DOWNBEAT POLLS DOUGLAS #1 AGAIN

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:12 pm Post subject:

For what its worth....DAAAAAA! NOT MUCH!!
Dave Douglas rules the number one spot again????

WHY??????

Hummmmmmmmmm????
http://www.downbeat.com

pfrank · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:28 pm Post subject:

You got a problem with that Badie?
Who else is makin music I (or you) never heard before?

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 9:52 am Post subject:

Naw! I don't have a problemo with that but it truly amazes me just how many folks can feel that Dave Douglas rules the roost?
For sure he seems to always bring something new to the table...BUT????

As much as I enjoy his live entertainment performances and his creative spirit and willingness to try new musical concepts.
Personally speaking.....after I listen to a new Douglas CD a few times..... I ALWAYS SEEM GET THIS OVERWHELMING DESIRE...TO JUST "GIVE THEM AWAY....or bury Douglas in in the back of my shelves of dust collecting old CDs that I just don't give a rip about to ever hear or play again and again...wonder why I faithfully continue to plunk down a $20.00 on the chance that I just might be "missing something of brass trumpet redeeming value?

Emb_Enh · Veteran Member Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Posts: 455

I'm with you on this one BBD!!!!!
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EBjazz · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:13 pm Post subject:

I dig Dave Douglas, although his output is so great that some of his records lack depth.
His playing certainly is great and most importantly his music is creative.
I didn't vote in the readers poll but I probably would've gone with Nick Payton over DD.
I really like Payton's Place, it's a really great cd, but not nearly as creative as anything Dave is doing.
I get the feeling that many trumpet players in the mainstream don't dig Dave Douglas because is music is not as accesable as some of the other cats out there.

Eb
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Xenoman · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Nov 2001 Posts: 1209

I agree with Eb - my vote would be with Payton as well. Douglas is great but his playing doesn't move me like others. At the same time I think he should get the composition award hands down. He is very creative and branching out into new directions.
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pfrank · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2003 10:37 am Post subject:

I've loved his sound ever since I heard him in Masada. That's a large part of what counts for me. And he is adventurous. He refrences musics from all over the globe. So he's not playing in everyone's comfort zone. With the state of jazz creativity now-a-days being so...mediocre...perhaps the Down Beat readers appreciate a trail blazer over a great technition.

Don, there's nothing wrong with something being put in the back row (or under the car seat)...saved for another time...that's what bad weather and sick days are for, re-discovery!

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2003 1:08 pm Post subject:

Uhhh...
Love Dave Douglas...tone and sound???HUH?

Just for the heck of it...GO DIG OUT DAVE DOUGLAS'S "The Infinite" THANK YOU TO MILES DAVIS?
I was more than a little disapointed in every thing about this CD?
After listening in truth, Dave tone and trumpet voice litterally put me to sleep with his fluffy-lack lusterness and constant bending the last of almost every other note on the entire CD? Pincy..whiney....thin, thin and just plain old BORE-DUMB! But this didn't disapoint me as this seems to be the norm in most of his last CDs.
Again...DOWNBEAT has a list of wonderful players...all in a row that were equally deserving of a # one numbero-uno rating???
humm???

Martin · Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:44 am Post subject:

Hahaha, good ole BADBOY is kidding again!

... not?!?

Seriously now, "The Infinite" is a FANTASTIC album IMHO!

I do not think that DD sounds thin at all. This guy has great chops and endurance (just listen to all those Masada records), and he never runs out of ideas. Don Byron´s "The Music of Mickey Katz" has Douglas playing all that Manny Klein stuff - he does it with authority and a big fat lead sound (on a beat up large bore Strad with a heavy 25 bell and a Bach 5B!; he uses a 3B now).
He´s got his own immediately recognizeable sound and style, he´s a great and adventurous composer, and he´s headed in a different direction on every record. How many players can do that?
Hey, Payton, Hargrove etc. are great trumpeters, but they are all playing in the same vein, basically. Modern, hard-bop-based mainstream jazz. Nothing wrong with that.
Dave Douglas is different. He too has payed his dues with Horace Silver (Silver wouldn´t hire a man with a thin sound, don´t you think?), but now he has a much broader vision and draws from so many influences - music from all over the word, dance, literature, art, politics...
If I had never heard of Payton or Hargrove, I wouldn´t be missing much, to be honest.
But DD´s music does make my life richer.

