Tyson Sterne is a trumpet player living in the DC area who has been attending The Jazz Workshop for about eight months now. He works as a music educator in the Fairfax County public school system. He's played trumpet since 1988, or about 36 years. I've always been impressed by his range of abilities, and I asked him to write a little bit about his musical background, and particularly what he sees as the challenges of playing big-band / ensemble playing vs. small-group jazz playing.
As a trumpet-playing music educator, I've made it a priority to learn a broad range of musical styles. I've enjoyed acquiring this diverse musical skill set over the years, but here I want to talk specifically about my journey as a jazz trumpet player - a pursuit that is perhaps a little different than other styles of music I’ve studied.
I started becoming serious about playing trumpet in drum corps when I was 14. At that point in my life, it was just a way to get out of the house, but I quickly figured out that I really enjoyed playing. My high school had a very strong jazz program, and I managed to get into the jazz band my junior year (playing 4th trumpet) and I moved up to lead trumpet in my senior year.
After high school, I attended the University of Washington as a music education major.Seattle has a very robust jazz scene, and every educator is expected to have significant big band experience. As I moved up through the ranks as a big-band trumpet player at UW, I figured out quickly that I didn’t have the serious high note range to be a real professional lead player. My highest consistent note was F6 (concert Eb6) and my colleagues on that book were playing an octave above that.
I never got to play 2nd trumpet chair anywhere because they were always working on some sort of “magical mysterious improvising thing”. I was the marching band trumpet section leader, in drum corps, and an education major. I didn’t have time for that! Jazz was an entirely different skill set, it seemed to me.
After I graduated, I taught middle school band and I continued to play around town in a Mexican “Banda”, brass quintets, British Brass Bands, and community wind bands and community orchestras. I even managed in my early 20’s to sub in funk bands and ska bands.
I remember once being out on the town with friends and a trombone player friend of mine was on stage with his Ska band. He actually got his trumpet player to hand me a trumpet and mouthpiece and said, “JAM OUT ON YOUR E MINOR WHEN WE GET TO THE SOLO SECTION" (he was yelling because it was a ska show in a bar in 1999) and I had had enough “liquid courage” to have my first improvising experience, live, in front of a couple hundred people.
This was a key life moment for me. Up until that point in my life, I had always played written parts even in the jazz big bands. I had never realized, until that moment, that I could be the actual musician/composer, and improvise something on-the-spot.
Now, as an adult that has lived in five major cities and as a military musician, I have played in many local community bands, jazz big bands, orchestras, and chamber groups, but I have always been looking for more opportunities to play anything improvisational. In college I wasn’t ready - that second chair trumpet player had seemed to be doing something “magical” when they improvised, and I had no idea how to get to that point as a player.
I knew what the lead trumpet player was doing - he was communicating dynamics, starting and stopping points of notes, phrases, and how far we were laying back as a section, but improvising?! It was still magic, but magic I wanted to learn.
In my first military assignment I was fortunate enough to enlist at the same time as a very talented (and forgiving) jazz trombone player and tenor sax player, both of whom are still among my best friends. The two of them took me under their wing and helped me to get started on my improvising journey.
We started a small "trad jazz” group and played at our local “trad jazz” festivals. I did as much work as I could at the time on having playable improvised solos. My two friends would give me tips to do better every time, and they would very quickly let me know when I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do.
Improvising wasn’t quite as magical to me as that first moment where I jammed on E minor at a bar for 3 minutes after a few beers. It was a whole series of chord changes that I had to navigate with a few very competent musicians that I didn’t want to disappoint. It took a lot of work and there were some very difficult and humbling moments!
I am now fortunate to have a place to continue this journey as an improvising trumpet player at The Jazz Workshop. Here, after a few sessions to get acclimated, improvising started being fun again, and I started finding things that I could work on, and practicing became enjoyable for the first time in many years.
Instead of the Clark Technical Studies, I can study Clark Terry.
Instead of long tones, I can work on “The Lick” (in all 12 keys!)
Instead of Gekker I can transcribe Gillespie.
I’m working with actual music instead of exercises that prepare you for music. Of course, those technical exercises are still mandatory for any brass player, but for me now, working on jazz is an opportunity to learn by playing real music from real jazz musicians. As a section player in a big band, or any other large ensemble, it was always about matching style, articulation, playing in tune, and interpreting a composer’s intent. But when you’re improvising in a small group, it’s about what you’ve worked on and what you have to say as a musician and human being.
I am grateful for the opportunity to refine that art here in my newest city, and look forward to continuing this journey as a jazz trumpet player.
Thank you Tyson for sharing your story and your insights about life and music with us! It's our pleasure to work with you at The Jazz Workshop.