AdamFest – Celebrating the Legacy of William Adam

Welcome to the show notes for Episode #133 of The Other Side of the Bell – A Trumpet Podcast. This episode features our live panel discussion on AdamFest and the legacy of trumpet instructor William Adam. Listen to or download the episode below:

About the William Adam Trumpet Festival (AdamFest):

About our panelists:

 

Bobby Burns Jr. is a longtime member of Earth, Wind & Fire and a veteran of the Los Angeles music scene. After studying with the legendary Bill Adam at Indiana University—where he overcame early challenges to earn a degree in trumpet performance—Bobby moved to L.A., balancing day jobs with gigs until establishing a full-time music career. His versatile résumé spans symphonic, studio, and touring work, with credits including The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Dr. Dre, and Broadway productions like Evita and A Chorus Line. Since joining Earth, Wind & Fire in 2004, he has performed on major stages around the world, from the White House to the Grammys. Bobby is also an active educator, passionate about mentoring the next generation of musicians.

Charley Davis is a versatile trumpeter, respected educator, and innovative designer with a career spanning over three decades. A fixture in the Los Angeles studio scene, Charley has performed with legends like Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Buddy Rich, and Placido Domingo, and his credits range from motion pictures and Broadway shows to big bands and Las Vegas stages. He currently teaches at Cal State Long Beach, Citrus College, and the Henry Mancini Institute, where he’s known for his deep diagnostic insight and mentorship. Charley is also the founder of Charles Davis Music Products, producing a signature line of trumpets and mutes that reflect his commitment to excellence in both sound and craftsmanship.

Robert Slack is a seasoned trumpeter, educator, and recording artist with a master’s degree in trumpet performance from Indiana University, where he studied under the legendary William Adam. His diverse career has included everything from orchestras and brass ensembles to touring with Buddy Rich and Paul Anka, and performing in Las Vegas showrooms with stars like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Now based in Los Angeles, Robert has built an extensive studio career with credits spanning film, television, and commercial work. He currently serves as trumpet professor at Azusa Pacific University, where he’s been on faculty for over 18 years.

Larry Hall is one of Los Angeles’ top session trumpet players, known for his versatility across virtually every musical style. A former student of William Adam at Indiana University, Larry has built a prolific recording career with credits spanning film, television, and albums for artists including Elton John, The Jacksons, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Placido Domingo. His ability to adapt his sound to any musical context has made him a first-call player in the L.A. studio scene.

Dr. Karl Sievers is a distinguished performer and educator whose career spans orchestral, jazz, and commercial music. A former student of William Adam, he holds a DMA in trumpet performance and recently retired as a Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma. Now in his 24th season as principal trumpet of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Karl is equally at home playing lead in jazz and Broadway settings. When he’s not performing, he enjoys fitness, motorcycles, fishing, and time with family.

Gino Muñoz is a versatile musician, educator, and entrepreneur with over two decades of professional performance experience, including work with Michael Bublé and Gwen Stefani. A proud alumnus and now full-time faculty member at Citrus College, Gino has played a key role in shaping the school’s acclaimed Instrumental Music program. He is the past Academic Senate President, produces live shows for venues like SeaWorld and Legoland, and is a partner at 37 St Joseph Studios, a professional recording facility in Arcadia.

Anthony “Tony” Bonsera Jr. is a dynamic trumpeter, composer, arranger, and educator whose career spans jazz, big band, rock, and fusion. He has played lead or split lead trumpet with groups like The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and the Bill Holman Big Band, and is a longtime faculty member at Citrus College. As a bandleader and recording artist, Tony’s projects—such as his original album The Gates of Hell and the genre-blending Los Angeles Classic Rock Orchestra—showcase his creative range. His latest work, L.A.’s Finest, is an ambitious double album featuring top musicians from across the country. A Philly native, Tony still finds time for family, friends, and the occasional cheesesteak.

Mr. Adam with Karl Sievers

Larry Hall, Charley Davis, Mario Guarneri, Mr. Adam, Bobby Burns

Charley Davis with Mr. Adam

Bobby Burns, Mr. Adam, Jay Coble

Episode links

• WilliamAdamTrumpet.com
  
• Bill Adam Facebook Group –  https://www.facebook.com/groups/603106766409745/
  
• Charley Davis Book – A Tribute to William Adam
  Print Version – https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/products/tribute-to-william-adam-method-book-his-teachings-his-routine-by-charley-davis 

  PDF Version – https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/products/digital-copy-tribute-to-william-adam-method-book-his-teachings-his-routine-by-charley-davis
  

• William Adam Brass Choir Arrangements – https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/collections/william-adam-brass-choir-arrangements
  
• International Trumpet Guild Conference, May 27-31, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
  Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/itg
• William Adam Trumpet Festival, June 19-22, Clarksville, Tennessee.
  
  williamadamtrumpet.com 

  Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/williamadam

Podcast Credits

• “A Room with a View“ – composed and performed by Howie Shear
• Audio Engineer – Ted Cragg
• Photos – Courtesy of John Snell & panelists
• Podcast Host – John Snell

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. It may contain spelling and other errors. If you would like to assist us in editing or translating this transcript, please let us know at info@bobreeves.com.

BOB SLACK: [00:00:00] (OPEN) He put his horn on his desk one day and he goes, there it is. It’s not, if you melt that thing down, it’s not even a decent paperweight. There’s no sound in that thing. The sound is here. And then he also told me one time, he goes, if you ever achieve your goal playing trumpet, one thing has happened. Your goal was set Too low.

LARRY HALL: Yeah, he said The best music hasn’t been written yet and the best trumpet playing hasn’t been played yet. You know this, it’s still an an evolving thing.

JOHN SNELL: (INTRO) Hello, and welcome to the other side of the Bell, a podcast dedicated to everything trumpet. Brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. We’ll help you take your trumpet plane to the next level. I am John Snell, and I’ll be your host for this episode. And they say Lightning never strikes the same place twice. Uh, but those of you who heard episode 15 of our podcast, the tribute to William Adam, and the, uh, saw the panel that, uh, showed up for that episode.

Well, we have an equally [00:01:00] amazing panel for you today. I’m really excited, uh, to introduce my guest. We have Bobby Burns, Charlie Davis, Bob Slack, Larry Hall, Carl Seavers, Gino Munoz, and Tony Bon. We’ll get to the panel here in a moment after a word from our sponsor and some trumpet news.

(PROMO) Today’s episode is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass, who share your passion for creating extraordinary music.

You know that feeling when your instrument just clicks and the music flows effortlessly. That’s what Bob Reeves Brass has been helping customers do since 1968. We’ve helped brass musicians like you achieve their dreams by ensuring their equipment is always in perfect harmony. We know you want to immerse yourself in the art of music making.

And we’re here to remove any barriers between you and your creative vision. Bob Reeves Brass is truly your one stop shop for everything you need to fuel your passion and create music that touches hearts and souls. So go ahead, let us [00:02:00] help you elevate your sound to new heights. Don’t wait another moment to elevate your musical journey with Bob Reeves Brass.

Connect with us@bobreeves.com. Shoot us an email at info@bobreeves.com and keep up with the latest news on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter at Bob Reeves Brass. Embrace your passion from music and let Bob Reeves Brass be your partner in creating the extraordinary.

JOHN SNELL: (EPISODE START) All right, well, I wanna get to this amazing panel here real quick.

Um, but I do wanna give a shout out to one of our good friends and, uh, William Adams, student Greg Wing. Uh, he just sent me this CD Reflections on a Grateful Journey, and, uh, he let me know this CD is available on all the streaming platforms, Spotify, apple Pod, um, not Apple Podcasts, uh, apple Music. Uh, and you can also purchase the CD from Greg.

Um, so we’ll have all the links where you can listen and purchase this wonderful cd. And a huge congratulations to Greg [00:03:00] Wing on a, not, he just retired right from, uh, yeah. Morehead on a fantastic career teaching at Morehead State University and capping it off with his CD Reflections on a Grateful Journey.

So Bravo, Greg. The other thing I wanna mention real quick and we’ll talk about this more in the panel is, uh, the tribute to William Adam book that Charlie Davis compiled with a lot of help from the folks here on the panel. Uh. Still available in print, but for the first time in, uh, the book’s history, we will make it available for PDF, so we don’t have to ship a book to you.

You can download it right away on your iPad or device, that sort of thing. Uh, so we’ll have the links where you can get the PDF version of a tribute, Adam in the links down below. If you still want the print book, it is still available. That’s all the news I have for today. So let’s get right to our panel.

Um, so our goal with the panel today is a few, uh, there’s a few things we wanna do. First is to let you know about the William Adam Trumpet Festival. So I wanna start with [00:04:00] Carl. Carl Seavers, uh, you started the festival, right? Yes. With a lot of help 11 years ago. We’re on the 11th one this year. Yes sir.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Yeah. Yes.