Whoa, that last one was a bit pathetic, but you get the drift...

_________________
All the best

Martin
_____________________________________________________________________
"I have found that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played." - Arvo Pärt

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2003 12:22 pm Post subject:

True Martin....Way to go and Amen!!! brassbrotha'
What you say about Douglas...MAKING OUR LIVES RICHER is the truth.

Also in truth.... DAVE MAKES ALL HIS OTHER COLLEAGUES THAT HE PLAYS WITH RICHER .....in fact!
But again, I still think that Dave seems to charish and often GOES OUT OF HIS WAY to help enrich the lives of his fellow musicans that record around him. What a great and honorable thing to share with less notable musicans of less talent or less press.
Lets face it...HOW WOULD ANY ONE PLAYING (AN ACCORDIAN of all things)...OR A VIOLIN or PLAYING GUITAR AS POORLY as we have heard on CDs of Douglas,

Lets take for example 'WITNESS!"
Ouch!! SOUL ON SOUL...ouch!. Sad to say without Dave's most generous COME-ALONE-WITH ME invitation...,many of his lack luster ragtaggalong meaningless musicans...get a windfall...HUGE BOOST in both income and badly needed press
and with out Dave Douglas, they would surely never in a billion years make enough money to ever be viable enough that they could even consider quitting their day jobs. How is that for LIVES MADE RICHER?

Let's just call it a MEAL TICKET that Dave is giving these other musicans.
Pretty cruel...but perhaps a sad fact...Only time will tell whether or not these friends of Dave will have the gifts to ever be that successful

Dave trumpet voice and ability is not or never has been the main issue with me really.. He can and does sound AWESOME...IN LIVE PERFORMACE.

I try never to miss this amazingly gifted gentelmen. I think he often goes out of his way to sound.....casual. BUT WHY, WHY AND WHY??? Why does he soooooo often try to sound like he is draggging his butzzzkski or sounding like his is almost asleep. If I was an club bouncer and heard what I heard on the first cut of this CD. I would would ask for a DESINATED DRIVER FOR HIM...when the song was over...

)) Wake me up!!! and do me again.
Just listen for a minute to the first cut on the Infinite CD. You would almost swear that he runs completely out of air at the end of the notes..
but YES! HE MUST DO THIS WITH A PURPOSE..WHY???

I DON'T AND CAN'T BEGIN TO KNOW THE REASON ...except that he or donkey dumb to begin to grasp...so take MY MEANINGLESS DRIVEL WITH A GRAIN OF GREEN GRASSWHEAT??

For a fact Dave Douglas trumpet voice can be POWERFUL, DENSE, ALIVE, in peformance...and truly with his talent, I would bet my lame paycheck that he has the TALENT TO PLAY AND SOUND JUST EXACTLY the way in which really wants to. He is that good and sooooooo with that in mind.
"IT STILL DISAPOINTS ME to see him shoot himself in the chops by recording such lack luster kind of music that I heard in this last CD.

Martin.....I KNOW HE CAN DO BETTA THAN THAT....and I am sure any of his fans KNOW THAT ALSO. But I guess this is why it PUNCHES MY BRASS BUTTONS..to hear his align himself with such needless musicans, worthy as they may be...etc. I guess it is just my loss that I can't seem to grasp all this about my truly most admired friend...Dave Douglas!

Yes, He is a treasure...but to me this CD tribute (or whatever) to another one of my favorite of all times genius of trumpet, The mighty Prince of Darkness...Mighty Miles, The Davis.

