What horns did Kai Winding play?

[ZGunawardhana]

Title says it all

[BGuttman]

Kai was famous for playing two King horns: a straight tenor (2B?) and a valved Trombonium.

Note that the horns didn't make Kai's sound -- Kai made Kai's sound. He would have been impressive on anything.

The Trombonium did help with fast passages, though.

[tbonesullivan]

I believe almost always King 2b and 3b trombones.

This link goes a bit more into detail: http://bjbear71.com/Winding/Non-album1.html

I have also heard that he was pretty notorious for not cleaning out his inner slides...

[Bach5G]

How bad would you have to be to be “notorious”?

[Kingfan]

How bad would you have to be to be “notorious”?

Bought a trombone off a 90 year old the week after he quit playing. This is what I got out of the inner slide.

slide cleaning 2.jpg

[tbonesullivan]

How bad would you have to be to be “notorious”?

I heard that some slide cheese must have broken free and clogged his slide, and he needed to borrow another, or something along those lines.

[Posaunus]

I have also heard that he was pretty notorious for not cleaning out his inner slides...

Lloyd Ulyate was also "notorious" for not cleaning his trombone. After his tech cleaned the significantly narrowed inner slide, there was (unsurprisingly) a substantial change in response and pitch! [Personal communication.]

[tbonesullivan]

Lloyd Ulyate was also "notorious" for not cleaning his trombone. After his tech cleaned the significantly narrowed inner slide, there was (unsurprisingly) a substantial change in response and pitch! [Personal communication.]

I wonder if anyone has tried to replicate the feeling of a gunked up slide that some people seem to love or revel in.

Reminds me of when an electric guitar company had to design a circuit that replicated the slight delay and capacitance effect for a customer who switched from 104 ft long cables to a wireless system.

[Doug Elliott]

I remember Kai's clinic from a long-ago ITF.
He said he always had the King factory thin his bells with double buffing and maybe some other process too. I think it was 3B's that he played.

[Vegasbound]

Kai mostly played 2b’s buffed very thin bell 491/491 with the trumpet style water key, at different times he had a green one, which some how ended up in a closet in Carl Fontana’s house and was rediscovered after CF’s passing and the famous ‘playboy blue’ one he used when resident at the club

He used a 3b during the years with JJ when King wanted to promote the new .508 horn, his mouthpiece was a custom Giardinelli, which Ibelieve Greg Black has/can reproduce as he has the original tools etc

[Posaunus]

Lloyd Ulyate was also "notorious" for not cleaning his trombone. After his tech cleaned the significantly narrowed inner slide, there was (unsurprisingly) a substantial change in response and pitch! [Personal communication.]

I wonder if anyone has tried to replicate the feeling of a gunked up slide that some people seem to love or revel in.

Lloyd was apparently astonished (and pleased) when presented with a shiny (& aligned) opened up slide that played in tune!
I think he didn't want to go back to what he had. He just wasn't aware of trombone hygiene.

[HermanGerman]

The same story with some trumpet players.
The opposite is the story of the great trumpet player named Rafael Mendez. Olds copied his beloved F. Besson trumpet (a french manufacturer) to establish the Olds Mendez model. But what ever they did it just did not work for Mendez. He was not satisfied.
So they took his personal horn and found out that it was not as tight as a standard horn. They changed the "airtightness" (?) and Mendez was happy.
I don´t know if the story is true but it´s good and an early Olds Mendez is a wonderful horn.

[Basbasun]

I meet Kai several times in Sweden, every time he played 2B. The bell was thined out by George Strucel who lived in Sweden the last years of his life.

[Posaunus]

I meet Kai several times in Sweden, every time he played 2B. The bell was thined out by George Strucel who lived in Sweden the last years of his life.

Kai apparently liked thinner bells, by numerous reports.
How does one go about "thinning out" a bell on an intact trombone?

[rickfaulknernyc]

How bad would you have to be to be “notorious”?

I heard that some slide cheese must have broken free and clogged his slide, and he needed to borrow another, or something along those lines.

Bill Watrous told a story about that at a master class I went to back in the 90's. According to him, Kai went to play "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and the horn blocked up completely. Backstage, when he ran a cleaning rod through it, a solid cylinder of gunk dropped onto the floor and lay there quivering like jelly.

[elmsandr]

I meet Kai several times in Sweden, every time he played 2B. The bell was thined out by George Strucel who lived in Sweden the last years of his life.

Kai apparently liked thinner bells, by numerous reports.
How does one go about "thinning out" a bell on an intact trombone?

Extreme buffing.
Sandpaper.

You can also take the flare off and put it back on. Doesn't take but a few minutes.

Do not try at home on a horn you care about.

Cheers,
Andy

[dukesboneman]

From The Official Kia Winding Site
http://bjbear71.com/Winding/Non-album1. ... g%20Played
or the whole deal
http://bjbear71.com/Winding/Kai.html#Index