JOHN SNELL: So why, why did you, first of all, what was the need for a festival and why did you start it?

1. KARL SIEVERS: Well, uh, kind of a long story, but the short version of it is I was working with Walter Blanton at a completely different event and putting a lot of time and energy and thought into that and Walt says, you know, why don’t we do this for us and for Mr.

Adam? And I thought, this is something we can do our way and share our message. And so we did, and we, um, we, we talked about the idea with my friends and, and, and including Greg Wing and Jim Reed, who are, are not with us, uh, right now. Um, and we, you kind of brainstormed it all. And I was able to, uh, gain access to a really good facility at the University of Oklahoma where I was teaching and invited everybody to come.

And as I was talking with Larry, you, you hope it works. And then everybody came. And so there are a lot of [00:05:00] great things that happened with this event, which we would like to try to describe. We were all very gifted by having had the experience of studying with a really extraordinary person who. Helped us become the best trumpet players we could be.

But the vehicle for that was as he used to tell me, I’m not here to teach you to play the trumpet. I’m here to set your head free. And that, that’s a quote. And um, I remember at the time like, what’s that all about? You know, I wanted, I wanted high notes and, and et cetera. But to say Mr. Adam had a giant impact on all our lives.

You know, it cannot be overstated. Um, but what we want to try to communicate to everyone is. There are techniques, tangible things we’ve learned to do in the practice room and in the performance arena that you can learn firsthand. Really tangible, helpful things by showing up at this event, which we have begun to call the Adam Fest, and now [00:06:00] in its 11th year will be held at Austin P State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, June 19 through 22.

Um, William adam trumpet.com. I think John’s gonna have all the links. Yeah, we’ll have all the links in the description if you’re interested. And it’s got all the info. It’s a ridiculously good value for dollar. Um, you know, you know, so there’s that. All of these folks show up all every year, and, uh, all of us that, that run the thing and host it, ev everybody donates their services, completely.

Travel, uh, food, you know, their professional services, free lessons, um, all day long. Uh, there are master classes, uh, concerts, uh, jazz, classical, orchestral excerpts, pretty much every area that you can imagine, including classes aimed especially for teachers of young folks and up through the top level professionals.

And, um, uh, so one of the things we wanted to try to communicate [00:07:00] is you can come to that event and go home with knowing what to do, not just inspiring philosophies. There will be that as well and great social interactions, but you’ll get in the practice room and in the performance arena with a new. A new set of tools that will absolutely set you free to become a better trumpet player.

It’s really quite special. Mm-hmm.

JOHN SNELL: Really is. And I, I’ve been to, unfortunately, I haven’t been to all of them, but I think I’ve been to nine of the 10 or that we’ve had so far. Um, and I wanna speak to that about the, I mean the, the mindset, but also the camaraderie. I mean, there is a really, I think we can all agree there’s a special feeling when you show up to an Adam Fest, uh, to the players that have been time and time again, and to the brand new players who are welcome and like family.

I would interject

1. KARL SIEVERS: John. Everyone that comes is blown away by what a positive experience it is. And so many people that are, are new to are this, these philosophies of playing. And, you know, you can get in a, in a practice room or a classroom and have, uh, lessons with [00:08:00] Greg or, or Bob or Charlie, myself, and any number of folks.

And, um, you know, every, everyone’s welcome and treated well. And like, I keep trying to say it, it’s a very tangible. It’s not just inspiring and impressive from a distance. Like as a spectator, it’s interactive and you have the horn on your face and, and you, you leave that experience better for it.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Now, Bob, you hosted one right here in this studio.

Right here in Citrus College was next door in the Azua Pacific. Right. But then also, uh, number four. Yeah. Part of here in Citrus College. So when, when you’re organizing the event, like how do you, how do you, um, convey that sense of camaraderie and the mindset and the teachings of Mr. Adam in I called Charlie.

You called Charlie. That’s it. Start with Charlie and go from there.

BOB SLACK: He was huge out. We, we had a bunch of PE people. He and Larry and, and Jerry Hay came, but then they brought in a bunch of other, like Arturo and Chuck [00:09:00] Finley, um, Boyd Hood, Bob O’Donnell.

LARRY HALL: Bobby Finley,

BOB SLACK: Bobby Finley, and all these guys. And it was really wonderful because it was, this was Charlie’s vision about let’s bring all these great players in and see where the similarities were.

Right. It was really healthy. Mm-hmm. And it was a lot of camaraderie and um, I think that helped. But the other thing I wanted to mention that besides the book now, that Mr. Adam did some special things in his brass choir that was quite an honor to play in William Adams Brass Choir. And he wrote many of the arrangements and they’re just very beautifully written for brass and lyrical.

And that was his thing. And it was all about that opulence and beautiful sound. But all of those charts now are available on the Bob Reef site and we recorded them here in Studio A with some of the best players on the planet. A-listers Yeah. Yeah. To including Charlie and, and Larry and, uh, Jerry and Gary Grant trumpets not too bad.

And, um. Just wonderful [00:10:00] players, and it was a tribute to Mr. Adam. So those, those arrangements are available and all of that proceeds, um, will go to, to the, uh, future Adam Fest to help young people that may not be able to afford to come. Uh, so we think we’re really happy about that too. Continuing on that legacy.

Mm-hmm.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Wonderful. Uh, I wanna move to Charlie’s book. So Charlie, uh, I know, I know kind of the back history is Mr. Adam never wanted to have a method book because the teaching was so individual. Um, so what brought you to compile the, the tribute to Mr. Adam book?

CHARLEY DAVIS: Well, I, I wanted something that would have some longevity to it so that people could tap into the book.

And I’ve tried to put as many quotes as I could come up with from him to kinda give a glimpse of his, uh, personality and, uh, his, uh, psychological approach to everything. And, uh. So I gathered all the [00:11:00] quotes and things from that I could remember and some from, uh, quite a few from other people. And, uh, the routine was always based on, uh, the standard books that we all use.

You know, the Slosh Berg, the AR book, the Clark book, and others, you know. And so what I did was I mapped out a, uh, a basic routine, and then I added other things like the Clark book in there, and I added some other things, some endurance things that, that he had. If you look at the Eur endurance things, you might not notice it right off the bat, but it starts off with a long tone endurance, then it goes to a flexibility, endurance, then it goes to a chromatic endurance, and then it goes to one where you’re, as he would say.

Pronunciation. Mm-hmm. Uh, not articulation. No. He our ting, because ting is a physical [00:12:00] activity if you start thinking of ting, but if you think of pronunciation, it is just like you’re speaking. And so you, it goes into a more subconscious level of, uh, and, uh, it’s not at the forefront of your, your thinking when you’re doing it.

Uh, but there’s all, all kinds of things in, in there like, and, you know, uh, all very positive. Mm-hmm. And, uh, ’cause a lot of people don’t know, he nearly had his, uh, I think it was his, was his master’s degree in psychology.

Mm-hmm.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. He nearly got his master’s degree in psychology as well as his, as the, uh, master’s in music.

And, uh, that gets you a little different approach to things when he, you know, when he, when he would. Talk to you, and he talked to you in a way to kind of subconsciously control your, your, your thinking, you know? And some of that would be jokes and [00:13:00] some of it would be just, you know, how he would describe something in a different way than other people might.

Uh, but it was always, uh, trying to get you to not put, uh, an analytical, there’s so many players who get like super analytical about their, how they play and, um, physical part of playing. And it was a way of getting you to relax to the point that you would come up with these things kind of in a natural procedure.

And, uh, all of a sudden, oh, that’s better than it was. You know,

JOHN SNELL: imagine that. And, uh, yeah. I was gonna say, I kinda wanna open this up to everybody now. Um, I mean, like you mentioned in the book, it’s Schlosberg, it’s arban, it’s Clark. I mean, it’s things that probably every trumpet player on the planet has played.

So why is, what makes it different? What makes the Adam routine different? And I, I hate to say routine ’cause it’s not a fiction

CHARLEY DAVIS: routine. Well, [00:14:00] it’s not, it’s not exactly as the books, uh, were, and h his emphasis on things were generally about the sound. Uh, you know, producing a good, clear sound. And, uh, like when I got into the Slosberg things, I actually wrote them a letter and described what I was doing that was based on the things that they had, but it was all, I altered everything.

Mm-hmm. And I mean, you, hell, it’s just skills in ARP

JOHN SNELL: for the most part. Well, and some of the alterations were, were Larry, isn’t that, uh, some of the Jerry and Larry extensions and variations you guys would do? Yeah. Yep. Some of those

LARRY HALL: we made it, uh, made it interesting to say the least. Uh, yeah, it, and it kept expanding from there, you know, to Jerry’s harmonic sense, uh, led to the, the standard, uh, major triads and that sort of thing.

And scales, uh. You know, so all of a [00:15:00] sudden you’re doing such, such variations and it opens up your ear. It, it makes you, it forces you to listen more, I think when you’re doing some of the variations after you’ve learned the basics. And maybe you’ve been doing the stuff for a couple of years, but, uh, yeah, it, uh, just anything to expand on, uh, Mr.

