Your first Mendez record.

Vin DiBona · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 5:59 pm Post subject: Your first Mendez record.

This is great! A forum for the master moderated by a master. It just can't get much better than that.

How old were you folks when you bought your first Mendez record?
For me it was in 1961 when I was 10. It was Trumpet Extraordinary and I not only still have it, it is very playable and it sees the turntable at least 3 or 4 times a year.

trpt.hick · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:15 pm Post subject:

Cool question!

My grandfather gave me my first Mendez LP when I was in 8th grade. "Presenting Rafael Mendez"......man was I hooked.

I can still distinctly remember the entire family sitting around the HiFi listening to that record. When I saw everyone's reaction to it, I knew right then and there that I wanted to be a professional trumpet soloist. No kidding. It was a revealation!

I feel so lucky to have gotton to know Mendez and his family. Now that I am in charge of the Rafael Mendez Library at Arizona State, I feel so honored to be entrusted with most of his memorabilia. I have to pinch myself every day!

Dave Hickman

ROGERIO · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:40 pm Post subject: Mendez Library

I would assume the library is open to non ASU students?

Is it part of the main music library?

I've been here in Phx ten years and never visited. Would like to now that I've been reading all this trivia...

_bugleboy · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

For me it was the Singing Trumpet, the one with the Haydn.

When I went to music school I listened to dozens of other more orchestral versions by many of the great symphonic players. Then a few years later, after graduating, I put the Mendez on the turntable again and it was like coming home. I knew Rafeal's was for me. The control, the sound. He played it like a solo and not like it was a 1st part in the section of a symphonic piece.

Then came The Trumpet Magic album and Moto Perpetuo!

BTW, Dave, the Mendez website lists this album as The Magic Trumpet of Rafael Mendez and not The Trumpet Magic. ???

trpt.hick · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:53 pm Post subject:

Rogerio:

The Mendez Library is not in the main music library. It has its own space in the music building. It can be seen by appointment only.

Either myself, John Marchiando (who built the RML website), Josh Whitehouse (on a Mendez fellowship award), Brian Shook (one of my teaching assistants), or Amanda Pepping (my other teaching assistant) can take people through. It normally takes about 30-45 minutes to see the basics.

Please contact me anytime (via private message) to set up a specific time you can come over.

Charles:

You are right. The correct title of that LP is "The Trumpet Magic of Rafael Mendez." We will correct it.

"The Singing Trumpet" album does not contain the Haydn. The Haydn is on "Trumpet Spectacular." I'm not trying to be picky. The main thing is that you dug it.

Dave Hickman

oj · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject:

My first LP was "Méndez plays Arban".

Here is a bit about it (including an image of the cover).

Ole

_bugleboy · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 5:45 am Post subject:

Lex Grantham · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 7:42 pm Post subject:

Trumpet Extraordinary LP.

Sincerely,

Lex Grantham

_FELIX C · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:07 am Post subject:

My First one and favorite mendez Album, With His Sons, Robert And Ralph. Question. Its this album availible in cd?, when it was recorded in the 50's or 60's?
Thanks
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oj · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:19 am Post subject:

I guess you mean the album Trumpet Extraordinay ?

The box set (12 CDs) from Summit is not available, but I found a website where they offer this CD:

http://www.hitsquick.com/music/cdx/517586

... but when I follow the link (to Amazon) it says: "Out of stock"

Ole

plp · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:09 am Post subject:

The Singing Trumpet was not only the first Mendez album, but the first trumpet album I ever listened to, and the reason I picked the trumpet in school. The second was MF Plays Jazz for Dancing, but we won't go there....

I would play El Gitano over and over, and get so frustrated that I couldn't keep up, having no concept of double or triple tonguing. I spent an entire summer trying to do runs like Mendez and trying to do range like Maynard, and made the high school band my 8th grade year because of it.

ROGERIO · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 12:28 pm Post subject: Mendez

Is it just me??

I grew up on the east coast, and it's weird that very little was ever said about Mendez? Graduated from High School in 1977, Washington DC area... all we ever heard about was Maynard and Bill Chase in jazz, Voison, Vachianno and Andre in classical.

Was there an era for Mendez or was he mostly known in the southwest area.... or were we just deprived??

I have tons of trumpet LP's (yes, LP's) but I don't own one Mendez record.

I'm so curious when I hear you guys talk about his playing so highly.

Dave H., I really need to get out to his "shrine" and get with the program!!

