Every show is important to trumpet player Marvin Stamm, who pays Lethbridge his first visit as part of the Lethbridge Jazz Festival, June 15.
He plays the Yates/ Sterndale Bennett, June 15 with the Contemporary Works Jazz Orchestra.
“It doesn’t matter if you are in New York or Lethbridge or Outer Mongolia. Every show is important,” said trumpeter Marvin Stamm from his home in Salem, New York. He has played with a variety of notables including Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman and even Paul McCartney.
But no matter what the name, he just enjoys playing music with fantastic musicians. He flies into Calgary Thursday afternoon and will rehearse with the Contemporary Works Jazz Orchestra that evening before their show, June 15.
“They’ll be playing then first half of the show and I’ll be playing the second,” he said. He has chosen several very different pieces to perform including Duke Ellington’s version of Juan Tizol’s “ Caravan,” a Cole Porter ballad “Lover Man,” as well as Porter’s “I Love You, ” “Salsa De Los Gatos ” ( or Salsa of the cats,) and “Emily,” a waltz by John Mandel from the movie “The Americanization of Emily.”
“There are a variety of styles,” he said adding he chose the pieces based on discussions with the bandleader Don Robb, playing to the strengths of each musician.
“ Each musician in the group is just as important as the piece I play,” he said.
“ It doesn’t matter if you are famous in New York or Toronto or if you play in Lethbridge and nobody knows you, if you play good music and are enthusiastic about it, that’s what it is important,” he said.
“ And if the musicians are enjoying themselves, the audience will notice it. If the audience loves it, we will notice it.”
The music is what is important.
“It’s always been about people playing the music. Some people would start as swing players and evolve into bebop, others would start in bebop and move on to more experimental jazz where there’s a limited audience,” he said.
He fell in love with music at an early age.
“When I was growing up in Memphis, when I was about seven we had to either be in the band or sing in the chorus and my voice was like it is now — hoarse, so I decided to get a trumpet and be in the band,” he recalled.
“My brother had a Clyde McCoy record called ‘Sugar Blues’ and I thought it was a great record. So two years later at age 12, I decided I didn’t want to do anything else with my life,” he continued.
“And I never ever had second thoughts about it,” he continued.
“People always ask me if I hate all the travelling. It becomes a very insignificant part of it because when I get there, I’m doing what I love to do,” he said.
He noted touring is different now, especially in Europe.
“Early in in Europe the players weren’t as advanced, so they wanted American musicians. And there was a lot of government support for the arts, especially in Germany, France and Italy,” he said.
“Now funding has been cut in Europe and the players there have really evolved, so now festivals can’t afford a lot of American musicians, so they will focus on a couple big names and fill the rest out with European musicians. And they are extremely fine musicians, ” he observed.
He noted times are tough for American musicians, but he is confident things will improve.
“There isn’t a lot of national or state funding for the arts, but when things improve, that will improve for the arts too,” he asserted.
He did a lot of session playing from 1966-1990 while his children were growing up.
“I wanted to have some family time with them while they were growing up,” he said adding he started touring again in 1990 as they grew up and spread their wings.
He spent most of his career as “the kid in the band,” playing alongside his idols in the orchestras of luminaries like Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman.
“ There are so many highlights. But whenever I played with a celebrity, the highlight was always the other guys in the orchestra. I mean, these guys were my idols. I was usually the kid in the band and I’m playing with my idols and it just doesn’t get any better than that,” he said.
He enjoyed his time playing with Frank Sinatra.
“I wasn’t in his social circle. I didn’t know anything about his personal life and he didn’t know anything about mine, so I always wondered what to talk to him about. He was always very concerned about us, whether our accommodations were all right. We were his orchestra. We showed respect and he showed us respect,” he said.
He has a similar experience in the Benny Goodman Sextet.
“Benny was a pretty close handed person. He didn’t talk a lot. He was focused on his clarinet.