Adams treatment, of course, and we always did it the same. You start out somewhere in the middle and you expand both directions. So you’re playing all over the horn and, and, and some of the ogly or lytics, we were doing it in fourth and fifths and sixth, uh, on some of the patterns that you were doing and who, you know, your, your mind’s going crazy and your ears are being trained, uh, to, to cover more bases.

And so you come outta more. I think Complete player.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Yeah. 95 from slosberg. I took that and did it. I had to do it. I couldn’t, I didn’t wanna do a major scale descending like the book does. So I did a pattern going down, and then I did it in Harmonic [00:16:00] Minor, and I did it in diminished scales too. And uh, so I took the whole exercise and cr and changed it to, through those different keys.

So, and I did that strictly for that reason, but also to challenge you a little bit more too. Mm-hmm. But he and Mr. Adam never, never really did that, but, uh, at least to, to my knowledge, I don’t think he did. Uh, but, uh, and then the endurance things were all things that he had given me, and I just mapped them out in a little different way.

There’s a couple he gave me, I didn’t put in the book, but, uh, that’ll be volume two. Yeah. But, uh, but you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just, it’s basic. Trumpet playing. It’s going for the sound, it’s going for the articulation, it’s going for the intervals and, and putting yourself through the whole routine on a regular basis.

Uh, you build up [00:17:00] that confidence and you know you can do it then. And it’s, and that’s a good part of what it’s all about. You know,

JOHN SNELL: uh, you, you’ve read your confidence, right? Because, I mean, trumpet is such a, you need it to play. No, you can’t. There’s nowhere to hide.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Well, it’s like he, one, one of the things that was something like this that I think he said, he says, oh hell, I could teach a monkey to play the trumpet if I could get him to believe in himself.

Yeah. So it was things like that. And then you start thinking about that, you know, it’s like, okay, I’ve got to have a little more confidence. And you get that through the playing and the practicing and performing and. All that. You know, it’s a, it’s, it’s all part of the big picture, you know?

BOB SLACK: Yeah. Larry and I were talking the other day on the phone and um, he said to me, you know, I said like, you know, well when you went to Mr.

Adams lesson and it was all about listening to his example, his sound of what made the [00:18:00] difference, you know, I’ve had Carl and I discuss this, and Larry, and I know we’ve talked about it too before, but Charlie and I’ve talked about it, guys will say, oh yeah, I know what the routine is. Well, they know what, or whatever routine.

’cause he would vary it depending on what a particular person needed at that point in their playing. And he would come up with a solution and have you play something a certain way. But it was always about listening to that wonderful, beautiful, opulent sound he had. Yep. And if you really keyed in on that, that was the difference.

It’s the exercises and the way we did ’em for where you were at were important. But listening to him, that sound, and that’s I think what we were gonna try to. In part in this festival that this right you,

CHARLEY DAVIS: you start, he would play. He would play for you and then you would play it for him and. You automatically start trying to copy what he’s doing, and sound wise, you, it’s not, you’re not totally aware of that, you know?

Yeah. Uh, I [00:19:00] only remember one time when there, there was, he was having a little difficulty and it was a guy, I won’t mention his name. Uh. Good guy, but he, he had a very funny amateur and he was going like some kind of thing like that, and Mr. Adam couldn’t figure it out, so he did it to himself and then he figured it out and he got the guy going.

But he, you know, that’s the kind of dedication that you rarely see in a trumpet, uh, teacher anywhere. You know, most of ’em have egos and they’re, you know, they’re going to

1. KARL SIEVERS: burn, you know? So what’s the difference between, um, getting a copy of a, the book or having the routine described and knowing what it’s supposed to sound like and how do you solve that?

Yeah. How many people do we encounter? So I already know that, and then they hear the right kind of sound, and they’re completely. You know, the, the, the eyes are completely open and, and immediate change happens. Yeah.

LARRY HALL: That’s why [00:20:00] they need to go to an Adam Fest. Well,

1. KARL SIEVERS: there you go, Adam Fest, or take

JOHN SNELL: a lesson.

Um, you know, I did this in the first, uh, the tribute, uh, episode we did. I’d like to do it ’cause we have some new faces. Uh, I’m sure you guys all remember your first lesson with Mr. Adam. Um, and maybe if we can start down at the end with Tony. You had one lesson with Mr. Adam, but you could learn a lot later from Charlie.

But I

TONY BONSERA: was lucky to meet Mr. Adam and spend a day with him one time. Thanks to this guy right here, Gino Munoz, when we were on the road with the Glen Miller Band and everything that they’re talking about, I totally agree with and got it. In that day, especially I was, uh, his philosophy of, um. You know, not just the playing thing, but the positive attitude and all those sayings that you have in the, in the book that I’ve, that I’ve learned.

And then of course, Charlie is the only man that I will admit was my teacher, even though I studied with many, many others. I know you believe that.

CHARLEY DAVIS: When did you take lessons from,

TONY BONSERA: but, so [00:21:00] I would never purport to be a, uh, bill, Adam, Mr. Adams student, but I feel like a second generation because I studied with Charlie and got all the, uh, that information.

Plus having met him one time, and I teach trumpet here at Citrus, and I try to impart the same thing that I got from you, Charlie, to these guys. One of the kids kids is right over there. So, uh, yeah, I was lucky to meet him that one day and spend that day with him and, and get, uh, get some great, some great insights.

LARRY HALL: Tony, what do you remember about his sound? What, what impressed you at

TONY BONSERA: the, even as an older guy, he still, he still did the same thing you guys were all talking about. Um, trying to get me to kind of emulate what he was going for and the opulence thing that you guys always mention. That one word. Um, and he was, this was in the nineties, so he must have been, um, how old do you think he was?

Yeah,

1917. KARL SIEVERS: he was, he was born in 1917. Geez.

TONY BONSERA: So I got him lucky to get him towards the end, but yeah, inspirational. Sure. Just for age of one day was announced just [00:22:00] that one day that I met him and got to hang out. So

JOHN SNELL: Amazing. Gino, you were there for a year, right? You remember your first lesson?

GINO MUNOZ: Yeah, I remember several lessons and, and they were always quite different and, and you know, I think what I really got outta Mr.

Adam was, was a lot of life lessons and, um, I’ll share this one with you. One, one time I was, we were sitting in his living room and, and the sun was going down and, um, I was complaining about something, just something dumb and he like kind of smiled at me and says, Hey, young fella, I’m. I’m gonna show you what the problem is, follow me.

And we went up the, the stairs and never been upstairs before. And, um, it was, like I said, it was, it was dusk. And we, I remember making a left in the hallway and it was really dark in there. Then we made a right into another room and it was really dark in there, like pitch black. And, uh, he says, put your hand out.

I was like, what is this old man doing? Right. Just kind of, what are we doing here? Right? So I put my hand out and he formed, like, he grabbed it and he formed like this. And we’re just standing there and he says, [00:23:00] all right, I’m gonna turn the light on. I’m gonna show you what the real problem is, young fella.

And I turned the light on and I’m standing in front of a mirror. He says, like, you focus on that and all this other stuff’s not gonna matter. And I, I didn’t get, I really didn’t quite get it that day. ’cause I thought he was a little crazy at that moment. But thanks for

JOHN SNELL: your honesty. Yeah. But, but

GINO MUNOZ: how long did it take?

You know? I mean, you know, I thought about it, you know? Yeah. And, you know, I, I, I realized, I meant like, what, what an incredible lesson that was. I mean, I, I still think about that and, and pardon on my students. All the time. All the time. It’s like, work on yourself, just focus on yourself and, and really try to be the best that you possibly could be, you know?

Yeah. Version of you, you know,

JOHN SNELL: before you even pick up the trumpet.

GINO MUNOZ: Yeah, absolutely. Starts there and, and I gotta share this story, like one, and you probably don’t remember this, Larry, but we were at the Adam Fest in Oklahoma.

Mm.

GINO MUNOZ: And I, I remember asking you, what was Mr. Adams sound like? And I remember your reaction was, oh, Gino, oh my God.

It’s, it was like, you know, when he played in his [00:24:00] office, it was the, the whole room came to life. Everything vibrated, the windows vibrated. It just seemed like everything was just picking up his sound. And, and I never forgot that, you know, because he was well into his eighties when, when I studied with him, and, and, you know, he, he was, he was shaking at that point, and, and, but you could still hear all the lessons that you needed to hear from him to like, you know, improve on the, on the instrument, but.

But my gosh, I mean, the life life lessons I got from that, that man was, was just incredible. So

JOHN SNELL: amazing. Carl, you remember your first lesson?

1. KARL SIEVERS: Yeah, I sure do. And, and I’ve told the story before and I, and I don’t want to not answer you, but I listen to these guys talking about the sound thing. Um, I, you know, part of my, my enticement for people to join us would be that instant, you know, to get into Indiana University, especially in our day, was really uber competitive.

