In my humble opinion, it is the newly retired principal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Bud Herseth. What a truly amazing sound, variety and control of timbres, technical facility and just downright spotless (to a scary extent) musicanship.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING BUD HERSETH!!...heres a good quote by Mr. Herseth, "never practice, always perform"...i like that one a lot, its true, thats how he became such a wonderful performer, with full deep tone...thats the best part about his playing, its so musical, which is often overlooked, am i right, you can`t just play notes on the page, i believe in that, need to work on it more though, cause even technical studies should be musical.

It is perhaps never truly only one player who is the best from one day to the next or from year to year, but with such an incredible musician playing at such a high level so consistantly as Bud Herseth did for so long, he earned my vote. He is someone I`ll look up to as a musical example (For myself and my students) until I`m dead and in the dirt.

I wonder if he is related (by blood or marriage) to Representative Stephanie Herseth from South Dakota.

i know allen vizzutti and his son. his son and i are in the same grade, and scream trumpets together in marching band. check us out at the rose parade next year!

Bottom line, for jazz- maynard fergusen and for contemporary and classical- Doc seversein. The latin master would definately have to be allen vizutti

Playing high notes is way too overrated, in my opinion. And you definitley cant say that Jazz is harder than classical, or classical is harder than jazz. They are both equally challenging. I think wynton would be the top player who can play both. But my favorite trumpeter alive today would have to be Sergei Nakariakov. hes one of the most musical and artistic players ive ever heard. Maurice andre would come in second.
Adam

As far as flat-out playing the horn... all-time? Definitely Raphael Mendez.

For style, range and endurance the late great Harry James takes a lot of beating. He could play as diverse as the the flight of the Bumblebee to the blistering solo`s with the Goodman band. A joy to listen to. I have my own band and have tried to play some of his published transcriptions (eg. Trumpet Blues and Cantabile) and I have to take my hat off to the man!

go for god
go for high notes
god loves the dubba c
maynard loves dubba c
i love the dubba c
its fun to play
god is for the high notes
maynard plays quad c
real men play above dubba c
others dont except(arturo sandoval)
so sail obove the staff dudes
be like maynard
low players are old farts!
love,jake

Reading your interesting advise, a question came to my mind:
Suppose you have choose the "BEST of the Bests trumpet player"
Is always a BEST way to do the things? Can be possible that two trumpeters give their unique character to the music they play? I mean, my older son reads better but i enjoy the same when my little do.

I`m going to mention a cd Trumpet Evolution I`ll give you a life time to figured out and let me know if any one can do it but Arturo Sandoval.

Here are a list of players that have influenced me more than any others-

Freddie Hubbard
Woody Shaw
Tim Hagans
Terence Blanchard
Miles Davis
Wallace Roney
Roy Hargrove
Maurice Andre


Screamers just don`t do anything for me anymore. Everyone of these guys can play any note. They just make really good choices with the ones they play.

Well what saddenss me is that no one mentioned the great master, i wouldn`t be suprised if you didn`t know of him either but he is the greates no matter what. RAFAEL MENDEZ. sadly he never got the recognition he deserved, but he is the best technichal trumpet player to ever live. his tone is incredibily clear and he can control any note with the outmost ease. check him out in trumpetstuff.com Also arturo sandoval was a screamer, but his technique has really improved. Check out Trumpet Evolution released in 2003. He plays tribute to the greats, and damn does he ever, you can hardly tell the difference, if you can tell at all

PATRICK HESSION!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is a beast he is the sh** i use his bl4 and it is so responsive the first time i tried it i hit a 4 ledger "G". then to the dubba. listen to him ans use monette. go to http://hessionssessions.com/... get his book it definently works yo!

In my mind,the coolest trumpeter is the one who still has an unbroken record of the most albums on the top ten consecutively. The one that people actually enjoyed listening to,even if you werent able to understand vibrato,or medium and higher levels of virtuoso playing,or if your embroucher is correct. The one who`s music made you smile and feel the music,without having to try to figure it out.This man`s music made you want to dance,to celebrate the feeling of the music.
Herb Alpert.
Hands Down,he`s the best. He doesnt need to use extra flourishments or complicated fingering to let you know who he is. You know within a couple of notes. Although his newer music lets you know that he is fully capable of all the intricate movements of the top knotch Jazz Player that he is.
People of all different cultures love his music,and that is the mark of a truely legendary Trumpeter,..to never fall out of people`s hearts.
Just my thoughts on the discussion.
Renegade