex.

(01:21:07):
I have a salvation army G basedRamon, and I have heavy, heavy
use the G base from on our jobs.
That was an impulse buy and Ihave can still contra base Ramon
and I have a Wessex C off aClyde Nice yeah, that's actually

(01:21:31):
a very good instrument,especially for the price.
I was very surprised by it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
You know, off a Clyde's get a bad reputation,
but they're actually quitelovely.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
Well, the way I play it, it deserves its reputation.

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
Well, the fingerings just doesn't make any sense at
all.
When you try to describesomeone.

Speaker 4 (01:21:47):
It's like, it's like it's.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
It's random memorization, you know it's
random as no, white was popularwith a lot of amateurs, but I
can assume it's a good thing.
Yeah, but it is.
It is cool.
I mean there are some amazingplayers out there that play
Patrick B Bear or anything inthis.
In France, Patrick is yeah,he's, he's incredible Great

(01:22:09):
serpent player too.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
He's absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
He must give all the girls unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
Is that my whole collection?
That might be my wholecollection.
No euphoniums, no, no tubas.
The euph, the euphonium, oh thewell.
The euphonium is like Doing areally cool party trick.
It's like, really, it's like,oh, that's, that's fun and

(01:22:36):
interesting, but it's like, comeon, it's euphonium.
Sorry, I have a deep hate ofeuphonium, but I get to see our
subscribers going down and downwell if they've ever all those
euphonium players.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
It it's kind of it's kind of our inside joke on the
podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Anytime euphonium comes up, we just trash it for
no reason, even though we havewell, the thing that always made
me laugh about euphonium islike you'll have the hardest
parts ever.
I can't hear him and no onehears them.
Yeah, you can't hear her again.
As long as you play your solos,everyone's like, wow, it's so
beautiful instrument.
You just got to play your solosand just noodle your way

(01:23:17):
through all the other stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
Yep, tuba.
I love the tuba I don't wantwell, I do want to own a tuba.
My wife would kill me, thoughyou know she's already mad about
the amount of stuff I have inour New York City apartment.
I'm thinking about like puttingup, like People who use this in
garages and stuff to takeadvantage of vertical spaces
without installing actualshelving.

(01:23:39):
You can get like those.
It's like a Great that you canRot, raise up and down on a
pulley system and so it kind oflives up on the ceiling and it
used kind of tie Tie the stringto the wall.
I'm thinking about doing thatfor my my cases and just using
the verticals.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
I think it's a good idea.

Speaker 5 (01:23:57):
So, rob's no, wheels are turning, rob.
No, I know so.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Rob Stewart actually came into my shop and we first
moved into our shop Rob Stewart.
I legendary brass repair man.
You guys know who he is, so youknow he was like hey, I'm gonna
come over to your shop.
I got some parts I'm gonna dropoff for you guys donate
donation to your new business.
And he walked into.
My shop is tiny, it's 400square feet and I shared that
with Brad, so he's got his halfand I have mine, so I have all

(01:24:23):
of my horns and roughly about200 square feet and he walks.
He's like pretty small.
He's like a lot of real estateon the roof so I have a lot of
stuff like hanging in the shop.
It's it's pretty.
We maximize the space.

Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
So we gotta do.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
I'm all for it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
I'm imagining some amazing futuristic system where
you just walk in and hit abutton.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
It's like the dry cleaners they just come around
on the.

Speaker 4 (01:24:47):
What do they call those?
The tubes at the bank, you know.
The new matter to have a newmatter tube.
You put like.
You put like a euphonium inthere, you just toss that
actually Just shoot.

Speaker 5 (01:25:00):
see you, funny, I'm up the next shop.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
No, we're gonna do that.

Speaker 5 (01:25:03):
I love this idea yeah .

Speaker 3 (01:25:04):
I love this idea.

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
I like both the dry cleaner and the new attic tubes.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
We'll do both.
We get good Instagram.
I was really good engagement onthat, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
I was really thinking people were gonna start just 3d
printing all their mouthpiecesand just hitting the button and
Getting the specs.
But it's.
I think we're a ways away fromthat you know, it's pretty
amazing what they could do a 3dprinting.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
I was at a JPL does like a open house once a year
and they have this amazingmachine shop there.
You're in a machine stuff andin LA and they happen to be
doing a JPL open house youshould go.
But they have like the mostAmazing machine shop but they
have a whole section nowdedicated to 3d printing and
metal and the stuff that theywere showing us, these pieces
that they made Unbelievabletechnology.

(01:25:44):
Who knows what's gonna comewith all that, but pretty
amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:25:49):
I was gonna say I saw a 3d printed bassoon mute
yesterday.
I thought that was pretty cool.
No, I'm assuming.
Excuse me, I'm soon a low notelike an extension.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool, it's
amazing stuff that's.
Yeah, it's just gonna keepgetting better than other
sentence that no one's ever seen.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
Let's 3d printing euphonium.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
Only one.
You thought he made it Well,truly, truly awesome.
We got to do this again.

Speaker 5 (01:26:15):
Yeah, this is fun.
We can do an annual likeholiday episode.

Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
Yeah, breakfast tacos and bagels breakfast tacos.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
Yeah, oh.
And we got a if we're, if we'reever in the in the same place
again.
At the same time, we got a fairway to record live Well.

Speaker 4 (01:26:32):
For sure, it's an opportunity would be at like a
ITF or something, but we canfigure that out, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
Yeah, no, you won't be a team.
Yeah, Noah, will you TBD?

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
Kind of checking schedules, but John wants me to
come friend, it twists his arm.
He's.
He's trying to put the Put thescrews down on me to come for
that one, but we'll see.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
I have a room with a pool table.
I didn't tell you guys that.
Yeah, oh well, that's wings todeal it all.

Speaker 3 (01:26:57):
Noah, all right, all right, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 5 (01:27:01):
Party in my right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:02):
All right, sounds like a plan.

Speaker 5 (01:27:03):
Well, let's do this again.
Thanks guys.
Yeah, absolute honor to be onhere.
Thank you, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:27:08):
Yeah, absolutely Thanks, this was fun.
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