And we, we didn’t get there not knowing anything or, or as poor players, we, you know, we, a lot of did things, some things pretty well, but the instant you could get close to his sound, [00:25:00] everything you did in your trumpet plane changed in that instant. And of course, of course he knew that and he would constantly model and you would try to go to him.

He didn’t, you know, come to you. And as you began to, I’m not sure anybody achieved his sound, but as you get closer to it. Things you’d never understand that couldn’t put words or or control were a product of that sound you achieved. And then it was amazing thing. And you know, we would all in what we called the old building, which won’t mean anything to anybody that wasn’t there, but you’d crowd around his studio to eavesdrop and listen to him teach.

And he’d play something and it would carry all the way down the hall to the water fountain and around the corner, the student in there would play. Then Mr. Adam would play. And then the question is, was it loud? And nobody ever heard Mr. Adam play loud. It was a timur resonance thing that was just wicked.

Yeah. So my first lesson, I had started out with a [00:26:00] different teacher, a luminary teacher who had a big professional career and that didn’t go as well for me. And um, I was able to get into Mr. Adams studio mid freshman year. And hoping that I could learn to play high notes and, and, uh, all that. And my first lesson began with reading the Lord’s Prayer, then the if poem.

And then he asked me, reading it, not playing it, like reading the Lord’s Prayer, not playing the song. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So he recited the Lord’s Prayer to me and the Rudyard Kipling if poem, which we, we all wound up having copies on our, I think all of us have that on our walls and, and reference that and memorize that and quote little phrases from that.

I mean, the rest of our lives I, I reference that pops into my head. And then he said, when’s the last time you told, you sent your mother a card and told her you loved her? And I thought, what, what, you know what, this is your first lesson. I’m thinking like, you know, I got a Biche tube ready to go, you [00:27:00] know, and, and so, you know, and he called it his billfold.

He pulled out his billfold and gave me a dollar and said, go over to Bruits Pharmacy, which isn’t there anymore. And ran downstairs, ran across the street and bought a card from my mom, ran back across the street, ran up street. She’s only hoping to continue the lesson. So my first lesson we did not play.

We read the if poem, worked on the Lord’s Prayer and took care of mom. And then, um, then later, you know, he showed me the, the so-called routine, but, uh, I think it’s worth pointing out. None of it was written down. Maybe people don’t, don’t realize that he would play for me and expect me to get it. And of course I did not get it, but everybody that was ahead of me got it.

And so, you know, I didn’t want to be the stupid guy, but I would listen to Jimmy Reed and others who could really play. And I’m just kind of copy from the, the, the folks that had been there ahead of me and were, were really good at it. But he, of course, there was method to his madness. He wanted me to [00:28:00] internalize that sound as opposed to look at spots on the page, at least, you know, to get me grounded.

So, you know, that’s how we began. So it started.

JOHN SNELL: Wow. Larry, you remember your first lesson?

LARRY HALL: Well, yes. Uh, of course everybody does. Uh, by a stroke of luck, when I was, I, I was a, it was a program called Collegiate Credit. Well, it was for juniors in high school. They could go to summer school and, uh, and take beginning theory, freshman theory, uh, ear training, um, and those things.

And then play in ensembles and take private lessons. And, and, uh, so I had no idea that there was somebody you could choose to study with. I just figured they were gonna give you somebody. But a man was there who had been at iu and he said, when you get there, ask for Bill Lanam. Okay, why not? So I did, and it was a stroke of just wonderful luck, [00:29:00] uh, that this happened for me.

But my first lesson, and a lot of people don’t believe it was the first thing we did, he said, well, here’s something we do, and. It’s expanding scales and it works pretty well for others, and I think it’ll work pretty well for you and for me. He wrote it out, you know, and I’ve, I’ve got it framed. It’s, my mom unfortunately kept this thing.

It’s, it’s like a, it’s not your eight by 10, it’s like a big thing and it’s got, you know, start note line, top note and et cetera, and put it all down. And I’ve got it framed in my former music room. Um, and that’s how we started. And, uh, and I, I wish we had recordings, devices back then, you know, to Yeah. To remember some of the wisdom.

’cause kidding, I think as a, as a dumb high school guy, we lose, we, we don’t quite appreciate. And I think it was years later that I more and more appreciated what Mr. Adam meant to us. And I, I, I think some of you guys that went in [00:30:00] after you’d already got your undergrad or something came in with a purpose that was.

Uh, more realized or, or you had more intention to that. But the second week I came back and I practiced my rear end off and, uh, we did the expanding scales and I couldn’t do it very high. I think maybe a D or an E flat or something. And that was it. And then we did the chromatic or something and I’d been working on it and we did, we did about six sub and he says, somebody’s been practicing.

So it really, that really gave me, uh, you know, some validation and stuff and, and it’s been like that ever since. But, uh, you know, that infusion and the energy that he brings to you, um, I think is something that you can’t appreciate if you didn’t get the opportunity to meet him. ’cause it, we would hover around his, his, uh, studio in between lessons just to get another shot of adrenaline and, uh, and I think that’s what the Adam Fest provide now, um, since we don’t have Mr.

Adam. [00:31:00] Because I, I remember going to the first Adam Fest. I missed the first two and the, when I came, when I was still playing, when I got back to, uh, a room where I could play, that’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to play everything I knew, uh, and I didn’t have music. And so it was, I was all the Charlie twos I could stumble through and, uh, the solo literature and that’s, it was, and so if you need a kick in the rear, get you going, if you’re having some difficulties, go to the Adam Fest.

It’s, uh, it’ll, it’ll boost you up. It give you some energy that, that, it’s just, it’s infectious. You know? You’ll get it from these guys when you hear them talk and you, Greg Wing, oh my God. He’ll blow your socks off and uh, and you’ll hear some great playing and you, and. You’re gonna come out of this making new friends, and you’re gonna be with people that you’ve been friends with for 60 years and plus and, and, uh, [00:32:00] it’s, it’s a wonderful experience.

Well, and

JOHN SNELL: I’m glad you mentioned that Larry and I, I mean, I get, my experience at Adam Fest is in the vendor room. I, every once in a while I get to sneak out and hear a session. And even in the vendor room, the comradery, the, like, all the stuff you’re talking about, the, the, uh, I don’t know, it’s, you guys describe it better than I do, but it’s like, well, I’ll put it this way.

When I go to other trade shows, I have to decompress afterwards and I don’t wanna pick up my instrument, you know, from all of the noise and the stuff. But when I come home from an Adam Fest, I’m like itching to practice. I can’t wait to pick up the horn. And that’s just being in the vendor room that’s not even getting less lessons and getting to hear the, uh, the performances and clinics and things like that.

So it’s absolutely right Larry. Um, yeah, you guys do an amazing job putting. Putting on the event and distilling down the teaching of Mr. Adam into a 2, 3, 4 day festival. Um, Bob, you’re up. Your first lesson.

BOB SLACK: Well,

JOHN SNELL: with Mr. Adam, first

BOB SLACK: lesson, even before the first [00:33:00] lesson, I was sophomore in college. Uh, my sophomore year friend says, come over.

I got this new Buddy Rich album. And, uh, cool. You know, so he has vinyl. Back when there was vinyl and he had these big honking speakers, of course, we’d sit right in front of him. Surprised we didn’t go deaf. And it was the roar of 74. And I heard this, these Trump, this trumpet section who had Charlie Davis and Larry Hall and

CHARLEY DAVIS: John Hopkins.

John Hopkins and Greg Hopkins. Greg

BOB SLACK: Hopkins. But these two guys were in, and, and Charlie was playing lead. And I looked at my buddy, I said, I’m gonna find out where those guys went to school, or who, who are these guys? So process of elimination, I figured out that they’d gone to Indiana. I told my then future wife, we were engaged.

We’re gonna go to Indiana. She goes, well, I’m not going unless you marry me. So

anyway,

BOB SLACK: we got married in 77 and two weeks later we were driving across the country to [00:34:00] go find this guru of trumpet playing and change my life.

JOHN SNELL: Amazing. That’s also a sneaky way to show that you’re younger than both of the people sitting

BOB SLACK: next to you.

Not by much, not by much, but,

CHARLEY DAVIS: but not mentally. My

BOB SLACK: Well, I could tell the joke, you’re not nearly as old as you. I’m not nearly as old. I asked Charlie one time, how old are you, Charlie? ’cause I’m not nearly as old as you act. Uh, but so my first lesson with Mr. Adam, he goes, well, young fellow, why did you come all the way from California?

And I told him this story. He goes, well, we’re gonna show you what I showed them and hang on, because it’s gonna be a journey. But the one thing I wanted to add that besides Mr. Adam. The camaraderie at the festival is great, but that comes out of the camaraderie. It was in his studio back there. Mm-hmm. It was competitive.

