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46 albums · 1925–2023

The trumpet, from New Orleans and the concert hall to mariachi, soul and the Balkan brass bands

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A brass B-flat trumpet with three piston valves and a silver mouthpiece, seen from the side on a white ground
Louis Armstrong in a light suit and bow tie playing his trumpet, a white handkerchief in his hand, his eyes turned upTwo mariachi trumpeters in orange charro suits playing at night, two string players beside them
A Yamaha B-flat trumpet with three piston valves. Photo: Yamaha Corporation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Louis Armstrong in 1953. Photo: World-Telegram staff photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · The trumpets of a mariachi in the Plaza Garibaldi, Mexico City, 2019. Photo: Thayne Tuason, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The trumpet is a brass tube bent into a loop, sounded by the player's lips buzzing into a cup-shaped mouthpiece. Three valves add lengths of tubing and give it the notes between its natural ones. Its sound is bright and carries far, and a mute makes it softer and closer.

In New Orleans and Chicago Louis Armstrong made it the solo voice of jazz, and Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis took it on through bebop and modal jazz. In the concert hall Maurice André, Håkan Hardenberger and Alison Balsom play the concertos of Haydn and Hummel. In Mexico the trumpets lead the mariachi, the Memphis Horns played on the soul records of Stax, and in Serbia, Romania and North Macedonia the brass bands of Boban Marković, Fanfare Ciocărlia and Kočani Orkestar play it at weddings and festivals.

The list has 46 records from 1925 to 2023; the oldest, by Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, are collections dated by their recordings, and on them both men play the cornet, the trumpet's shorter cousin. Records where the trumpet is one horn in a section behind a singer are left out. About 38 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

The Andante of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat majorReal Filharmonía de Galicia, trumpet and orchestra

Recording: Real Filharmonía de Galicia, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

Jazz 43%Classical 8%Latin 4%Other 45%
  • Jazz 43%
  • Classical 8%
  • Latin 4%
  • Other 45%

The genres named most: jazz, trumpet, classical, hard bop, concerto, electronic.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 17 countries: United States 28, Canada 2, Norway 2, Cuba 1, France 1 and 12 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1920s

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list