The article, “Brad Goode: Really Improvising Instead of Reciting Material,” is about the trumpeter, bassist, drummer, composer and arranger, Brad Goode.

Regarding Goode, JazzTimes’ Doug Ramsey wrote, “Goode’s interval leaps, fragmented phrases, squeezed arpeggios, slurs, smears and other applications of his advanced technique may be partly for fun, but in that exercise in fractured tempo, his whimsical bits and pieces combine with those of the rhythm section to form a sensible abstract-expression. He has internalized the profound harmonic lessons of Gillespie and Parker and applies them in a very personal way.” In Goode’s adopted city of Chicago, the critics are also overwhelmed. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “(Goode) has transcended the standard-issue solutions and copycat technique that characterize so many players of his generation.” The Chicago Tribune was more concise, simply calling him, “The lyrical genius of the trumpet.” Downbeat noted, “Goode juxtaposes the lyrical with the angular, fireworks with introspection and virtuosity with understatement.” It is, however, jazz historian Mark Gridley who sums Goode up best writing, “Tired of hearing trumpet clones of Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard? Want a cliché-free style? Try the fresh style of Brad Goode. It’s got power and swing, tenderness and depth.” Truer words are rarely written.

While born in Chicago, Goode spent his high school years in East Lansing, Michigan. A Bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Kentucky was followed by a Master’s degree in bass performance from DePaul. Trumpet study, however, never stopped. Following Kentucky, while living in Chicago, Goode spent five years driving back-and-forth to Bloomington, Indiana to study with Bill Adam. It was the professional jazz gigs starting while still in high school, such as trading fours with Cat Anderson on a concert at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp as just one example, which helped develop Goode’s style. Mentorships included trumpeter Red Rodney, who helped Goode learn, “the goal is to sing the music through one’s instrument,” and multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan. A pivotal experience was meeting and working with saxophone legend Von Freeman, who became Goode’s “hero.” Later Clark Terry helped Goode build his chops back up after some lip problems, resulting in another close mentor relationship. Terry also passed on the secrets of doodle-tonguing, which Goode has mastered.

Today Goode leads his own band featuring saxophonist Ernie Watts, and has toured and recorded with Von Freeman, Red Rodney, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Curtis Fuller, Jack DeJohnette, Ernie Krivda, Eddie Johnson, Rosemary Clooney, Barrett Deems and the Woody Herman Orchestra. Furthermore, Goode is now in the bands of Sinatra-styled multi-platinum selling crooner Matt Dusk, and West African drummer Paa Kow.

All of this, however, isn’t enough for Goode as he’s also dedicated his life to passing on his abundance of knowledge. Currently on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Goode teaches jazz improvisation and jazz history, has a jazz trumpet studio and conducts ensembles. He also teaches middle and high school students through the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts, is on the faculty of the Jazz Trumpet Consortium, directs a summer jazz camp at CU, and serves as the Musical Director for the Conference on World Affairs. Previous ľĂľĂČČ appoints include The American Conservatory of Music, The University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Cuyahoga Community College, and New Trier High School. Proof of his pedagogical capabilities is seen in the great number of Goode’s students who have gone on to great playing careers of their own.

The article, “A Lifetime of Musical Dedication: Dave Stahl,” is about the amazingly talented big band lead trumpeter and jazz soloist Dave Stahl.

After earning a Music Education degree from Penn State University, Stahl started as a Pre-Med major but switched, Stahl entered the Army where he was a soloist with The Army Band, the Lead Trumpeter in the Army Blues Band, and Principal Trumpet in the White House Herald Trumpets. Upon his discharge, Stahl was immediately snapped up by a succession of the best big band leaders including Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, with whom he was also road manager, Count Basie, Larry Elgart, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, among many others. Along the way he backed up artists like Tony Bennett, Englebert Humperdinck, Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Jones, Frank Sinatra, including the live telecast from Madison Square Garden entitled Sinatra: The Main Event, Mel Torme, and Sarah Vaughan, to list a few. His gigs led him to Europe, North Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, Japan, and forty-eight of the fifty states.