We challenged each other, but everybody was there for us. And if anybody didn’t, kind of like Mr. Adam would a young fellow, you know,

CHARLEY DAVIS: it was challenging in a healthy way though.

BOB SLACK: It was challenging in a healthy [00:35:00] way. And I never remember when Carl and I were in school together, and Bobby Burns and I were in school together.

We would trade off with each other all the time. I never practiced by myself. We were always trading off, and that was incredibly healthy. So that’s my story.

CHARLEY DAVIS: I don’t need that.

JOHN SNELL: Charlie forgot his, it doesn’t remember his, they, they gave me my own one.

CHARLEY DAVIS: You’re special Charlie. I don’t remember. My first last one was Mr.

Adam. I wish I did. But, uh, I do remember, you know, the things through the, through the years with him and my first semester there. He told me that I’ve never had a student go through so much material ever in one semester. And then shortly after that, his desk was over here and I’m sitting here and so he’s seeing me this side.

He walks over and he looks at this side and he goes, oh shit. [00:36:00] He says, we’re gonna have to change some things here. Really? Yeah. So he, he started getting me to change my ambre, which I actually did very quickly ’cause I worked so damn it hard. And, uh, uh, I think it took me, I don’t know when you, you, you were there maybe a once your freshman year?

Yeah, maybe a semester. And I had just started taking, I mean, I had a high F going when I went in there from nce, from Al Keer, who was 20 miles away in Muncie. I lived in Newcastle

LARRY HALL: who had been an Adams student,

CHARLEY DAVIS: and he had been an Adams student. And we’re, we were talking, I said, yeah, I want to, I gotta wanna go to Indiana University.

And he goes, okay, we gotta start getting you ready. So he had me play, I think it was the Kent Kenon Sonata. Uh, and he got me prepared for my audition. [00:37:00] And, uh, he said, now when you get there, you go right up to Mr. Adam’s studio and ask him if he can take you in his, in his, in his studio. And I did. And he, and he did.

And, uh, you know, I did my audition. I guess they did pretty well. Uh. He told me later on, if I was an out state student, I would’ve gotten a scholarship, which I, I didn’t know for about three, three or four semesters later. But, uh, anyway, I, I worked my tail off. Yeah. And one of the things about the sound he told me later on, he said, kinda, basically, you have to find your own sound, but all the good sounds have common elements to them.

And he says, you’ll find, you’ll find your own sound. And I think we all have done that. And it [00:38:00] was by him putting the fundamentals down and the, and the clarity of his sound and the opulence of that sound that you, you start putting that into your own sound, but you’re. Always gonna have a little different sound.

Sure. And, and, uh, so, but that he told, he told me that one time. But, but that, yeah, that was, I, I got, I was starved for somebody to teach me trumpet when I got to Indiana. And, and I’d never had anyone really that did anything good for me. Kiger helped me a lot with that solo get, getting that prepared. Uh, but then, then it was like, you know, just doing what he said and working my.

I butt off for years. I, I, I think I still do actually, but

JOHN SNELL: I think, I think all of you guys do. I

CHARLEY DAVIS: mean, I did everyone’s a, I’d say a

JOHN SNELL: practicer, but you guys, I did

CHARLEY DAVIS: about [00:39:00] three hours today practicing, so firing it up.

1. KARL SIEVERS: All right. Well, hey, John, before you to interrupt your flow here, but No worries. I think it’s worth pointing out.

I’d never, of course, I’d never met Charlie Davis when I got there, but his, his brother Mark and I were classmates and very good friends and still are, but you may or may not know Mark was a big thing in my lessons that was recurring was talking about Charlie Davis, who was, you know, a mythological character to me, the Aurora 74 and many other examples.

But it was always impressed upon us that Charlie worked his rear end off, which is part and parcel to part of the rest of the message, how Mr. Adam felt about self-pity and excuses, right. Yeah, but the model of, to me like, okay, I got these aspirations to be a really good player. I better work as hard as Charlie did.

And I remember who I didn’t even know yet. And I remember sitting in my rental house the summer after my freshman year, which was only one semester with Mr. Adam, and [00:40:00] really worried about my future and my playing and, um, you know, practicing and thinking, well, I can do this and that and the other, but I, man, I just can’t, you know, chops things and sound production things.

And I remember thinking to myself, and I still hadn’t met Charlie or heard him play in person, but I remember thinking to myself, what if I could develop chops like Charlie Davis? How would that affect my outlook for my own future? And I never did develop chops quite like Charlie Davis’s, but I remember thinking, has

JOHN SNELL: anybody, I mean, that’s, this is a

1. KARL SIEVERS: possibility if I’m willing to put in the work and do what this master teacher tells me.

It’s like, yeah, yeah. You know, I, I can do this thing. Yeah. It’s like, uh, that’s your fault.

JOHN SNELL: The was, was it Roger Banister the first first guy to break the four minute mile? Like, yeah. No one in Impossible history could do it. And then once you see what’s possible, now at least you have the goal, whether you can actually do it or not.

That’s powerful stuff. So thank you for being our Roger Banister. Charlie. I’ll get you that on a tshirt. I think there were a bunch of ’em along the way. Ronnie,

BOB SLACK: I wanna to see you do a four minute, four minute [00:41:00] mile. Yeah. Your car. I used to be

CHARLEY DAVIS: under a five minute mile.

JOHN SNELL: Alright. And I, I purposely started on this end because Bobby’s story, I mean, you literally had to knock down Mr.

Adam’s door for your first lesson, right? Yeah. It was a little bit of a struggle. One of, one of the most inspiring stories I heard when you were on the podcast. Can you tell us about your first lesson and maybe a little bit of condensed version of what you had to do to get there? Well,

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: I ended up studying with Louis Davison student.

I didn’t get it, uh, for a while, but you know, my teacher back in high school actually told me. Told me about Bill Adams. He was in Bill Adams, uh, brass choir.

Mm-hmm.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: Anyway, he said, you know, you need to go to iu. He says, it’s a great school for brass players. And, um, I didn’t know exactly where to go, who to study with.

I started, started, like I said, I started out with a, uh, uh, Louis Davison student, and I’d walk up on the third floor and I would hear all this, these trumpet players playing. I’m like, [00:42:00] uh, who are they studying with? And, uh, bill, Adam and I went, that’s kind of what I wanna sound like, you know? And, uh, so I basically, I knocked on Bill Adam’s door constantly because, uh, he was his, he wouldn’t answer.

He, he wouldn’t answer. He was, his studio was full. And, you know, I was pretty far down a pecking order, but. I, I bugged him into, uh, taking me good. And so, um, he just said, young man, you going, you’re gonna have to a lot of work ahead of you. I have

CHARLEY DAVIS: a feeling you probably saw something in you. I,

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: I guess I didn’t see it in myself so much then, but he, he took me, you know, I literally had to knock the doors down, bug him constantly, constantly to get, to get in there.

And, um, the first lesson, I don’t exactly remember the first lesson. I remember some of the, some things that, that occurred in the first few lessons. And I re one stuck out one [00:43:00] was took me down to the water fountains.

TONY BONSERA: Oh yeah.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: And had me blow the lead pipe into the. I don’t think I must be in really bad shape that he’s gotta take me down and hand me blow into a fountain, you know, into the fountain or, or the sink.

The sink. The sink, the sink. And uh, and I remember hearing a lot, a lot of guys were playing Clark ones and he started me off on Clark twos. I’m going, I must be in really bad shape.

But, uh, you know, I did everything. I promised him, I said, Mr. Adam, you know, if you take me, I’ll do whatever it takes to play this horn. I’m won’t question you. I will do it. And, um, that was my attitude that, you know, and, and, uh, I had a chance to trade off all these guys, Carl, Bob Slack, who, who talked about friendship.

They actually, uh, came up to my first wedding. So my first wedding. [00:44:00] But, uh, don’t, we developed a friendship and. It was a lesson in itself, uh, um, playing with each other. ’cause there were things you could hear in each each other’s sounds that you made your own. In fact, there was, it’s funny, your brother, I remember when he was taking, uh, lessons and I was stand outside the door and his sound had the door vibrating.

I remember that. Yeah. Mark had a beautiful sound.

LARRY HALL: Yeah. But anyway, that Mark had the closest sound to you, Charlie’s I ever heard. Yeah, it was, he, I worked with him a couple times. I would say.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: Whoa. I could tell I knew Mark was in there playing. So, but, um, that’s what I remember from my first couple lessons anyway, but I, I was frightened the first two or three lessons outta my gourd.

But I told him, I said, you know, I will do everything necessary to play this horn. That’s what I wanna do. That’s good.

JOHN SNELL: And, [00:45:00] uh, you guys mentioned the practicing. Charlie, you said playing your butt off, you know, working your butt off. Um,

CHARLEY DAVIS: I’d skip, I’d skip, I’d get the assignment for cla these big classes and I’d sneak out the back and go back and practice.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. So I, I, I mean, what, what does that look like to you guys? What is working hard?

