A few weeks I was emailed by Al Naylor, trumpet professor and Jazz Ensemble team teacher at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. Initially this merely involved an extra transposed for an arrangement that Al had already got from me.

Al is shortly performing in a trumpet trio recital, and was desperately looking for something to go with the piece he’d already chosen to play. A possible new version of The Lone Ar-ranger! for three trumpets was mooted, but then when the possibility of adding a piano to thicken out the harmonies was mentioned, we quickly settled on this particular new combination.

As Al said, on playing through the finished article: "I think this makes a terrific trumpet trio. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but is worth the effort!"

The first recital is on April 5 in the Daehler-Kitschen recital hall on Coe College Campus, and the second, the next day, in the University Capital Centre Recital Hall.

Al also plays with his own brass quintet, The Cedar Brass, and with the Coe Faculty Brass Quartet. As a soloist, he performs in both concert and jazz venues, and his teachers have included Keith Johnson, Arnold Jacobs, Thomas Lisenbee, Randy Grabowski, and Roger Wood.

Check out Al’s website, where you can hear him play some hot jazz in a club in LA!

The trio is equally suited to a Clarinet Trio (three Bb instruments), and parts are also available for this combination - or, perhaps even a mixture of both woodwind and brass!