As far as his viability in composing and arranging etc....only time will tell if he can equal the abilities of folks like Miles Davis or in our life time....
Wynton Marsalis..
.who I WILL STICK MY ROTTEN-TO THE CORE BAD BAD AZZZZZZZZZ...and BOLDY SAY...AND MEAN IT!!!!

HERE I GO AGAIN...SOMEBODY STOP MEEEE!!! that...

WYNTON MARSALIS will go down in the history books...as THE DUKE ELLINGTON OF THESE TIMES and why not???
Wynton has the genius and the brains
Wynton has talent...for both writing and arranging and composing.
Wynton has the chops...the trumpet voice!!!!
Wynton has the class---the soul----the spirit------ and the admiration of his peers. (at long last...
WYNTON MARSALIS HAS COME A LONG-LONG-LONG WAY BABY AND HAS EARNED HIS POSITION the old fashioned way...He is not the same brash-hautty young man from the 80's...that I saw for the first time live here in Seattle in the very early 80's who was known at that time for being a world class classical musician...and SCHILKE AND BACH...loved him for it.
Look what history has shown us about Wynton...

Now is He is refined...
He has the gifts!
The sound...
The style...
The backing of the industry
and most of all the backing of his many musical friends and colleagues

BUT HOW WONDERFUL....and most of all.

We don't have to (or does it make any common sense) tolabel any of these amazingly talented musicans as best ...and for a fact

they and we are, must realize, that are still simply human..and all human beings with nerds, flaws, fleeting gifts and talents...ups and downs...angels or demons and by the Grace of God we go.
We are virtually lower at times...higher at other times.. than the angelsbut forever still human beings...

SO HOW IN !@#$ can any magazine or any person bestow a rate or ranking system on any person. Whether it be Wynton, Douglas, Hargrove, Payton....old old Tom Turner, Liad, Marin and Babboy Don or the rest of the brass playing world...ever the best of the best!
NO!!
We truly are humanly good as our very last toot or in this case my last peee-uuuu post and all that jazz.
Gee, I gotta go practice for tomorrow morning's flock wake-up call AND I HOPE AND PRAY I CAN SOUND MORE AWAKE THAN DAVE DOUGLAS ON THAT LAST CD!

Martin · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 1:39 pm Post subject:

Hey Don,

I sure love the way you speak your mind!!!

I agree with you about this ranking stuff - outside of sports, it´s complete nonsense. It merely reflects the opinion of a tiny minority (however qualified?!?) and only serves to inflate the egos of those asked and the record sales of those voted as best, greatest, most important whatever.

BUT I´d rather see someone like Dave Douglas in the spotlight than Wynton Marsalis for the umpteeth time - not that WM didn´t deserve it, but he has his share of publicity anyway.
I feel it doesn´t hurt to demonstrate that there is more to jazz than the faithful recreation of the Ellington spirit, however refined and sophisticated it may be.
I really dig some of Wynton´s stuff (check out the Elvin Jones live album with Wynton - incredible!!!), and I can´t stand some of it (the Monk album is an especially sad affair, IMO).
I can´t digest everything Douglas is doing, either (Witness, for example). But I see no reason to put down his fellow musicians - Guy Klucevsek, Mark Feldman and Brad Shepik (who I believe you were referring to) are world-class players to my ears, whereas some guys from Wynton´s gang to me don´t live up to the hype that was created around them (gotta love Herlin Riley, though).
Taste can´t be argued, but let´s try to be fair. And of course, DD live is REALLY where it´s at!

Peace,

Martin

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 7:20 pm Post subject:

Lets see??? One and a two and a 3 three...teehee-hee!
The ACCORDIAN went out with Larry Welk and Sweetie pie Miran Lorin or whatever???
DO YOU THINK EVER IN THIS LIFE TIME...that Douglas meal ticket players would ever get this much press. I DON'T THINK SOOOO?
But that OK! Rag-tag (maybe the wrong image. But I do bet he could now buy a new set of clothes from Nordstroms...Lack luster...DID YOU REALLY LIKE ACCORDIAN WITH TRUMPET...REALLY!!! YOUR CHOICE , NOT MINE...BUT THAT IS OK ALSO...and I appauld and honor your right to enjoy anything you like.
We both share our admiration for Dave Douglas. He is one amazing glib and talented entertainer and trumpet player...IT JUST OXIDIZES MY VALVE STEMS...to see him give such uninteresting recordings.