1. KARL SIEVERS: Well, I mean, we all, I mean, I, I, you know, I was a university professor forever. Mm-hmm. And I would try to describe to the students what we did, but like, don’t do what I did in terms of all the classes we skipped. But I, I just wouldn’t, I mean not, not just me.

All of us wouldn’t let anything get in our way, period. Yeah. And we’ve all got those stories about, it’s seven 30 in the morning and somebody shows like, where you been man? All right. You know, it’s morning, noon, and night. And for real.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: And we’d, and we, and we’d practice all night. ’cause at that time the building stayed open 24 hours.

Yep. And, and I’d open in there, I’ll be in there until the sun come up.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Yeah. Nothing was gonna stop us. And of course we got that from Mr. Adam. [00:46:00] Like I said, if anybody ever had the unfortunate experience of telling Mr. Adam you didn’t have time, you know, that, uh, that did not, that didn’t sit well, did it did not go.

And you, you and that, you know, and then I, I would tell these stories to my students and I’d say, why do you think he was that hard on me and on all of us? But, and, and the answer is ’cause he cared about me. He wanted me to be successful. And never, you catch yourself making an excuse No. No such thing. And you know, Greg’s not with us right, right now in this thing.

But any number of examples. But, you know, nothing would stop Greg. He’s like the Terminator. I remember he’d have, he’d have strep throat infections and couldn’t speak. Remember? Yeah, I do. And he, I, he was in pain. You know, man, you need to go home and go to bed. Nope. I haven’t practiced enough yet. I. Period.

No exceptions. You playing all day, all day, all all day. And then wait and wait to the night. And that’s for real. You know? And we, we talk about the message we want to convey and not just the hard work ethic, but it wouldn’t be honest to skip over that part. And like [00:47:00] you’re talking about,

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: I,

1. KARL SIEVERS: you told Mr.

Adam, I’m gonna do whatever you asked me to do. And never thought there were

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: times we, we didn’t necessarily talk about the hours. We just did it. We weren’t counting them up saying, well how many did you play? We just played.

1. KARL SIEVERS: And wasn’t part of that, the culture of all your buddies were up there Right. And you weren’t gonna, that Charlie talked about a positive, uh, competitive thing that, that was constructive and there’s no way you’re gonna not keep up.

Right.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: Right.

1. KARL SIEVERS: No way. And you look at all these successful players, that’s, they do. It doesn’t

CHARLEY DAVIS: necessarily matter who you went to practice with, as long as you could get in a practice room with somebody and grab someone. And

GINO MUNOZ: Gino. Yeah. So I, I spent a lot of years studying with, with, uh, Bob Slack. And, um, when I first got here, I.

Probably still a knucklehead, but it was a big knucklehead back then. And, uh, I would, I would talk to girls in the hallway during, you know, taking a break and he would walk by and he’d look at me and, you know, look at me in the eye, like, what are you doing right now? Talking to some girls, like in [00:48:00] a room and practice.

And, and it was always like that. I mean, he would just really just grill us all. Just get you, get in, what are you doing? You’re wasting time. And, and, um,

1. KARL SIEVERS: why was he hard on you?

GINO MUNOZ: Well, but it was, I mean, it changed my life. Yeah. It completely changed my life. I mean, if, and I, I constantly say this, if it wasn’t for meeting Bob Slack, my, my trajectory would’ve been in a completely different direction.

You know, just completely different direction, you know, so I, I, I have Bill Adam to thank for that, but I, I have, you know, Bob Slack to thank for that, you know, just what an, what an incredible mentor to,

BOB SLACK: we always, you know, I, I, Carl and I were talking this morning about everything we built in these programs.

Um, you know, when I came to LA. Larry and Charlie helped me and Jerry Hay got me on Paul Anka with Charlie, and it was like going to grad school. But these lessons we learned from Mr. Adam if you could impart them to other young people and create an environment that was really tough. And we had some pretty fabulous bands and a lot of [00:49:00] recordings were done right in this studio.

A um, and uh, we set a standard that was based on my knowledge of what I learned from Bill, Adam in, in everything we did here. And, uh, I think that’s that idea of excellence and camaraderie and, and challenging and, and Mr. Adam would never suffered excuses. There were no excuses allowed. And I learned that.

And so, yeah, I was pretty tough on people sometimes, but I didn’t wanna You’re tough on me. Yeah. Yeah. And I know Charlie was, Charlie was tough on all on, on you two and, and a lot of the students. And Charlie taught many years here. And he would call me at home at night and say, Hey, check this guy out. You know?

’cause we would try to give him both lessons here. And, uh, even when I stepped up into the Dean’s role here, and he would say he, I think this is going on. And it was a really great opportunity, just get his opinion on what young people [00:50:00] needed. But it will, all this all stemmed from Mr. Adam. I think that’s what the Adam Fest brings.

It’s that the camaraderie. We all want you guys to be successful and we’re trying to keep that dream alive that he started in all of us. So,

1. KARL SIEVERS: yeah. But, and you know, part, again, part of that is you’re given instruction of what to do. It’s not just go beat your head against the wall for X hours and you’re the hardest working person in show business.

You’re gonna be a good player. You’re given tangible techniques and guidance and. A, a recipe for success and, and then you go do it as many hours as you can.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. And he one, he one time told me, he says, I got out there and fired up Charlie. And I looked at him and said, I think I may have burned it out.

See, he, he told us those stories

JOHN SNELL: after you were long gone. He just, he would still chuckle about, so it is possible, it is possible to burn out. You fire up a, I kept, I kept going. You, you keep going. Well, and then it’s, I mean, it’s not about the trumpet. It helps [00:51:00] the trumpet plane. It helps a professional career.

But, and we’ve had examples of Adam students have gone into other things. Um, it was Dr. George, right? Uh,

1. KARL SIEVERS: we can George did source, yep. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Adult tons. Yeah. Though that, you know, the ethic of discipline and high setting, high goals and all that. Yeah. That covers anything you’re gonna do. Mm-hmm.

JOHN SNELL: Be the first one to show up.

The last one to leave. And still practice.

BOB SLACK: And Mr. Adam was very pragmatic. He could build or fix anything. He built his house, he could do stone work, he could do welding, uh, fine woodworking, all of those kind of like incredible skills that he had without Google, with Google, with no manuals. Yeah. And, and, and I think that also changed the way he taught the practicality of it.

Was

1. KARL SIEVERS: he inspiring?

BOB SLACK: Oh yeah. Oh God. Yeah.

GINO MUNOZ: Yeah. No kidding. I remember one, one time we were sitting in his living room. He says, Hey, I want you to listen to something. And he, uh, he went to a record player. He had these massive, you know, [00:52:00] speakers. This says, I built these.

He was proud

GINO MUNOZ: of those. Yeah. And, but he put on a uc, Burling recording for me.

And I, you know, I had no idea what it was, but I remember he put this on. It’s like, I want you to listen to this. And, and I thought that, which is again, amazing, amazing guy

JOHN SNELL: we’ve talked about, fired it up. Any other kind of sayings or one-liners any of you guys remember about Mr. Adam? That are repeatable,

that are, that are

JOHN SNELL: appropriate for YouTube in the general internet audience of all ages.

Yes.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Well, you know, I mean, I can go that it’s been said so much, but it, it cannot become cliche because it’s because it’s so powerful. He said he would in the sound and you know, again, that’s one of those deceptively simple things to hear. But man, if, if, you know, if we can do that, it’s, it’s really remarkable how that tells the brain to tell the body what to do and all the good things that happen.

Keep your mind in the, sounds a real big one for me. Keep your mind in

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: the sound.

1. KARL SIEVERS: It’s [00:53:00] a wind instrument. Yeah. We heard all the time. Yeah.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: I think that’s the first thing he, he said to me, he says, well, what is that you’re playing?

1. KARL SIEVERS: Yeah.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: So

1. KARL SIEVERS: trumpet. The trumpet, what kind of trumpet,

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: what, what else? Brass.

1. KARL SIEVERS: It’s a wind

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: instrument.

Yeah.

1. KARL SIEVERS: And uh, you know, again, I. Like I, I collate these things for the website, so they come to me maybe. But, um, he would tell me it’s only a thought away. Yeah. You know, if I’d be having problems or anything’s not right. You know, the challenge was if you get your head right and get your thinking where it needs to be, you can, you can succeed right now, which isn’t easy, but it’s there.

GINO MUNOZ: One, one that always used to make me and my friends laugh was, um, I had a habit of sitting like this and he’d always look at me and was like, well, how the hell are you gonna run through the forest? Like that young fella, I’m gonna run through the forest. Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: There’s a lot of [00:54:00] misinformation on the internet.

