ABRAM WILSON grew impatient with the amount of time a classical ensemble player has to 'stay on the bench', as it were – waiting to play the next trumpet part in what might be a long piece of music that doesn’t need trumpets very often.
But as a soloist, it was a different story. Abram found the classical solo much more appealing. He had tried conducting orchestras when he was at music college in New Orleans, and to him the trumpet solo, soaring over the rest of the band, somehow had something in common with conducting.
But though he was good at both, Abram knew that jazz and classical music could never really be treated the same. To a listener with open ears, music can be simply music. But to the player, there are different techniques and different disciplines.
In the end, though, Abram came to believe that good musicianship is the same thing whatever angle you’re coming from.
