The slide lock takes a little effort but works properly.

Spit valve seals properly and cork is new. The inner slide is very clean with almost no wear on the sleeves and both inner and outer slide are straight with no catches. We just had this trombone professionally Chem Cleaned and repaired by SeaCat Music / Curtis Palmer who is a master craftsman of band instruments. Original Holton hardshell case is solid with strong hinges and latches. Overall a terrific tenor trombone ready for a new owner. Lacquer loss on trombone is consistent with age. One very small dent on horn towards the bell. Some loss of lacquer where dents were removed. Recently Chem Cleaned and dents removed from tuning slide. This is the same model of trombone used by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in the '60s. He and Slide Hampton, as well as James Morrison show without much doubt that a large horn - in the right hands (and THAT may be the key) - is also suitable for jazz.Holton Stratodyne Professional Tenor Trombone 1956. I'm guessing he was able to 'Bob McChesney' a lot of articulations between those two positions.

For fear of digressing too much, I noticed he sometimes rapidly played a LOT more notes between 1st & 3rd position than are actually on the horn. But in that regard, I think he 'cheated' (tongue in cheek).

That's pretty much what they did back then and he obviously made it work splendidly!Īnyway, I think he epitomized the concept that a 'jazz' trombone is whatever size you are playing at the moment when you are playing jazz! And he clearly was able to demonstrate nimbleness that others might say is lacking in a larger horn. Good info! It's always difficult for me to guess the size of a mpc from a visual, but it isn't hard for me to accept that he played on a small one. He also switched to a smaller bore Yamaha in the 70s and 80s, and some other horn I’m not familiar with that you can see with him in videos. I own an Opera and while it’s an amazing horn to play, it can be a real challenge to play in a section or other settings where blend (not to mention intonation) is important. Curtis Fuller also used a small mouthpiece - a King 28 I believe, even with the huge Opera - which helped him sound more like he was playing a small horn than a big one.

Holton stratodyne cornet