Why do we even for a second think he is doing something new and that innovative????
Lets take for example, the wonderful late LESTER BOWIE. Now here was a true and proven hero to me...He was a Ray of hope, Inspiration, Provocateur, Comic, innovative composer, musican...entertainer and a HUGE HUGE TALENT!
It is sooooooo hard to believe that I will never see or hear him in person again..but I too, see so much in Dave Douglas that honestly reminds me of Dave Douglas.
Dave too, was a long time admirer and friend of the beautiful Lester.
I heard Dave tell us at the University of Wa. about how much he loved Lesters work. He said, "You would have to be extremely brave or confindent or just plain cool to explore sounds the way Lester does (did)
Don Cherry and Lester and MILES...were the first folks (along with a few others...that really put to use extended techniques on the trumpet. This takes guts...but most of all genius talent to explore something that sounded jusst pain azz WRONG...AND THEN STICK BY YOUR GUNS...UNTIL FOLKS BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND IT. (So far I too have had exteme difficulty in understanding just where in the #$%Dave is trying to lead up...when in fact I should just be thankful we have DAVE DOUGLAS CONTINUING THE TREND to explore new ventures and ave.s. Lester Bowie as we know was extremely theatrical. Douglas said that he loved Lesters impeccable timing. The way he brought in all sorts of music and his uncanny ability to use humor (so does Douglas) and with that, those attributes inluenced almost everyone who came along the path in Lesters Footsteps. The main thing that both Douglas and Bowie have and had...IS THERE OPEN-MINDEDNESS IN MUSIC. Also Lester was fun yes, but deadly serious about his craft and about his fun. I am soooooo glad to see folks like DAVE DOUGLAS FOLLOW IN BOWIE'S FOOTSTEPS...by taking us and old badboy by the throat, a little further down and below the jockstrap.... and give something new to digest and in truth, re-examine what Free spirited trumpet music is all about. by experimenting and taking risks.
Long live the Art Ensemble What a gift both Lester and Dave have been to all music....classical-alternative-or jazz OR SOMETHIN' TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

Nice post Martin....I admire your candid thoughts and my condolences if you thought I was riding roughly over Daves colleagues...but hey at least we know in some small and meager way...even Dave has given these meagers a voice. That it bad. really.

GADS I MISS LESTER YOUNG!!!

stukvalve · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 7:44 pm Post subject:

"the infinite" is amazing ...
as far as downbeat does... the whole magazine is a little wild at times.
remember, these people gave miles davis "kind of blue" ...2 stars.
dont trust them, or the people who read that magazine.
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pfrank · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 7:21 am Post subject:

Don, first thanks for mentioning Lester again.

I guess you never heard Astor Piazolla? It's called a Bandonean (sp?) but it's a kind of accordian. Piazolla had his life threatened down in Argentina because he dared to tinker with the traditional forms of tango. Check him out, you won't fall asleep! Martin, Guy Klucevsek is a genius! Don, have you heard the Frizell album with Don Byron and others that covers Copeland, Ives, Bob Dillon and Madonna; I think it's called "Have a Little Faith"....the accordian player on that is Guy Klucevsek. He's a virtuoso and creative player of the highest order...he even plays a little ploka, but L. Welk would surley through him out!

The playing on The Infinate is langerous, true. Don, you should treat it as "ambient" music. I'm sure you've heard the term. It's music that is good to put on when you are doing something else. It's atmosphere, but you have to play it at the right moment and place. I suggest you rent a cosy cabin in the mountains with a lot of windows. While it's snowing, or at sunset, while you are cooking a delicious meal, put on that album. It's meaning will hit you then! That's the drug free way...

