Mendez Trivia Question #2

[trpt.hick]

Most people believe that Rafael Mendez was the first brass player to develop circular breathing as a playing technique. By 1940 it was one of his trademarks.

MENDEZ TRIVIA QUESTION #2: How did Mendez learn of this technique?

[oj]

I have heard that he saw an Indian snake charmer at a fair (I don't rmemeber when or where, but I think it was just beforw WW 2).

He then started working on this technique by himself.

Ole

[trpt.hick]

Ole, you are too smart! I'm going to have to start making these questions much harder.

Mendez did see a snake charmer during the 1934 World's Fair in Chicago. He noticed that the sound never stopped while the snake stayed mesmorized. He studied this man and learned how to do it.

Glass blowers do it all day long, too.

Dave Hickman

[oj]

Dave,

Did he ever demonstrate or use circular breathing when you saw him?

Perhpaps this was too late in his career (after 1964)?

Ronald Dishon who was playing in a high school band where he sat next to Ralph and Robert Mendez, Rafael's twin sons, told this:

[_Don Herman]

Hmmm... Now there's an incentive to learn how to circular breathe... Just put a cobra in front of your students!

Prof. Hickman, about that lesson I'd really like to get with you, can we just skip the circular breathing part, please?

BTW, this is great! - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[trpt.hick]

I heard and saw Mendez circular breathe in person many times. He usually demonstrated this at least once in every performance. Sometimes, in a cadenza, he would simply hold a particular note for a minute or so before going on. He would sometimes homorously cross his legs as though he were leaning against a lamp post. The audiences loved it!

Mendez taught me how to circular breathe in 1968. It took about 30 minutes for me to start doing it a little. I think that's all I practiced for the next few days. Although I never developed it all that much, I have needed to use it many times on notes I couldn't quite hold long enough. I could never do it while articulating very fast, and I can't do it in the high register. My cheeks (both sets!) are too firm, I guess!

Dave Hickman

[dennett]

[trumpaholic]

I will never forget hearing Mr. Mendez live in Barrie Ontario Canada when I was 12 in 1956. He was backed up the the Barrie Central Band which had some excellent musicians. That brilliant singing sound is still in my head. It was reported that he used to snorkel in Lake Simcoe as his friend in Barrie had a cottage there, and was under so long that his buddy thought he had drowned! His breath control was amazing.

[hotorangetrumpet]

Legend has it that Mendez couldn't single tounge for beens, so he had to make up for it and developed and INCREDIBLE talent for multiple tounging....
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[oj]

I guess it is only a "legend".

As a little boy, home in Jiquilpan in Mexico, Rafael would walk around practicing double tonguing with no trumpet.

So, the other kids gave him the nicname: "Mr. TU KU TU KU".

Ole

[trpt.hick]

Mendez DID possess a very slow single tongue. This is why he learned to double tongue so early in life. Playing normal music all double tongued gave him great mastery for later speed and clarity.

Of all of his recordings, he was most proud of "Mendez Plays Arban."

DH

[hotorangetrumpet]

[cleanhead77]

Circular breathing is very detrimental to health. It was developed by glass blowers, many of whom died of "glass blowers disease". Today this is known as emphysema,which was indeed what eventually caused Mr Menez' death. On the other hand, regular breathing with good breath control is very good for the lungs.
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So many horns, so little time........
I agree - Love Animals, don't eat them.

[Claude G.]

[Craig Swartz]

One of the times Mendez performed with our high school band in the 60s (Central, Davenport, IA), he took the entire group down to the pool and did something like 16 laps under water on one breath. He certainly could swim. I believe the pool was only 25 yds long, but it was a rude awakening to many of us who thought we were really something at that time.

As for dying from circular breathing, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. I also seem to remember that Mendez, as well as almost every other adult I knew at the time, musician (even the singers) or not, smoked. I don't and never did, so I guess if I die from the circular breathing, it will prove cleanhead77's point. Maybe some of you other "regulars" would like to get up a pool on that or something...