Free-lancing in New York City, Stahl played in many commercials including the I Love New York campaign, Nationwide Insurance, Ford Motor Company, and the sports themes for Fox. Stahl performed on Broadway and off-Broadway Shows including playing the Lead Trumpet book of the new 1999 Broadway show Saturday Night Fever. He also played in clubs and hotels in Atlantic City, as soloist with orchestras performing Floyd Werley’s wickedly difficult Concerto for Trumpet, judging many music competitions, and appearing on television shows like The Mike Douglas Show and a live PBS special at the White House. Two accolades include being one of the featured performers in the International Brass Conference tribute to Maynard Ferguson, and being listed in noted jazz critic Leonard Feather’s Encyclopedia of Jazz.

Yet even this list of accomplishments only scratches the surface.. In April of 1977 Stahl formed The Dave Stahl Band so he could follow his own musical interests. His first recording, Anaconda, was full of hits like Dick Lowell’s Jump (For My Love), That’s What Friends Are For, Alan Downey’s arrangement of Saving All My Love For You, and original charts featuring Stahl’s distinctive trumpet and flugelhorn playing. To further record his own band Stahl formed Abee Cake Records in 1987. In 1999 Stahl created the Sacred Orchestra, a 23-piece, plus 10 vocalists, studio orchestra. By the time Covid hit the ensemble had racked up over 270 worship services or concerts of sacred music, along with two recordings. As if this wasn’t enough, Stahl created a Pennsylvania (PA) big band which quickly found themselves doing weekly concerts all around Southeastern PA. Even with the success from his solo ventures, Stahl never stopped freelancing with others. This includes, but is not limited to, spending 18 years touring the world as Liza Minelli’s lead trumpeter.

The article, “Hugh Ragin: Put Your Own Thing On It,” is about trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, scholar and educator Hugh Ragin. He performs jazz in an inexhaustible number of widely-divergent genres and each at an incredibly high level of artistic and virtuoso-technical levels. A few of the varieties include forward-thinking music with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, conducting original music with the David Murray Big Band, music based on non-traditional music notation with Wadada Leo Smith, advanced ways of thinking about how composition and improvisation interact with Anthony Braxton, as well as R&B with Randy Crawford, as a member of both Maynard Ferguson and Roy Hargrove’s big bands, and contemporary jazz with Mark Sloniker. This list, however, is just the start. Ragin also leads many different ensembles including his own Latin Soul Express which, as one critic put it, brings “south-of-the-border flavor to… jazz classics.”

On his own recordings, Ragin is just as varied. A few examples include free jazz on the album “Revelation,” blues-inflected straight-ahead on “A Message from Sun Ra,” bop on his own “Blue Honda a la Truck” on “Back to Saturn,” an album of solo trumpet on “Sound Pictures,” and on “Feel the Sunshine” Ragin’s rendition of Caravan pays homage to jazz’s history while simultaneously moving forward. So broad are Ragin’s stylistic abilities critic Steve Loewy wrote, “(Ragin) cannot be pigeonholed.”

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Ragin started playing the trumpet in junior high. His classical chops won him a spot in the Houston All-City High School Orchestra touring England and Wales. While earning a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Houston, Ragin met jazz legend Donald Byrd who stressed, “fundamentals, bebop, swing, and work ethic.” A Master’s degree in classical trumpet performance from Colorado State University was followed by expanding his experiences with jazz. Ragin went to the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York, to study composition with co-founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEOC), saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell. Mitchell’s groundbreaking organizations stressed performing, “Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future.” Ragin’s own music takes this edict to heart, incorporating blues, R&B, classical, world, and all of jazz’s history into an improvisational/compositional context defying inclusive definition.

Ragin’s excellence was quickly noticed by others and he was soon playing with the Roscoe Mitchell/Leo Smith Creative Orchestra, and forming a many decades relationship with AACM members. Later Ragin joined Maynard Ferguson’s big band and was asked to move to New York by David Murray so he could join the leader’s critically acclaimed octet.

The love of ľĂľĂČČ and education was never far from Ragin’s plans, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Colorado (UC), Boulder, with ľĂľĂČČ stints at Oberlin, the Colorado Jazz Workshop, and in the Denver Public School System, as three examples. Currently ľĂľĂČČ Jazz Studies at UC Boulder, he is a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Ragin is a prolific composer, whose pieces have been performed by many including David Sanford who used Ragin’s A Prayer for Lester Bowie as the central compositional piece in his own big band recording of the same name.