Let’s put it as nicely as possible.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Always, always, always, you know,

JOHN SNELL: in, in one respect. I mean, you can Google things, you can access a number of players and teachers much easier than you could. Back when you listened to War of 74 and had the research, who are these guys? Who did they study with? There’s a lot of crap on there, lot of misinformation.

Um, so, and now a lot of you guys still teach any common misconceptions that you get with people that wanna do the Adam routine? Anybody that don’t do it correctly,

BOB SLACK: anybody that thinks they can think about their tongue or their face or any physical aspect, fingers, anything.

CHARLEY DAVIS: The more that subconscious, the better off you are.

BOB SLACK: Mr. Adam always would say you can concentrate on one thing at a time. We want to keep that in the, in the realm of the sound and only the sound and three of the players he used to talk about. There’s many, but, uh, Maurice, Andre, uh, Adolf, Seth and Doc Severson separate kind of [00:55:00] styles, but their, their unique sound that they had, that beautiful sparkly sound, he would always want us to listen to those and.

Carl and I were talking this morning about students will come to you and they’re trying to fix what’s coming out the bell. And I said, well, it’s too late. You, you better know what you want to to before you let the air go. And so the first thing they need to do is rewire their brain. So those are things nuts and bolts that we talk about.

And I know Larry and Charlie just talk, it’s, they take it for granted, but this is, uh, that they play that well, but that’s what they’re doing. They’re not thinking about fingers or face or tongue or anything. Right. A lot of books, a lot of teachers, well-meaning, we’ll get into specifics and Charlie mentioned earlier about pronunciation.

Mr. Adam would pronounce a sound. I remember him in a lesson. I had a young man having problems and he tongue, and Carl and I were. Teaching assistants for a while with Mr. Adam, as was Greg when I was there,

CHARLEY DAVIS: I was as an undergrad.

BOB SLACK: Yeah. [00:56:00] Well, and, and so he wouldn’t tell you what you want, what he needed thought he, the student needed.

But he called the pronunciation because he had the young man say, now I want you to say good morning. And the young, and I still, I still use this. The guy said, good morning. And he goes, now I want you to think about your tongue when you say good morning. And the guy, good morning. And oh, and he goes, well, now why the hell are you thinking about your tongue when you play the trumpet?

And so it was always, forget the sensory perception. Don’t think about physical things at all. Keep your mind on the goal, orientation of the sound. That was a huge thing when I was in school,

CHARLEY DAVIS: when I, when I was on the road all the time. You got to New York City, I’d. The Colin family was, were friends of mine.

I both the, both of his sons and especially Alan and I always got a free practice room there. Right? So ’cause you didn’t wanna practice in a hotel ’cause people complain, uh, sometimes did anyway, uh, [00:57:00] but it wasn’t that far away. Walk over the colon’s publishing and, and I had a practice room. Well, one day this guy, I won’t mention his name, who had a whole system he’d come up with, was dying to give me a lesson.

And so I finally said, all right, come upstairs, bring your horn. And I went down and got a duet book, put it on the stand. So let’s play some duets. We couldn’t get through the first line. And I looked at him, I said, you can’t even sit here and play a duet with me. What the fuck are you gonna teach me?

1. KARL SIEVERS: Beep.

CHARLEY DAVIS: So we have a good editor, what the bleepers you’re going to, but, and, and I, I, I saw another guy who was very similar to that kind of approach. And at one of the ITGs and he’s [00:58:00] Charlie. Charlie, come here, listen to this. I hear this. You know, but he gets the high notes out. Right. And I just laughed and said, you still got it?

Nothing. Penicillin

1. KARL SIEVERS: won’t cure. Sure.

JOHN SNELL: Um, any other, yeah, I got one for you. Yeah, it’s, sure. So this is a

1. KARL SIEVERS: broad bit of a broad brush and, and maybe, um, some people wouldn’t be happy to hear it, but I’m gonna, I’m gonna play the, I’ve taught a million lesson card, and I’m gonna say most people do not know what a good sound is.

Mm, I would, and how many times have I run into people and I’m trying to be nice about it. Not everyone tries to be as nice about it, but, but I’ll, I’ll work with somebody for the first time and I’ll say, Hey, you know what, what do you feel good about your, I really think I have a good sound. Oh, great. You know, then you play in their, their course, whether it’s register issues or response issues, there are gonna be issues, and it’s as dull, boring, no character tone, but they don’t know any better.

Then, you know, buying by, if you can model a, [00:59:00] a better sound and they start to achieve that sound, then again, it’s like their, their, their eyes open and their, their grin and their playing, whether it, it’s not all about upper register, but we know as trumpet players, we need to have that and upper registers starting to work and all that stuff.

So I’m gonna say misconceptions. People don’t know what a great trumpet sound. Now, Mr. Adam, Bob points out his big three, Maurice, Andre, doc Severson and Adolf Herseth, and if you brought in a recording of a luminary player. That had a good position and we respect everybody. But if it wasn’t that kind of sound, he’d, we know he’d listen to a couple sec seconds of that and he’d had this gesture.

He’d be like, like, he smelled something nasty. He’d go like, nah, that’s not the sound. And, and it was really specific and really well defined. A heightened awareness of the detail of your sound. And that’s, that’s the road you get on and stay on. Mm-hmm. And without it, now you’re trying to control all this other business.

It’s never gonna work. [01:00:00]

CHARLEY DAVIS: But part of that is, is. Putting your mental focus into the sound and the music is a way of getting your, making all the other things that it takes to produce the sound subconscious again.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Yeah.

CHARLEY DAVIS: So you’re not dwelling on those things like the tongue and or fingers or whatever. You know, you can fly through or exercise and not know what fingers you used, you know, but it came out exactly right.

You know,

1. KARL SIEVERS: so feed you guys a loaded question. I know it’s a loaded question. Does this only work for commercial players? Somebody what? Does this only work for commercial players?

JOHN SNELL: No.

1. KARL SIEVERS: That’s important to me. Good.

JOHN SNELL: Sound is a good sound. Yeah. Good sound. Well to me. ‘

1. KARL SIEVERS: cause so many of our, our folks have been very successful in the commercial end of the business.

And if the implication is that there’s

CHARLEY DAVIS: more jobs there,

1. KARL SIEVERS: there are more jobs. That’s just a fact. That’s just a fact.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Well, it also brings out there, but that does

1. KARL SIEVERS: not mean that it’s not equally powerful for if you’re playing in a praised band in [01:01:00] church or you’re playing in an orchestra or, or a brass quintet or whatever, whatever.

You know, your passion is.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Well, and I was gonna say, one of the misconceptions is, oh, you wanna learn to play high and loud, you do Adam stuff, but it’s

1. KARL SIEVERS: Amen. No kidding. Because the next call, the other follow up question is, did we only do routine and work on chops? Well, of course not. He insisted. We listened to opera singers and cellists and, and, and I remember working on the, the Shane’s concerto and Mr.

Adams saying, if you want to hear the Shane’s concerto really play great, go down to the library and you find Larry Hall’s recording of that. And, um, the emphasis on artistry is absolutely huge. It, you know, the people have heard of the routine is, if that’s it, that’s a tool, a good tool. But he wanted us to be artists.

JOHN SNELL: And that was the starting point. Yeah, that was the morning. You, you got artistic,

1. KARL SIEVERS: intense, great. You gotta be able to get it out the horn and you have to solve some things maybe so that the artist in you has a successful [01:02:00] vehicle. But that’s the end game.

CHARLEY DAVIS: And you gotta expose yourself to other things too.

You know, it’s not just the routine. It’s a routine.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Oh yeah.

CHARLEY DAVIS: But it’s, there’s mm-hmm. There’s a lot of other routines you can get into. And, and I, I’d I tobo things and some doc shitter things, and there’s, and one of the things he told me after I’d been gone for a year or so, I came back to, to, to see him and he says, now, Charlie, you get out there and you study with as many people as you can because there’s a hell of a lot of ways to say the same damn thing.

LARRY HALL: Mm-hmm.

CHARLEY DAVIS: And I’ve tried to do that, you know, so

LARRY HALL: I think the only thing I’d like to add, uh, right now is besides all this wealth of knowledge, that to pay attention to what Mr. Adam wanted you to. Put in your mind. And so you mentioned the Lord’s Prayer and the foam, if, but there was always the [01:03:00] resources that you’d need to take the time and really read Psycho-Cybernetics and enter game of tennis and golf in the kingdom, you know, and the inner game of art, or, let’s see, Zen of the Art.

Art as

1. KARL SIEVERS: a man, thinketh

LARRY HALL: as a man. Thinketh, yes, as a man, man thinketh. That’s a wonderful book. Yeah. I gave that book to you. Yeah. Not to you, to Bobby. Is it Overdue? It’s Overdue. Wonder before I got

CHARLEY DAVIS: it. Give it back.

JOHN SNELL: I should mention all of the, there’s a whole list of, of, uh, books in Charlie’s book and a compilation of those kinds of things.