Former user · Regular Member Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Posts: 20

My first Mendez album was also Trumpet Extraordinary and I still have it and the 12 CD box set from Summit.

trpt.hick · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:33 pm Post subject:

Rogerio:

Gee, for a guy that eats 3 pound burritos, I can't imagine you not having grown up with Mendez in your ear!

Mendez retired from concertizing in 1975, but the baseball bat incident stoped him from playing for about a year in the late 1960s. He did much less performing and recording in the late 60s and early 70s. Sadly, his LPs began to disappear from the stores about the time you would have started playing.

Mendez was well known all over the world. He played on the East Coast a fair amount, too. He was on television or radio on a somewhat regular basis, so I just think that you might have been in your pre-trumpet days when he was big and you didn't notice much of him. (?)

How about if you come over to the Mendez Library sometime and let John Marchiando and I give you a tour. We can maybe then go get one (or 3?) of those burritos!!??

Dave Hickman

ROGERIO · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:42 pm Post subject: Mendez

Thanks Dave. I will take you up on that, senor.

Still Trying · Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:38 am Post subject:

I don't remember which Mendez album I heard first. My Mother loved to listen to Mendez, although she played piano, not trumpet. She bought every album he ever made and played them over and over again. When she died I found that she had 3 and sometimes 4 copies of many of his albums, because she played them until they wore out and then bought a new record to replace the old one. I literally listend to Mendez for thousands of hours, when I was growing up. On one of his last tours, Mendez performed at a high school near Houston, and I got to take my Mother to hear him in person. It was one of the high points of her life.

My Dad bought me a copy of Mendez playing the Arban single tongue exercises, when they came out on 78 rpm records-back in the early 50's, and I learned how to single tongue by playing along with Mendez on those records, when I was 9 or 10 years old. To my surprise, when I got to college, I was often ridiculed for listening to and admiring Mendez so much. There were music professors, who derided him for "sounding just like a Mexican trumpet player". I used to just ignore their ridicule while thinking all the time, "Lord, if that's what a Mexican trumpet player sounds like, make me sound just like a Mexican".
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tommy t. · Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:53 am Post subject:

My first Mendez recordings I received in 1953. They are a boxed set of three 45s from Decca entitled "Trumpet Solos Extraordinary/Rafael Mendex, The World's Greatest Trumpet Virtuoso." The orchestra was under the direction of Victor Young. The set includes Flight of the Bumble Bee, Hejre Hati, Estrellita, Dark Eyes, Hora Staccato and Valse Bluette.

In 1958 (?), he performed with a high school band somewhere in Central Indiana (Anderson, perhaps) and our band made a trip to attend. The afternoon before the concert, he did a clinic for the trumpet players in which I participated. It was mostly demonstations of "no pressure" playing, extreme tounging, circular breathing while tounging and trick fingerings. He pointed out that the last variation of the Clarke Carnival of Venice can be played with only 1 finger, a trick I still do from time to time.

Tommy T.

badebop · Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 11:36 am Post subject:

It was a 78rpm that my parents had of him playing El Capitan that I played over and over and over again, closing my eyes and pretending I was playing. This was around 1953-54 when I was 7or8 yrs old. When I was 9 I could start band in the public school and I chose trumpet, partly because of Rafael and partly because it only had 3 valves...how hard could it be??

2ndchair · Veteran Member Joined: 04 May 2004 Posts: 352

I don't know the album name but the song that got me going was "La Virgin de la Macarena".

What a sound that man had!

He was a guest soloist with the Burbank High School band in Sacramento in 1968. A friend of mine got to play "Buglers Holiday" in a trio, with Mendez on the 1st part. I just about wore out our friendship asking what it was like to play next to such an artist.

Mr. Mendez also gave a clinic in the afternoon before the concert. I cut class to go and caught h*** at home later but it was worth every minute spent polishing the family car (a dire task) to hear what was said.

I still have a large collection of albums that get regular play. When my students hear the music they are just as excited as I was 35 years ago!

DaveH · Heavyweight Member Joined: 20 Nov 2001 Posts: 3861

My first Mendez album was the one with Ave Maria and Figeuro(sp?); I'm not sure, maybe Moto Perpetuo was on there also? But, I cannot recall the name of the album. But, I think I had more than one Mendez album...oh, well...

IMO, Mendez was one of the greatest trumpet players the world has ever known. He is the embodiment of "control" of the horn - his ability to transcend the physical limitations/challenges that the trumpet poses to most players.