Seriously, Don, those albums you mention aren't what I base my best appreciation of DD on. I like all the Masada stuff (where you get to listen to Joey Baron drumming as well!) and the "Tiny Bell Trio" CDs and "A Thousand Nights" with Guy K. et al. The albums you mentioned, I looked at the personel and passed on them. I'd rather hear DD with virtuosi than with famous personalities in thrown together projects. Those kind of projects seldom have the impact of an established band or a duet (like Ron Miles & Frizell). The reason DD does those cast-of-a-thousand things is because he is a hippy-dippy-brotherhood-utopia-new age Christian. If he was a SOB who played only perfecty controled sessions (like Stan Getz...) would that be better? If there were More people like DD, the world would be a better place!

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 8:49 am Post subject:

WOW, A REALLY Thought boggling post...my Boston-brassbromeister!!!

What you say about DD leads me to believe that you feel as strongly as I do about his talent and his sometimes admiral quest to go where many mere trumpet player dare to go.

I too, admire him for keeping his mind open to new things and this is what I loved about Miles Davis, Don Ellis, Don Cherry, and our beloved Lester Bowie that you just mentioned.

As you pointed out....
many many other trumpet players who have expanded their horizens...( boldly stepped out of the safety of their comfort zones, by bravely taking new aves. and steps to research new ideas are truly extremely confident and often very talented musicians.

Again, I admire your choice for naming another less trumpeter of note (The Beautiful Raja-rama playin'RON MILES) and yes, Bill Frizzle-Frazzel, who bye the way and moved to the rainy northwest and is already starting to grow moss under his armpits...and maybe other places and how fortunate that he now graces our Seattle scene by rain and windstorm.

Each and everyone of these new breed of musicans have that one common bond.They seem to continue to strive in new ways that keep their minds open to all kinds of new concepts in music.
Sometimes they work, other times...to me just don't!
But in the end, they are not afraid to align themselves with lesser known musicans or even musicans with FAR LESS TALENT that just may offer a refreshing new slant to music.

When I often hear folks say,
"I DON'T LIKE MILES DAVIS,
I DON'T LIKE DAVE DOUGLAS,
OR EVEN WYNTON or
LESTER BOWIE....(sure all of us have that perfect right to like or dislike anything we want to etc,)
but when I hear this...(like you said about my feelings for ACCORDIAN MUSIC)

just proves once again my lack of knowledge,giving a rippp, and lack of understanding. Who knows, someday, I too,just might run into some song or someone who plays ACCORDIAN that I might LIKE..:smile:but sadly... AT THIS STAGE----I HAVEN'T FOUND ONE YET,

But you have joggled my curiousity about the accordian master player in the last post? Hummm. GOT ME!! OUCH!!!
Sure...I have heard a few interesting cuts from Dave Douglas that I like...but THE MAJORTY, REALLY MAKE IT NOT WORTH PLUNKING DOWN the bucks just to have his CDs sit there on my listening shelf gathering dust.
(but that is my lame choice and yes even maybe my loss and lack of "kuuth!"HEY, EVEN FRIZZEL-FRAZZEL PLAYS "DUNG-KUNTRY!" as well as some really beautiful intensely cool jazz licks and all that jazz.
I think this is why Miles Davis used to get so darned HUFFY and @#$off when folks asked him to play his old stuff. Humm?
BOTTOM LINE:
HEARING THESE AMAZING ENTERTAINING PLAYERS LIVE IS WHERE IT'S AT...to me, and its not in their recordings, but that again... is my loss!
OK! I promise that I will try again later today on the way home to put on my old DD CD.....
"A BILLION AND ONE BORING NIGHTS and won't get arrested for drunken driver or worse, wreck my car from falling asleep...
but sad to say... that old Soul on Soul CD, and the others have been long gone and given away.
MAYBE BUT GUESS I WILL NEVA KNOW? Huh?