And also on the Facebook group that, uh, uh, Carl Moderates and very successfully as far as, uh, Facebook groups go. Um, wonderful having everyone on today. Thank you. Um, normally I end the podcast asking for your best piece of advice. Um. I’m gonna switch it up a little bit and if you guys can give the best piece of advice you got from Mr.

Adam. And I know there’s wealth of it and we probably shared a lot of it already, um, but if you could kind of, [01:04:00] may not have to be the best, but one little nugget that you got, and Bobby we’ll start with you this time.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: I think you told me to pick up the book of Psycho-Cybernetics was probably one that really kind of changed my thinking about, uh, how to approach the, the, uh, mental side of playing a horn.

Mm-hmm. So that was

Psycho-Cybernetics? Psycho Psycho-Cybernetics.

BOBBY BURNS, JR.: Yeah. Mm-hmm. My turn. Mr. Davis.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Boy, I don’t know, that’s a tough one, but, uh, there’s so much he was having, you know, he always said, you know, keep your mind in the sound and that kind of thing, but, but he also said, now get out there and fire it up.

Mm-hmm. In other words, get out there, put some energy and time into this thing. Now, you know, it’s, it, it doesn’t happen spontaneously. It has, you have to work to get to the goal that you want. Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: There’s there’s so much imagery involved in that. Exactly. Fired it up. Exactly.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: Go [01:05:00] practice. Yeah,

CHARLEY DAVIS: yeah, yeah.

That’s

JOHN SNELL: a,

CHARLEY DAVIS: but it’s more, it’s more than that. It’s, it’s, it is practice with a, uh, the proper thinking and the enthusiasm. Mm-hmm. And when you go fired up, it’s, you know, it’s, you know.

BOB SLACK: Yeah. He, he put his horn on his desk one day and he goes, there it is. It’s not, if you melt that thing down, it’s not even a decent paperweight.

There’s no sound in that thing. The sound is here. And then he also told me one time, he goes, if you ever achieve your goal playing trumpet, one thing has happened. Your goal was set too low. So what I’ve learned, this is a lifelong journey, and that’s what we’re still doing, trying to. Do this and, and, and then find the joy in it, you know?

LARRY HALL: Yeah. He said the best music hasn’t been written yet. The best trumpet playing hasn’t been played yet. You know, there’s still an evolving thing. And, but I, I think back to enthusiasm and just the [01:06:00] energy that he conveyed, and when you, he opened that door and you saw him, you know, and you walked through that door.

It was, he had, you had his full attention. And the one thing he says, when you’re in this room, whoever’s in this room, they’re the most important person to be in the world. Yeah. And that was, that’s huge. Mm-hmm.

CHARLEY DAVIS: That is

LARRY HALL: huge.

BOB SLACK: Yes.

CHARLEY DAVIS: And that’s the way it was with everybody. Everybody.

BOB SLACK: And I think that’s what the fest the festival brings too.

Yeah. That’s what we try to impart to people, that you’re all important. We want to try to share those things with, as Carl and I’ve talked about. Last couple days with real specifics to get you to a point that’s gonna improve your playing. And, and the other thing is, if you think you can do this for two weeks, and while I did it, it’s not working well, I gotta tell him, ha this is, this is a long process and it takes real discipline.

But Mr. Adam taught us that and he, he gave us that gift.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Hmm. I don’t think young people coming up or have may not have the patience to do it. They have to learn it. Yeah. [01:07:00] They have to learn that patience and, and that you can’t do it overnight. Right. You know, they expect immediate, uh, rewards from the, doing a little bit of work and that doesn’t happen.

JOHN SNELL: We’ll get to you in a second. Carl, that reminds me. Didn’t, don’t you have a story about learning patience when you first started off there? Something about fishing? Oh yeah. It’s in the book.

CHARLEY DAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. I was, we were doing, it was the first brass choir picnic that we did. And, uh, herb Mueller was a good friend of Mr.

Adams. They were fishing buddies and we were what’s, what was that? Lake Yellowwood? Yellowwood Yellowwood. It was a nice, nice pretty little lake. And they, they a good fishing lake. And, uh, I walked down at one point and was just kinda watching the fish going along like that. And, and Herb Mueller came walking up behind me and he started talking to me.

He says. Do you like to fish? And I said, I don’t know. I don’t know if I have the patience for that. He said, you [01:08:00] stick with Mr. Adam, you will.

Wow.

1. KARL SIEVERS: Well, for me, everything they’ve said, I, me too. Yeah. But maybe something more for me. To me, he was always working on, on my self-image and he saw something in me that apparently inspired him to realize, yeah, I don’t what

CHARLEY DAVIS: that would be.

1. KARL SIEVERS: No. But you know, he would say to me some something like, be the man I think you are. And you know, so much of it was not about trumpet playing. It was, you know, get my myself in a better place.

GINO MUNOZ: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, with that, I, I would see Mr. Adam twice a week. One, one was to work three hours on his massive property.

And, um, the other was a lesson, but it, it was always interesting to me that it was like everything that we did was like, it was like psychological in some way. And when I would go work on his, on his. Farm. Was it a farm? Was it a, just a massive house for, for about a month, I painted [01:09:00] that fence that went around the whole property.

Wow. And, um, he would come out for the three hours I was there, and he would sit with me and just talk to me. And I just remember thinking like, you know, but what is he doing out here with? I mean, he’d, he’d be shirtless too, and, um, and know he was 80 something years old. So, so, you know, he, he talk to me and, and every time I left him, I just felt better about myself.

Yeah. You know, it was, it was just the weirdest thing that he just knew what to say to make me feel better about myself. So that’s what I really learned from, is that I, I think, I think I’m a better human being as a result of Mr. Adam.

TONY BONSERA: I don’t know what advice I got from Adam, but I got great advice from all these guys.

But I, I will say this and I tell people this story that the night. Of the day that I spent with him taking, taking lessons I feel like was the best I ever sounded with the Miller Band. ’cause we were working in Indianapolis. So something happened that day to me that, that carried through. So we fired [01:10:00] you up and I’ll never forget it.

Yeah. Amazing.

1. KARL SIEVERS: And you know, now we do that for one another. Maybe that’s obvious, maybe it’s not, I don’t know. But we remind each other of little things, big things, things he said, just things that help keep that. And you know, you mentioned, um, amazing energy you would feel and you know, that’s in us now.

Mm-hmm. Hopefully. And we and you

JOHN SNELL: and then, and then in the next generation, I mean we have, uh, we hosting issues Wonder Wonderful folks. Yeah. Dr. Rob Wa is hosting. Rob Wa is an

1. KARL SIEVERS: amazing player, fantastic teacher, and a great guy.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm. And he’s a part of a whole host of students. Of all you guys are, it’s pretty fun.

Are professors and professional players Yes, sir. Uh, carrying on the legacy. Um, well thank you so much. Bobby Burns, Charlie Davis, Bob Slack, Larry Hall, Carl Seavers, Gino Munoz, and Tony Bonser. Thank you for spending your evening at a drop of a hat. You guys were here once. You knew something was going on about Mr.

Adam and flew from Oklahoma. And uh, we should mention Jerry Hay and Chris Bodie wanted to be here and they are [01:11:00] both under the weather, unfortunately. Um, otherwise we would’ve had even more chairs. Um, and thank you for joining us. If you listen to this podcast, uh, you will want to go over to YouTube ’cause we did a full video shoot for this panel, uh, so you can see us and, and interact with each other.

And, uh, the funny things that were happening. William Adam trumpet.com is the website. If you wanna learn more first about the man and his teachings and resources. Uh, you can, uh, also sign up for the conference June 19th to 22nd. Uh, this is in 2025 if you’re, uh, watching this right away in Clarksville, Tennessee at Austin p University.

If you’re watching this in the future, we are doing this as an annual event and it moves around the country. So you can always go to william adam trumpet.com to figure out what’s going on. Uh, real brief, we got Charlie’s book, uh, tribute to William. Adam will be available in print and as a PDF from the Bob Reeves website.

And, uh, we have a lot [01:12:00] of great guests coming up, so make sure you hit that subscribe button, hit that notification button, leave us a five star review, all the things I say time and time again. Uh, and Jen, also as a personal note, uh, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Mr. Adam and his students, uh, Charlie and Bob.

Uh. Would hound me to go out and fly out to Indiana to get a lesson from Mr. Adam and for a whole host of reasons, uh, self-esteem, I always come up, came up with excuses not to go until it was too late and Mr. Adam passed away. Um, so, you know, reach out to the teacher you wanna study from, reach out to these gentlemen here or other teachers of Mr.

Adam, uh, because it’ll be too late at some point and you’ll regret it. Uh, but just on a personal note, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Charlie and for Bob Slack. Um, and the things they did for me and the influence Mr. Adam had through them, that was passed on for me, which I’d be eternally grateful.

Thank you for listening. Until [01:13:00] next time, let’s go out and make some music. Thank you guys.