I was listening to the band Cake (who have a trumpet player) and it got me wondering. Outside of horn sections, it is rare to have rock bands feature a trumpet player. In contrast there have been many rock sax players (and even a handful of flautists). Why so few trumpeters? And what rock bands did have a trumpeter as their only horn player?
The same can be said of other instruments like French horns, clarinets, xylophones… even the guitar (nylon string). Maybe the reason is that these instruments “sound funny” because listeners tend to associate them with other styles of music, which is a distraction that weakens the overall impact of the music. For example, the trumpet line that comes in toward the end of the Pulp Fiction music sounds a bit odd to my ears. I’m reminded of big bands, pre-rock nightclubs or maybe bullfighting.
John Entwistle of the Who played French horn and trumpet on a lot of their albums.
Um. What?
“Outside of when everyone bakes cakes, why does nobody bake cakes anymore?”
Midnight Oil (who you probably haven’t heard of but you should have) used a horns section at times:
Also [Hunters & Collectors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunters_%26_Collectors) used horns a fair bit.I suspect one of the reasons trumpet (and horns) aren’t much heard in rock bands is that they are usually just providing a backing “wash” which can more cheaply and conveniently provided by keyboards if and when required.
Horns occupy the same sonic space as lead guitar. Sax was featured in early rock n’ roll, but as amps got loud and distortion/other effects enables lead guitar to really step out front, horns were relegated to backing bits. Add to that the fact that horns are harder to learn and a few teenage kids could grab guitars, bass and drums and make reasonable-sound rock and you’re done…
Staying down under, Don McGlashan, the lead singer of the New Zealand band the Mutton Birds sometimes plays a euphonium instead of his guitar. Great live wersion of A Thing Well Made with close-ups… He still uses it in his solo sets.
Horns were more expensive than guitars, too. Paul McCartney was given one and immediately traded it for a guitar; the music dealer got a terrific deal (at the time).
An established band didn’t learning how to play horns; they just hired the Tower of Power horn section.
Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band often played the euphonium.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band specifically Clarence Clemons.
The Who, specifically John Entwistle
Later Pink Floyd - James Page
Midnight Oil
Zoot from Electric Mayham
Midnight Oil actually got quite a bit of play in the US in the early 90s, and they’re still played commonly on what I guess is now “classic rock” stations. Great band (even got to see them live in Hobart.)
I’m pretty sure the OP is trying to distinguish between a single trumpet player (the way some bands have a sax player or flute player) and a horn section (several horns playing together as a group, which is not what this thread is supposed to be about).
There are dozens of excellent bands with horns! They’re all from the late 60’s through the 70’s, though. Blood Sweat and Tears, Chicago, The Ohio Players…back when music was music. I can hear a song and almost always guess the year, each decades seems to have a different sound. The 60’s had the cheesy organ, the 80’s had the cold synthesizer, and the 70’s had the horny bands. Maybe trumpet and horns went out of style? Too expensive? Does rap and Keesha and whatever need horns and trumpet?
West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys had a single trumpet woven in and out, didn’t it? That was the 80’s.
Now? I have no idea, so I’ll shut up and go away.
To hell with the trumpet.
I gotta have more cowbell!
Not exactly what you’re asking for, but the black metal band Satyricon used trumpet and a tuba once on of their newer albums. Quite a lot of electronic music use sampled horns here and there, my favourite example being Drzava by Laibach (early industrial music).
See the post right before yours. I agree that the OP is asking about the use of trumpet in rock as a solo instrument, not about massed horn sections.
A couple of theories:
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As another poster intimated without directly stating it, rhythm and blues was a major influence on early rock ‘n’ roll, and the sax (usually a tenor one) was widely used as a solo instrument in that form. It got a growling, sexy tone that a trumpet was less effective at.
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Trumpet would have been associated more closely with big band music, and early rock ‘n’ roll wanted to set itself apart from that.
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The influence of Buddy Holly, who had a self-contained rock band that was all guitars, was profound on budding rock bands in both the U.S. and the UK. Shortly after him came instrumental surf music…again all guitars with an occasional sax.
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The Beatles, who worshipped Holly and used him as a template not only instrumentally but for the idea of actually composing one’s own songs, pretty much codified the guitar/keyboard template for 60s rock bands. So that was the death knell for the sax, and trumpet was never even in the running.
This topic reminds me of a story I’ve told more than once. Dick Clark periodically put on lame, rock ‘n’ roll-themed TV specials. The one I’m remembering would have been sometime in the 1980s. On this occasion, it ended with an all-star “jam” featuring the participants. As Bo Diddley was one of the featured performers on the show, the framework of the jam was his eponymous song.
Among the participants who got a brief solo turn was Al Jardine of The Beach Boys — who is a rhythm guitarist, not a lead player, so his effort was pretty embarrassing.
But the pinnacle came with Frankie Avalon, who, it turns out, started his career as a trumpet player, not a vocalist. I don’t recall if he actually acquitted himself well on his instrument in his brief solo. But Frankie Avalon playing a trumpet solo in the middle of “Bo Diddley” was such a ridiculous anomaly that I’ve never forgotten it.
In my opinion, the best trumpet in a rock song pops up in Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” Just a quick little bit, but it really adds punch to the song.
One exception worth noting is the '70s band Chase, which was unique in having a four-man horn section made up *entirely *of trumpets. (The Rolling Stone Record Guide dismissed Chase with a one word review: “Flee.”)
Of course, the Beatles did feature a little trumpet in “Penny Lane.” Still, that sort of thing wasn’t a regular part of their or, as far as I know, anybody else’s sound. Possibly this is because a solo trumpet isn’t very capable of subtlety or blending in with the rest of the band.
For what it’s worth, there’s not much classical music featuring solo trumpet either: trumpet concertos, trumpet sonatas, etc. are relatively rare.
By the way, the OP mentioned a “handful of flautists,” but I can’t think of anyone in a pop/rock band who only plays a flute.
Fleming McWilliams of Fleming & John. Of course, her husband plays every other instrument ever invented…
By “only plays the flute” I meant that playing the flute was that person’s only, or at least by far their most significant, contribution to the band. Fleming sings a bit, too. 