I've been waiting a longtime to have my own trumpet model. Now it has happened! The YTR 9335VS was launched in New York City on October 13th at Yamaha Artist's Services with a 'day of trumpet' and a recital by me and my wife / pianist Laura, with a guest appearance by John Hagstrom. It was a blast.

The trumpet is amazing and the story of it's development deserves description. Bob Malone has masterminded the newest Yamaha Bb and C trumpets. (John Hagstrom was very influential in developing the C trumpets).These horns fall under Yamaha's 'Xeno' name with model designations Chicago, L.A. and New York.

I really liked the New York, so Bob and I began with one I had picked and worked to alter it to suit the demands I have for an all around monster trumpet. Fortunately, with Bob, who studied with Tom Stevens and played professionalyfor many years, I can speak in artistic and physical terms and he can translate the requests to mechanical applications. It's an uncanny genius thing.

I had borrowed a Bach Strad I thought played well and had taken it with me to compare to the new trumpet. Within a couple of hours, after repeatedly playing and performing small alterations to the New York, the harmonic stucture of the Yamaha developed to the point where it blew the Strad out of the water. Several sets of ears unanimously confirmed this fact. From there, the final design of the "Vizzutti" model came together very quickly. It was meant to be!

I must tell you the Yamaha Xeno, New York Bb is a fine horn well suited to many. So what was I looking for? A miracle practically. I wanted a trumpet that could sing more openly above high 'C', have some classical weight to the sound, project when you lean on it and have a moderate amount of resistance, not to mention good intonation and never miss a note. Well you can't have everything. I got all except the 'never miss a note' part..

The end result fills a niche for the player who needs to cover all styles with one horn and not sacrifice sound quality or projection. I don't advocte the "smile embouchure" but I spend a lot of time smiling when I play this trumpet. 'Thanks!', Yamaha and,'Thanks!', Bob Malone for a lot of persistence, hard work and care in creating this stellar instrument.