I’m in the living room in our home in St. Paul, with my parents, at age 15.
Dad decided to watch the Ted Mack Amateur Hour on TV. A young accordion student came on stage, accordion strapped around his back, carrying a trumpet. He explains he’s going to play The Sheik of Araby. He unstraps his accordion, puts the trumpet on a stand which matches the right height for him to grab. He begins playing the tune once on accordion alone and then grabs his trumpet and plays the tune on the trumpet with his right hand and using his buttons on left hand to chord along. Well, the first thing I thought was I wanted to learn how to play the trumpet. I don’t think this youngster rated very high on the clapping monitor, but I thought I could play accordion and trumpet, but I did not have to play them together – that didn’t interest me. So, dad being kind and interested in furthering my attempts at music, bought me a trumpet from Sears. This trumpet looked like a million bucks. There was all kinds of engraving on the bell. I tried to play it but with little success.
I got to my lesson in downtown St Paul; my teacher at the time was Paul Storti. He taught at St Paul Park high school. He took a look at the instrument in my case and spoke, well that’s an interesting trumpet. He asked me where I bought it. When I said Sears, he cringed. Well, he blew it and played quite a lot of notes on it, then he picked up his own trumpet and blew a few notes. Storti’s horn looked old and worn but the sound was beautiful. He asked which I thought was the best horn. I shrugged and said, your horn by far, he grinned and said, this horn is over 30 years old, but it was an expensive trumpet when new. The finish is worn but the sound is as beautiful as when it was new. Your trumpet from Sears cost about $129.00. It’s a piece of crap. You can’t learn on this horn. Go home and tell your dad you need a good horn to learn on. I said my dad will be angry. Paul gave me his number and said if there’s a problem, I’ll talk to your dad. Well Paul was Italian and so was my dad, so, my father bought me a good trumpet, Conn.
Just one of my many stories about the trumpet. I have many.