To say high critical acclaim is universal and noteworthy is an understatement. Jazz historian Francis Davis describes Ragin as, “a trumpeter with very few peers in terms of imagination or technical command.” Scott Yanow wrote, “virtually every Hugh Ragin recording is well-worth exploring,” and critic Chris Kelsey stated, “(Ragin has a) well-rounded technique and abundant imagination.” Going on Kelsey declares Ragin, “a harmonically daring player, (combining) the clear, ringing tone of a classical trumpeter with the chops and rhythmic ingenuity of a top-notch bebopper.” A true jazz master, Ragin himself strives, “(to) be part of a continuum of growth in music education and music performance.”

This is Erdmann’s 293rd peer-reviewed/professional published article.

The article, “Having the Right Mindset: Jeff Jarvis,” is about the jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, conductor, writer, and educator Jeff Jarvis who is currently Director of Jazz Studies at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University Long Beach.

You would be hard-pressed to find an area of jazz Jarvis has not worked in at one point or another in his life. His credits as a performer include the Atlanta, Buffalo, Denver and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras. With regard to military ensembles, he has appeared with the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note, U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, U.S. Army Blues, Jazz Knights of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, U.S. Air Force Commanders Jazz Band, and U.S. Air Force Shades of Blue.

A few of the big bands he’s played with are the Riverside Jazz Orchestra, Dallas Jazz Orchestra, Oslo Big Band (Norway), Frank Mantooth Jazz Orchestra and Tom Kubis Big Band. Working live he’s also been frequently called upon to be a side musician with top jazz performers including Louie Bellson, Eddie Daniels, Gladys Knight, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Joe Lovano, Kevin Mahogany, Henry Mancini, Rob McConnell, Van Morrison, Grady Tate, Doc Severinsen, Joe Williams, and many more.

It all began while Jarvis was still in college at Temple University. He worked his way into becoming a studio musician with Philadelphia International Records. The sound created in their studios became known as “Philly Sound” and artists from all over the world went there to tap into the magic. During this time, Jarvis worked with not only the top pop bands in the area but also national artists such as Michael Jackson, Melba Moore, The O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass and Lou Rawls, to list just a few. All told, Jarvis made over 100 recordings backing this wide variety of artists.

As a composer and arranger, Jarvis has composed commissioned music for school, military and professional big bands, as well as pops orchestras and studio session material for many artists. His composed and/or arranged published works are available from UNC Jazz Press, Alfred, iJazz and Kendor Music.

Interest in sharing his knowledge with others led Jarvis to author a number of books including “Jamz 15 Solos in Modern Styles,” and co-author a number of others including “The Jazz Educators Handbook” with Doug Beach and “The Chord Voicing Handbook” with Matt Harris. As if this isn’t enough, he has acted as contributing editor for The Instrumentalist, and written for Flute Talk, Band & Orchestra Product News and Jazz Educators Journal.

Today, while still performing frequently, Jarvis works as a guest conductor leading honors jazz bands, including all-state jazz ensembles in 39 states and four Canadian provinces. He is past president of the California Alliance for Jazz and served as vice president of the International Association for Jazz Education. His time spent as co-owner of Kendor Music Publishing, from 1985 to 2015, was fostered when he started working there as an editor. Jarvis’ many accolades include the Lifetime Achievement in Jazz and Jazz Education award from Global Music Awards.

For this musician, who comes from a musical family (his father was a trumpet player and band director, his mother was an elementary vocal teacher, and his two sisters are retired elementary school music vocal teachers) and whom famed critic Scott Yanow described as playing “hot solos (with) strong musicianship,” you’d be hard-pressed to find something Jarvis hasn’t done.

The paper, “Aaron Copland’s Emblems: A Theoretical/Formal Analysis,” is a theory paper about the construction and compositional techniques Copland used in composing his composition for winds, “Emblems.”

The article, “Sarah Wilson: Taking The Road Less Traveled,” is about the forward-thinking jazz trumpeter, composer and vocalist, who comes from a non-traditional background.

For a small minority the route is circuitous and individualistic, involving experiences not usually associated with the drive to musical mastery. It was on one of these personal and unique paths Wilson, whom the San Francisco Chronicle calls “one of the most intriguing and promising composers and trumpeters on the contemporary music scene,” traveled to find success.

