What Is Hip?

I thought I'd take this chance to say hi to all you trumpet players out there!  I'm Christine, the one you probably talk to if you ever call or email us at Harrelson.  I'm mostly here in the office in Minneapolis, figuring out solutions to trim questions and shim questions, stamping and clamping, shipping and quipping.  Generally, I do everything I can to let Jason focus as much time as possible on trumpet-building and blowing our minds with his latest innovations.  So feel free to drop me a line if you ever have questions or ideas!

I also wanted to call your attention to a fantastic event coming up this week at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA:  The National Trumpet Competition! Jen and Jason will be there to represent Harrelson Trumpets and support these talented players.  (A big shout out to the entire University of Colorado trumpet studio who will also be there to compete and take in the many inspired performances!)  Trumpet ensembles, solos, and Jazz performances will be streamed live all weekend, so I highly encourage you to check out some of the best and brightest in the up-and-coming trumpet scene!

https://www.nationaltrumpetcomp.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=302918

The extreme mental pressures of a competition like this have always fascinated me, and they were brought even more sharply into focus by a series of talks I saw last year comparing musical performance to sports psychology.  We are always trying to find that sweet spot where our minds are completely in the moment, yet we also want to execute every technical aspect flawlessly.  We all strive so hard to make our performance adhere to a prescribed set of standards, yet at the same time we try to infuse our own human experience and emotion in order to make the performance our own.  It's a constant battle of intention and focus that can easily become overwhelming if we allow ourselves to become consumed by it.  It seems to me that this juxtaposition becomes even more drastic in the jazz realm, where everyone learns from the masters but has an intense desire to create their own sound, a sound that is identifiable yet new and hip.  I am definitely still learning to find my own voice when I perform, so I don't have a real solution to these conundrums.  However, I can share with you the immortal words of Tower of Power:  Sometimes hipness is what it ain't.

This blog post was inspired by Jim Weglewski, who likes to quote Tower of Power at board meetings.