Month: March 2026

The Hidden Trombone Database

~ wilktone ~ Leave a comment

I’m always looking for new trombonists to check out, but it can sometimes be hard to find those hidden gems if you don’t know where to look. Often the trombonists on a jazz recording are sidemen and you have to go out of your way to find them. Shannon Barrett has put out a new public tool that helps jazz trombone fans find recordings, called The Hidden Trombone. Here’s what is said about this project.

This research project was established by Professor Shannon Barnett at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany. It aims to combine the knowledge of several professional trombone players and educators into a functional database that can be used by anyone interested in good examples of trombone improvisations in jazz and adjacent genres. These can sometimes be difficult to find, as many are ‘hidden’ on albums where the trombonist is not the bandleader. In this age of streaming that can lead to some players being overlooked when considering the history of the instrument in jazz.

Each participant was invited to submit up to ten examples of trombone improvisations or features that they value, along with the reasons for their choices. The participants were chosen due to their experience in performance and/or education, and come from varying musical and geographical backgrounds.

The result is a database of 75 examples, which can be searched by trombonist, style, focus or recommender (or a combination of those categories). It is not meant to be a thorough overview of the essential examples of trombone improvisations from the history of jazz, but rather a curated collection of personal favourites. There is potential to expand the database in the future.

They helpfully include links to where you can stream and purchase the music, which trombonist recommended the track, and also a short description of why that track was recommended. Go check it out and purchase some music to support great artists.

Reinhardt Archive Launched

~ wilktone ~ Leave a comment

Trombonist Rich Hanks studied from a long term former student of Donald Reinhardt’s, Dave Sheetz. He recently has launched a new web site to archive Reinhardt’s exercises, instructions, photos, audio recordings, and more. Here’s what Rich says about it.

I’m thrilled to announce the Reinhardt Archive (reinhardtarchive.com)— the largest digital collection of Donald S. Reinhardt’s materials ever assembled in one place.

For decades, Doc Reinhardt’s extraordinary body of work — his books, private teaching notes, unpublished lesson handouts, audio recordings of lessons and masterclasses, and the scholarly research his pedagogy inspired — has been scattered across personal collections, university libraries, and fading memories. Until now.

We’ve built a free, searchable, living archive to preserve this legacy and make it accessible to brass players, teachers, and researchers everywhere.

What’s inside:

Books, private study notes, and unpublished lesson handouts — digitized, OCR-processed, and fully searchable.

Audio recordings of actual lessons and masterclasses — with transcripts and timestamped segment navigation so you can find exactly the moment Doc explains a concept.

Doc’s written words come to life with “In Doc’s Words”, a series of avatar videos using Doc’s original wording to explain the key points of the pivot system.

A growing photo gallery from Doc’s life and teaching career, updated and enhanced with cutting edge technology.

Academic dissertations and second-order research from students and scholars
But this isn’t just a file cabinet. It’s a research platform.

AI-powered chat — Ask questions in plain English and get answers synthesized across the entire archive, with citations linking back to the exact source passages. Ask “How does Reinhardt’s pivot system work?” and get a grounded answer drawing from multiple documents.

Knowledge graph — Explore a visual, interactive map of concepts, techniques, people, and their relationships across the entire body of work. See how the Pivot System connects to airstream direction, embouchure types, and pedagogical lineage.

Concept index — Browse a structured index of every concept, person, and technique mentioned across the archive, with linked evidence from source materials.

AI-generated articles — Curated deep-dives that surface interesting observations and connections from the archive, with linked citations to original sources.

Personal collections — Save documents, audio, video, and concepts to your own research lists for later reference.

Community forum — Discuss the materials with fellow brass players, students, and researchers.
Full citation tools — Every source includes copy-to-clipboard citations and BibTeX export for academic work.

Who is this for?

Whether you’re a professional brass player who studied with Reinhardt himself, or with one of Reinhardt’s students, a college student encountering the Pivot System for the first time, a teacher looking for pedagogical insights, or a researcher writing about brass embouchure pedagogy — this archive was built for you. Even if you’re simply curious about one of the most systematic and original thinkers in brass playing history, there’s something here.

We need your help, too. We are actively seeking materials from the community — lesson notes, recordings, scans, and scholarly work — to grow this collection. If you have something to contribute, we’d love to hear from you.

The homepage is open to browse without an account. Create a free account to access the full archive, chat, and community features.

Hope to see you there!

There’s quite a bit already uploaded and Rich says he’s working to add more as he goes. Go check it out.

https://www.reinhardtarchive.com