Speaking of Dave Douglas and his NYC WAR PROTEST GIG!!!
I HOPE HE DOESN'T END UP GETTIN' HURT IN THE RUKUS'OR END UP IN JAIL, though I hear he loves that sort of thing.
He really should have been here in Seattle during the WTO!
His ACT-UP friends were in full glory or gory.
At least DD takes a stand and one has to admire that!!!!

Again nice post and thanks for being Frank!

Peace...

pfrank · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 10:05 am Post subject:

Well, thank you, Don.
I just didn't want the last word (and the with power of the printed word) to be that Dave Douglas is borring...believe it or not, there are some people here that haven't heard him...

I know you like Bitches Brew...when that came out, allot of people called it borring (amongst other things), and I remember the time I was taken to see the 90 year old piano master, I was about 12yo...how do you spell figgit? (soft g)

Now as for accordian, it is you who are behind the times, Don. I "never" liked the things either, but that was because of the silly way they were being used. My first exposure to interesting accordian was with the group "Dead Can Dance". The female vocalist with that group played accordian and she used delay loops and other effects to make it into a glorious drone. (Dead Can Dance are from England and Australia, use orchestral instruments and are influenced by the "early music" of Europe. Some call them "Goth", but really they are more musical and happier than most "Goth" bands)
Then I heard Astor Piazolla. He was a master on the level of Ali Akbar Kahn or Stravinsky. He has many recordings available. Talk about passion!
Then I heard Guy K., and obviously the accordian had completed it's modern rehabilitation. Now a days all sorts of accordian players are stretching the boundries of polka, they are even to found in punk bands.

If the electricity ever goes off, it's the accordian and brass players who will be king once again. What else is louder? (Other than drums and out-of-tune sax)

redface · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 10:47 am Post subject:

Dave Douglas is THE MAN. No-one in the last 10 years has done anything quite so bold as a musician AND got their message out to a LOT of people. He writes some stunning tunes, and is incredibly versatile, can play so HIP that is is untrue yet, like Bill Evans, he can break your heart with a single note. He isn't scared to sound different either, in these days where every trumpet player has to play with a fat, clean sound he can change it round to give that frail, needy tear-jerking sound that gets your heart-strings (and don't say it don't happen, just look at that scene in `Mo' Better Blues' where he get up to play and just dies - gets me EVERY time), yet he can flick it round in an instant and play right on the beat with a funky phat tone, and groove with the best of them. The stuff on Tiny Bell trio's Constellations is awesome and his work with Uri Caine on that Mahler stuff was beautiful (and damn hip).
I don't think downbeat should rank people BUT if their list makes a few folks go out and buy some stuff that is a bit hipper and crazier than their normal Chris Botti lounge jazz then that's cool - just like if they poll Wynton 1st next year and a load of people get turned on to Satchmo and Duke that's cool too.

Badboy - every time I read your posts it makes me want to write more in CAPITALS. He He He.

Stay cool,

Redface

Xenoman · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Nov 2001 Posts: 1209

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 11:58 am Post subject:

Thanks brass-bro's and sis's for your candid feelings about Dave Douglas.

In deepest respect and in truth..When I first heard Dave Douglas, LIVE and upclose and personal....BORING is about as far away as you can get IN THIS LIFE TIME!!

I will never forget that tiny little dark smoke filled hell-hole club call OK-HOTEL under the Rickity old Alaskan Viaduct where I heard Dave (and his Tiny-Bell gang) play for the first time for me in LIVE PERFORMANCE. WOW! IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT.
A bunch of my tpt-head buds..sat right down front, right under me mic' so close to Dave that we often felt the mist and spray from his snot-n-spit valve.

