Wayne Bergeron
Pros, students and fans in Toronto are still buzzing following a 3-day visit by Wayne Bergeron.
Wayne presented clinics at Humber College and the University of Toronto, and played to a packed house with a top-notch big band assembled by Geoff Houghton from Yamaha Canada, led by my colleague and partner-in-crime, Terry Promane. Knowing the calibre of musicians that someone like Wayne plays with on a daily basis, the local pros tend to step it up. Everyone sounded on their game–none more so than the star of the show–and I felt proud to be a part of this concert and this musical community.
Wayne was featured on many of the charts from his recordings, then he came back to the trumpet section to play lead on Rob McConnell’s arrangement of Street of Dreams, paying homage to one of his heroes, the late great Arnie Chycoski. (I got to do the same for one of mine, the very much alive-and-kicking Guido Basso.) Kudos to our lead player Jason Logue for magnificent playing throughout the concert, which included subbing for Maynard Ferguson on ‘Maynard & Waynard’. Talk about stepping into big shoes!
I really can’t say enough good things about Wayne Bergeron. He is generous and forthcoming in a clinic, willing to continue as long as people want to talk (although his voice finally gave out after about seven hours.) When it comes to his trumpet playing, he sounds just as he does on record, which is to say astounding. At the end of the clinic, while his horn had been sitting on the stand for several hours, I asked him play just a couple of high notes. Without missing a beat he picks up the horn and pops out a couple of high Fs just to get his bearings, then flips up to huge and beautifully slotted high As. At that point, Wayne realized he had his ‘legit’ mouthpiece in the horn. Swapping that out was like switching on an afterburner. Wow! You think you’ve got high chops? Think again. It’s thrilling to hear trumpet playing on that level, and shows what is possible with a little compression (OK, a lot) and a solid concept of sound.
Thanks to Wayne and to Yamaha for a few days we won’t soon forget!
cs
ps: Look for Wayne to start tooling around LA in the sidecar of girlfriend Barb’s new motorcycle. She was quite taken with the Russian Ural ridden by lead trombonist Al Kay, who is trying to talk me into a sidecar for my Vespa. I will admit it’s a dandy spot to store a trombone, and the slide trumpet in place of a machine gun is a nice touch.