Simple Song

Bernstein's beautiful song reduced to a single line played on the trumpet.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Frank Gabriel Campos
• Art of the Single Line
• trumpet
• solo
• alone
• unaccompanied
• Leonard Bernstein
• Mass
• Simple Song

[ertatta]

bravo, bravo frank! love the way u bend pitches in a subtle sorta way and the way your bridging the melody lines with what would(originally) be the accompaniment line played on guitar. pure music expression my friend, thank!

[FrankGabrielCampos]

@ertatta Many thanks! I have dozens of these little pieces worked up--I'll record them one of these days.

[SteveHatchfield]

Your playing posture is very unconventional, would you normally play like this had the microphone been positioned differently? Either way you have a great sound and obvious talent. Perhaps more proof that success doesn't have to come from playing "by the book" so to speak.

[FrankGabrielCampos]

Thanks, Steve. If you look around a bit, you will see that some fine players need to angle downward, sometimes sharply, in order to play their best. (See Sergei Nakarjakov, for example.) I wrote a book about trumpet technique and teach the trumpet for a living, so I know the subject well, but decades of trial and error has led me to this place. For now, that's how it looks when I am playing my best...

[FrankGabrielCampos]

Thanks! That's the idea behind the project: to distill a piece to its essence. The trumpet can only play one note at a time, but like a pen and ink drawing, a single line can suggest a great deal. Choosing what to play out of all of the possible notes is the art of it. Playing the trumpet constantly without rest is the hardest part!

[torosax]

very nice! I actually like the way that the piano accompaniment is incorporated into the instrumental line...

[orphamay]

Inspirationally motivating stuff. D Parks sent us here. Kudos aplenty!

[Jazz4Joe]

Such beautiful tone. This is a wonderful piece. Something that all aspiring trumpet players should hear. You gotta like this!

[LouisRosendoMarquez]

Professor Campos is a remarkable trumpet player. His tone, technique, range, and clarity are the finest I've ever heard.