[trpt.hick]

Circular breathing is NOT bad for your health!!!

Glass blowers breathe in hot fumes. Trumpet players do not.

Also, let's get the facts straight. Mendez did not smoke, at least not much. He did develop severe bronchitis due to a trip to Alaska. I guess he played a concert in Texas (stage was very hot, no air conditioning, etc., then went directly to the airport for his flight to Alaska. The plane was very hot, too. When he arrived in Alaska, passengers deplaned into the open tarmack. It was very cold and Mendez loved the cool air so much he insisted on staying outside for several minutes before going into the airport.

His lungs were never the same after that. He had to use a bird inhaler. Some 15 years later, he woke up in the night (at his home) and went to his studio. He had trouble breathing and took too many puffs from his inhaler. This caused his lung tissues to swell, blocking his breathing. He subsequently died of heart failure. His wife, Amor, found him dead on the couch of his home studio the next morning.

Dave Hickman

[trumpetart]

[Claude G.]

[quote="trpt.hick"]Circular breathing is NOT bad for your health!!!



Also, let's get the facts straight. Mendez did not smoke, at least not much.

Unless my source is flat out lying - he claims to have KNOWN Mendez, so much that Mendez GAVE him one of his cornets....this same person (I don't know if he wants his name publicized, but he is a member here) told me in no uncertain terms that Mendez "smoked like a chimney!"

[trptdoc]

I AM VERY INTERESTED IN THE INCIDENCE OF EMPHSEMA(CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE LUNG DISEASE) IN BRASS PLAYERS. I STUDIED A GROUP OF PROFESSIONALS IN MY LABS IN THE MID 1980'S AND FOUND THAT THE USUAL TESTS FOR PULMONARY FUNCTION ARE NOT ACCURATE FOR BRASS PLAYERS. THAT SAID, I HAVE KNOWN MANY BRASS PLAYERS THAT ENDED UP WITH SIGNIFCANT BRONCHOSPASM(ASTHMAS-LIKE) SYMPTOMS AND COPD. CLAUDE GORDON CERTAINLY HAD IT AND HE NEVER SMOKED. IT HAS BEEN POSTULATED THAT THERE MAY BE SOMETHING ABOUT BLOWING AGAINST RESISTANCE FOR HOURS EVERYDAY FOR YEARS THAT CAUSES SOME AIRWAY COLLAPSE.

REGARDING CIRCULAR BREATHING. HERBERT CLARKE TAUGHT CLAUDE GORDON TO CIRCULAR BREATHE AND ACCORDING TO CLAUDE CLARKE LEARNED BY OBSERVING GLASS BLOWERS. MENDEZ AND GORDON BOTH STUDIED WITH CLARKE AT THE SAME TIME--THEY KNEW EACH OTHER FROM THEIR MUTUAL AQUAINTENCE WITH CLARKE.

IF YOU LISTEN TO CLAUDES' RECORDINGS YOU WOULD SWEAR THE FINGERS AND THE TONGUING WERE MENDEZ WITH A BASSIE SWING. CLAUDE FELT THAT MENDEZ HONED THESE SAME ABILITIES WHILE STUDYING WITH CLARKE. CLARKE WAS ALSO ADAMANT THAT GORDON LEARN TO DOUBLE TONGUE IN TRIPLETS,ETC. GORDON ALSO PASSED THIS ON TO HIS PUPILS. LISTEN TO CLARKE ON THE OLD SCROLLS(WITH ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL DOING THE INTRODUCTION) AND YOU'LL HEAR MENDEZ AND GORDON.

[trpt.hick]

Interesting stuff. However, to my knowledge, Mendez only had two lessons with Clarke. . . one shortly after his first embouchure accident, and one a year or so later after he learned to play again via pedal tones.

I will see the two Mendez sons next Saturday at the two performances of "Concierto para Mendez" by the L. A. Opera. I will try to remember to ask them if they know exactly how much Mendez studied with Clarke, and whether Mendez smoked or not.

Dave Hickman