He was fearless, brave, bold and became in an instant totally involved almost each and everyone in the audience.
However... regressing (a tad understated) We sat through a horrific 35minutes that seemed like an hour listen to some Coltrane wanna-bee SAXLESS player from hell, do his CANADIAN GOOSE HOOTS-SQUAAAKS'and MATING CALL performance.
The place was packed with local trumpet-heads from all over the NW. When Dave took the stand.... The place came apart with such an ovation I have seldom heard.
TALK ABOUT "BLOWN AWAY!"
Dave connects with the audience...and when things seemed to be waning a bit(if you can believe it)DD would start his enduring humorous and entertaining tricks n treats to the delight of everyone whether they were trumpet players or just left over drinkers and dreges from the previous event.

DD would hammers some high energy stuff..and then for contrast,
he moved the mouthpiece waaaaaaaay over to the corner of his mouth, and this strange but soft-fluffy very musical sound flowed forth...then POW,
back to the center of his chops..hammer time again...a few moments later,
he moved the mp to the opposite side of his mouth, again...
this beautiful contrasting soft improv passage of notes for the ending. Later that eve...(he was scheduled for about only an hour but he and the Bell kept the place entertained much longer. What great style and profile...as we saw him play with the water valves open,
and being so close to the stand, we could feel and smell the stentch of the mist that was annoiting all of us below the mic. (He grinned and pointed at us... and while TinyBell gang was playing he took this big swig of cold water from a glass on the nearbye piano...re-moved the tuning slide, put one end back into the leadpipe with the crook facing toward his head.. and with the open end of the main tuning slide that was facing back toward his face...

HE BLEW A MOUTHFUL OF WATER MIST AND SPRAY right back into a face, and shook the water off his head, that was dramatically bathed in the hot single spotlight and yelled "GEE! THAT FEELS GREAT HUH?)
He then proceeded closer to the mike and then began to play with just the horn's open ended lead-pipe, almost touching the mic'itself. OUCH!!!
(He was holding and playing his old really gig worn Strad, with his right hand and holding the main tuning slide in his left hand, just using the mp and leadpipe for his improv.
That cracked the band up as well as the rest of us...Often I noticed him moving his mp placement quite often and how noticably you could hear the difference in tone and timbre and effect.
Dave that night had all the half valve and once..even removed the mouthpiece and carefully blew a most beautiful soft ending with just the lead pipe ONLY!! THE MOUTHPIECE AGAIN WAS IN HIS LEFT HAND!
DD also when asked after he played a really soft lyrical piece. (simply beautiful and voice like) "if he ever considered a flugel horn for a piece like that. He said..."No!~I do not play the flug at all because I can just about color the sound that I am looking for with the equipment that feel like is part of my own anatomy. I am just not made that way. I try not to even switch mps and even going to a mouthpiece with the same rim but deeper, I feel hesitant about making any changes to my equipment. A TRUMPET GEEK, I AM NOT!!!"
I too noticed that DD, Brian Lynch and Ron Miles...
ALL seem to have this totally fearless and boldness thing to their playing and often one notices that in the heat of their playing, all seem to never vurry' or appear to even care-less... when reaching waaaaaaaay up beyond the strato-zone register while playing...it would appear that in fact, they just could really care less if they DON'T HIT the note on center or off pitch,

or even if they break it or miss it all together. The crowd still goes wild even if they don't nail it to the wall as everyone is so intensely carried away with their effort and emotion of the moment... as they bravely attempt to take their music...fearless, beyond where most mortal trumpet players fear to tread.
Ron Miles and Brian played and toyed with Terence Blanchard at one of the MONETTE OPEN HOUSE PERFORMANCES...
Terence led off with a really good, well structured and laid out (but all too stiff and exact improv.) this opened the door wide open for Ron and Brian as they began to raise the trumpet bar by reaching up onto another level. Terence took the bait, and he too came back to follow with a new found fearless abandon that was clearly different that when I had seen Terrence LIVE IN PERFORMANCE a few months earlier.
Truly amazing how gifted players can work off of and at the same time, compliment and inspire their colleagues to soar onto levels that RECORDE MUSIC..just never seems to take you.

It must be the paint fumes. Gotta get away from this new airbrush paint from "CREATEX-XXX!!