Raised in Healdsburg, CA, Wilson freely admits she was not totally dedicated to the trumpet as a youth. Majoring in anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, the lapsed trumpeter contemplated a master’s or Ph.D. in the field. It was, however, her collegiate interest in theater that led to a chance encounter with a visiting artist from The Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont. Upon graduation, Wilson moved east and spent two years touring in the ensemble’s productions. This was a hectic time as Wilson was touring in the spring and falls with Bread and Puppet but spent the winter of 1991-92 in New York City (NYC) and the winter of 1992-93 in San Francisco and Oakland. After two years of almost constant travel she moved to NYC for the next 12 years.

While there she took a day job at the American Museum of Natural History and, on a recommendation from trumpeter Dave Douglas, studied trumpet with John McNeil as well as began practicing in earnest. McNeil suggested further trumpet lessons with Laurie Frink. During this time, Wilson gravitated toward the music performed at The Knitting Factory by the group of forward-thinking jazz musicians collectively referred to as the Downtown new music scene.

Wilson’s theater and puppet background proved fortuitous when she was commissioned to write music for the Boston Puppeteer’s Cooperative, all former Bread and Puppet colleagues, for their puppet show at Lincoln Center for the Arts. This started a six-year stint writing and performing at the Out of Doors Festival at Lincoln Center. Working more and more as a musician Wilson dropped her job to part-time in order to focus on music. Among the gigs she was picking up included scoring a film for the American Museum of Natural History’s Body Art exhibit, playing trumpet and singing with the Great Small Works performance collective and other groups like Circus Amok. Even though she was offered a scholarship and entrance into New York University’s Master’s program in composition, it was classical music study with Schoenberg Scholar Paul Caputo which eventually earned her a bachelor’s in music from Empire State College.

After 12 years, Wilson moved back to the Bay Area and quickly formed a community with California musicians aided by word-of-mouth from the community of California musicians she had played with while in New York. Working steadily on the West Coast, Europe, and with gigs back in New York until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Wilson is again starting to book performances as a leader, such as at the 2021 virtual Festival of New Trumpet Music, as well as taking selected side musician positions. Her path may be unconventional, but her musicianship is beyond dispute.

The article, “Gunhild Carling: Building a Platform for your Heart,” is about the Swedish music sensation. Born on May 7, 1975 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Carling grew up in southern Sweden, near Malmo. Raised in a family of musicians and entertainers, her trumpet-playing father Hans Cooling (1942–2017) was widely known for his traditional jazz abilities while her mother is an accomplished banjo player.

Almost from birth, Carling started playing many different instruments. Even though she never had formal music lessons, she quickly became proficient on trumpet, trombone, bagpipes, recorder, banjo and ukulele, among others. As an accomplished dancer Carling placed third as a celebrity dancer in 2014 on the Swedish television competition series “Let’s Dance.”

While no single article can include everything Carling has done in her still young life, a brief recap includes playing in her first concert with the Carling Family Band at the Malmo Jazz Festival at the age of seven. She was featured on her family band’s 1985 album “I’ve Lost My Heart in Dixieland,” and by the age of 10 Carling and her family were appearing widely on television not only in Sweden but throughout Europe including many appearances at various jazz festivals.

Another family band recording was released in 1987 to wide critical acclaim, and by 1990 the band was touring the world. In 1998, Carling took up acting and appeared in the Swedish television show “Christmas Calendar,” playing the role of Mary.

More appearances at jazz festivals and on European television shows led her to form her own band in 2001 and toured with them for 14 years, all the while appearing on television and releasing albums. By 2015, her big band show grew to include dance troupes, circus acrobats and a string section. Her many awards include, but are not limited to, The Louis Armstrong Scholarship, the Kobe Jazz Street Award, The Anita O’Day Award, Scanian of the Year and the Thore Ehrling Scholarship.

Moving with her family to northern California in 2018, Carling lost many of her upcoming appearances when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, but she is poised and ready to jump back into performing widely once venues open back up. Known as Sweden’s “Queen of Swing,” she has delighted audiences worldwide for decades with her amazing musicianship and expert comic timing. Her storming of the United States is about to begin.

The article, “It’s About the Feel First: Tanya Darby,” is about jazz trumpeter and lead trumpet in a big band specialist, Tanya Darby. She has played lead with the Count Basie Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera and the United Nations Orchestra, Rufus Reid Large Ensemble, the George Gruntz Jazz Band, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Jimmy Heath’s Queens Jazz Orchestra and the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, to list just a few. Additionally, she is a former member of Michel Camilo Big Band, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

The enormity of Darby’s abilities is additionally evidenced by her work, both in the studio and on the road, with artists like the Ron Carter Great Big Band, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera, Jon Faddis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Gladys Knight, the Mingus Big Band, Terri Lyne Carrington and Clark Terry.

