Recommended CDs

Here a few questions I get asked frequently

1) Is there a book to learn jazz improvisation?

A question often asked by players with a mostly classical background. Sorry, there is no single book, also not a "special book" for trombonists. I learned the most about jazz by playing with other good musicians (big thanks also to my brother Christian here :-) by practicing piano, writing compositions & listening to great records and musicians. Learn some nice tunes and play them very often, also practice & jam with your friends and of course go to sessions and perform "live" on stage as often as possible. Found your own band and just do it. Also start to compose - today.

One book which I would like to recommend here is "The Jazz Theory Book" from Mark Levine (Advance Music). He really has a talent to focus on the most important things and he is able to explain them very well. There is also a great german version available. ("Das Jazz Theorie Buch")

2) How do you play fast lines and what kind of tonguing do you use for double tonguing?

I mostly use single tonguing and I like to "ghost" a few notes here and there. On faster passages I also use "doodle tonguing". In latin or funk & soul music I also use "normal" double tonguing ("ta-ka" or "da-ga" for softer attacks). In the jazz context "doodle double tonguing" works best for me. I think it´s a little easier to "swing" with doodle tonguing than with traditional double or triple tonguing. But this might be also different for you. Two helpful books for me at this were Trombonism (scroll down) by Bill Watrous/Alan Ralph and "The Art of doodle tonguing" by Curtis Fox. Bill Watrous also told me that he was working on a second book, so watch out for that. A newer book is by Bob McChesney which is available from Bob´s website.

Note: there are a lot of great jazz guys out there who don´t use "doodle tonguing" at all. Many of them like to play larger horns. (ie. Robin Eubanks, Steve Turre, Slide) So, doodle tonguing probably also works better on smaller horns. Just try it, practice it and go for what sounds best for you :-)

3) Which book would you recommend to learn composing & arranging?

Meanwhile there are a lot of books available, all of them a little different. First, the comprehensive books from Don Sebesky, Sammy Nestico, Henry Mancini, Bill Dobbins etc ... Then the more "special" ones about several composers like "Inside the score" from Rayburn Wright. Or ie. the book about the music of Maria Schneider and so on. You will find these books and a lot more easily in the internet.

For german readers I also strongly recommend the book "Jazz Arrangement" by the german composer/arranger and trombonist Peter Herborn. It´s a very well stuctured book, focusing on most of the basic and advanced jazz arranging techniques and it also has valuable tips for the arrangement structure. If you want to learn more about composing in general then also study the compositions itself. Listen to music and also get the scores (or lead sheets) and study them - both Jazz and classical pieces.

4) What instruments & mouthpieces do you play?

I play a Bach 16M trombone with a special "16G" bell. On the Heavy Tuba recordings I also play a Meinl Euphonium, model "Crespo 51" - thankfully provided by Meinl. And I also now have new a Conn 52H trombone with an F attachement. On all these horns I play a Bach 6 1/2 mouthpiece which works fine for me. Furthermore I also own a Schilke S22 trumpet. I always loved to play trumpet too. Though I am an amateur on the trumpet, playing this instrument helped me to correct some fundamental brass playing errors, ie. too much lip pressure. If you play with way to much lip pressure you can go on for - lets say 1 hour - on the trombone. If you do this on trumpet, your lips are "dead" after 10 minutes. This experience really helped me to correct basic playing errors.

And last but not least at all and very important to me - I also have a nice Petrof Piano which I use for composing and arranging mainly. I think this is the most important instrument for me. I do have a very nice Roland XP 80 Keyboard too, but especially for composing a real piano is the ultimate tool.