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Dick Collins
Dick Collins: Hidden Treasure
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Trumpeter Dick Collins had a gorgeous sound in the '50s. Like trumpeters Don Fagerquist and Doug Mettome, Dick had a lyrical quality to his playing that was part brass, part vocalist. Dick's note choices on solos often roamed in just the right places, punctuating distinctly as he ran up and down chords. And Dick always managed to end his solos exactly where you'd hope he would. Much of Dick's playing hours were spent in the bands of Woody Herman and Les ...
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Interview: Dick Collins (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the 1950s, Dick Collins was one of those rare trumpeters with a gorgeous round sound and smart, simple ideas. Both qualities made him ideally suited for the big bands of Woody Herman and Les Brown--orchestras in the 1950s that focused as much on style and sensitivity as on power and swing. Dick could effortlessly roll up a scale to create drama, linger ruefully on a note before tagging a few others on his triplet descent. The melodies Dick invented ...
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Interview: Dick Collins (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the big band era of the 1950s, the jazz trumpeter was perhaps the most important musician of all in an orchestra, along with the band's drummer, of course. The first trumpet was the section's leader and set the tone for the horns. But the third chair, or jazz trumpet, had the solos and gave a band its personality and flavor. Once the LP era started in earnest in the mid-1950s, the jazz trumpet played an even more vital role, ...
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Dick Collins: Horn of Plenty
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The beauty of jazz is that there's always a great musician you've never heard of lurking in the e-bins of online jazz stores. One of these fabulous phantoms was trumpeter Dick Collins, whose horn had a pert, lyrical sound that wasn't too hot or too cool. During the 1950s, Collins recorded as a sideman with various San Francisco artists and with Woody Herman and Les Brown up until 1962, when he presumably disappeared into the studio orchestras of the West ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson