This is from a summer "jazz in the park" concert in 1995 recorded on cassette tape... and unearthed a couple of years ago.  This song was dedicated to Max Greer (one of my trumpet teachers and dear friends).  He brought one of his current students to the concert.  It was GREAT to see him and this was the last time.

What A Wonderful World 1995 - Mark Van Cleave - Trumpet

Jerry Franks - Carnival of Venice
recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - Carnival of Venice

Jerry Franks - A Trumpeter's Lullaby recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - A Trumpeter's Lullaby

Jerry Franks - Amourette
recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - Amourette

Jerry Franks - Conversation for Trumpet
recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - Conversation for Trumpet

Jerry Franks - So Great Salvation recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - So Great Salvation

Jerry Franks - When I Survey The Wondrous Cross recorded 1968.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

Jerry Franks - The Holy City recorded 1968 with the Grace College Community Concert Band.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - The Holy City

Jerry Franks - Stand Up For Jesus recorded 1968.

My trumpet teacher and dear friend.

Jerry Franks - Stand Up For Jesus

I have had a lot of inquiries concerning this recording of the QUADRUPLE HIGH C on trumpet... So here is the story behind it...

A LONG time ago… around 1990 probably, I used to be a regular on the discussion group TPIN.  This was prior to websites, a listserv email usergroup as I recall…  I am SURE that there are many people out there that remember TPIN… it might even still be around.

So… a very serious discussion started (they were all very serious… hehehe) concerning the upper register.  A series of “experts” started sharing information.  The topic evolved into a discussion concerning the highest note that was possible to play on a trumpet. Another very serious topic…hehehe

One of the “experts” cleared it all up by explaining that it was impossible to play above a double high C.  This wasn’t just because the trumpet coud not resonate or produce frequencies above that, but also because the human ear was incapable of hearing those notes even if you could produce them…. Hmmmm.  Did I say this was a very serious discussion?!

This was a problem for me because I had hit and was able to actually HEAR notes above Double High C on occasion.  So I called up a good friend and trumpet player that was on a few tours with me and I asked him if he had ever heard me play above Double High C… he said “SURE!  You used to hit a triple high C on the show we were playing every show for months!”  And that was what I remembered too… which made the “fact” that you couldn’t do it or even hear it a bit preposterous.

You see, there was this rock tune that we would end up vamping on for what seemed to be forever in this one show and I decided at one point that I would take advantage of this horrible rock chart to hit the highest note I could for my own enjoyment each show.  Not because I was being musical in any way, but only because I felt like it… this wasn’t musical or anything like that, it was all about me…hehehe

Later while playing with the Smithsonian jazz Masterworks Orchestra in Washington D.C., we would play many recreations of famous bands such as The Duke Ellington Orchestra and also the Stan Kenton Orchestra.  It was not rare to have to recreate performances of either Cat Anderson or Maynard Ferguson during these concerts.  So, during that time, I actually PRACTICED this altissimo register to get it “playable”. 

So I got a bit wierded out by this “discussion” about high notes, and decided that if I could record a few of these notes, it my put an end to this “discussion”.  

I planned to record an arpeggio up to triple high C…  so I practiced the altissimo register for a few days to get it going again and then sat down to record it.  Somehow, I got a nice Triple High C and decided to go ahead and just gliss up after that until it faded out.  Somehow, the note actually kissed off on a QUADRUPLE High C!  Yes, to my surprise!  It was CERTAINLY not at all a musical event, but it was kind of fun!

So, then, I posted it on TPIN.  This did not end the high note discussion but just pour gasoline on it…hehehe  Since then, almost every clinic I have given at high Schools and colleges get a request to hear the QUAD! …UGH!  And most of these are usually before 9:00am.

Unfortunately, this was back in the days of SLOW DIAL UP ONLY INTERNET.  So a sound file that was over 2MB would have taken so long to download would never be heard by anyone.  The only way to make the file small enough for people to download it was to make it a very LOW-FI 8K file.  This made the sound horrible, but you could still make out the notes…hehehe

I lost the file a few years later, but was able to get a copy from a friend several years later.

MVC - Quad - C

Damaged Goods

The importance of using your brain while practicing.

MVCtrumpet

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