Her many television performances include BET on Jazz as part of the T.S. Monk Sextet, and performing with Aretha Franklin as part of the “Arista Records’ 25th Year Anniversary Special” on NBC. She has also been thrice nominated for Grammy Awards; in 2014 for her work on “OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer” with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra; in 2011 for the recording “Quite Pride: A Suite for Large Ensemble” with Rufus Reid and in 1996 for “Live and In Clave” with Bobby Sanabria.

In addition to being a killer performer, Darby’s love of sharing knowledge has made her one of the most sought-after teachers in the world. Not only does she do countless international clinics, residencies and jazz festivals, but she currently serves as chair of the Brass Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Previous positions that Darby has held include assistant professor of Lead Trumpet at the University of North Texas and adjunct faculty at Temple University and the New School University of New York City. Her own degrees are both in jazz performance with a bachelor’s from the Manhattan School of Music and a master’s from Rutgers University.

Perhaps the most striking aspect pointing to how boundless Darby’s abilities are lies in the fact she has attained all of the above without a single musical release as a leader. She has accomplished all of this by working as a side musician. Devoting almost all of her career as a side musician and pedagogue speaks volumes to what she considers the most important work in life – not egotistically striving for one’s own personal glory but providing help and encouragement to others.

The article, “Ian Carey: Contrast Can Be Just As Effective As Synchronicity,” is about jazz trumpeter, with multiple appearances on Downbeat magazine’s Rising Star runners-up list, and an exceptional graphic designer and illustrator so busy he has to turn work away.

, a trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and bandleader, puts these different careers on full presentation with his newest release “Fire In My Head, The Anxiety Suite.”  Carey not only did the intricate CD jacket graphics, but also played and composed the music.  Carey’s compositions, on this his sixth release as a leader, were the result of a New Jazz Works commission grant from no-less a prestigious institution than Chamber Music America.

As a jazz musician, Carey has been working hard his entire life and the fruits are paying off handsomely. Bill Kirchner, editor of The Oxford Companion to Jazz, calls Carey’s “Interview Music” album, “Extraordinary writing for three horns―some of the best I’ve ever heard.”  Downbeat gave Carey’s “Roads & Codes” album a coveted 4½ star rating, commenting on both his skills as an illustrator and performer. “Carey knows it can [take] creative packaging to get great music noticed these days. ‘Roads & Codes’ showcases both the trumpeter’s sideline as an illustrator and his primary gig as the leader of a highly skilled band of improvisers,” the review said. Of Carey’s “Contextualizin‘” album, Cadence Magazine noted, “Carey interprets his own compositions with straightforward melodic lyricism—deceptively straightforward, in fact [this disc is] an opportunity to showcase ‘discursively’ not only Carey’s distinctive style, but also his varied compositional talent.”

Carey was born on July 24, 1974 in Binghamton, New York, to a musical family.  His dad was a choral vocalist on many recordings of Ives and Stravinsky, and the whole family sang in the church choir.  It was the church’s guest brass quintets which inspired Carey to pick up the trumpet in the fourth grade. At 13, the family moved to Folsom, California where he joined the local award-winning high school jazz band and a fervor for the music took hold of him.

Before transferring to The New School in New York, Carey started collegiate studies in classical music at the University of Nevada at Reno, but left due to the lack of jamming partners at the time. In New York he studied improvisation with living legends like Billy Harper, Loren Schoenberg and Reggie Workman; composition with Bill Kirchner and Maria Schneider; and trumpet with Cecil Bridgewater, Laurie Frink and John McNeil.

After seven years of working and playing in New York, Carey moved to San Francisco and quickly became one of the area’s busier jazz trumpeters, as well as a highly successful graphic artist.

Well on his way, Carey’s accomplishments are the result of hard work, dedicated listening and hours upon hours of practice. One only needs to listen to how effortless Carey makes playing the trumpet sound to know he puts in his time in the woodshed.  Just in his 40s, Carey’s past successes point toward an increasingly upward trajectory of not just wider acclaim and but visual artistic achievement.