Players that confound the ear- in a good way

[Burgerbob]

Gabe posted this comment in the Urbie thread, and I didn't want to derail it.

An observation and a story:

I don't have perfect pitch, but usually when I listen to trombone recordings I can pretty much tell within a half step or so what key they are playing in. I think I hear the register, partial breaks, etc. Whenever I check in on an Urbie Green recording I'm way off; he's often about a fourth higher than I thought.

I've noticed that with a couple other players... I can usually tell what note someone is playing by looking at the slide and listening. It isn't that hard, after all. I can hear timbre changes with registers- 6th and 7th partials, anyone? But Sasha Romero totally disrupts this ability. I watched her play online of course, but also in recital at ITF and I just could NOT tell where she was on the horn at any given time. A perfectly colorful, all encompassing sound. Not like Urbie, obviously, but with that same ability.

I listened to some other fantastic recitals at the festival, and no one else did the same thing. Alessi, Gilkes, no one.

Anyone else have examples?

[harrisonreed]

For Alessi, there is one recording of him playing the T-Bone concerto where the two high F's sound like they are in the middle of his register. I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about (if you know the piece, you know exactly the note he is playing), but nobody's high F sounds like that. Like it's a middle C.

[Burgerbob]

Yes, I have that same recording and it's crazy! That's exactly what I mean too.

[Mr412]

I first noticed it 7-8 years ago when I started transcribing my fav trombone player's solos. On ear, I mistook high Bb's for F's and high D's for high Bb's. That's when I coined the term "fully-saturated" sound to justify what I heard vs what was.

The Tommy Dorseys and the Joe Alessis out there had/have it. The super-high Bb's that Urbie played sounded like real notes. My instructor also had that gift and demonstrated what most trombone players sound like at and above high D vs what he learned how to sound like. Quite a difference.