Anmerkungen zum Trompetenspiel von Arturo Sandoval
The trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who was born in Cuba in 1949, belonged to the founding members of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna in 1967. From this sprang - in the early seventies - the group Irakere, whose member Sandoval was until 1981. The LP Tumbaito was recorded by the Arturo Sandoval Sextet in Madrid in 1986, and the Tunisias Blues, which is being analyzed in the essay on hand, forms an important part on this record.
The Tunisias Blues is a twelve bar blues in Eb major, whose soli are played by the trumpet or guitar respectively. All seven courses of the twelve bar blues form have a unified harmonic basis, the character of which is marked mainly by the #9. The most prominent means of performance in Sandoval's trumpet play - which are exemplified by transcriptions - are discussed under the keywords "harmony", "virtuosity", "change" and "big tension archs". A full transcription of the play, which also contains the guitar soli duetting with the trumpet, completes the description.