Posts by James Newcomb

“ ’Tis better to be than to do,” so the saying goes. I’m going to put a little twist on that classic, iconic phrase and say, “It is better to do than to read.” I guess “read” rhyme with be, so that’s the logic behind it. Honestly, I jotted down that idea a few days ago…

I was told by somebody the other day that I am “small potatoes” compared to another group of people who evidently have made a name for themselves in this world. And I don’t know the actual intent of the person that said this, but I would venture to say that it was meant to insinuate…

I highly recommend watching a documentary called “Harvard Beats Yale 29–29.” If you haven’t seen it, I just checked and if you search for it on YouTube, it’s available in its entirety. The crux of the story is that the Harvard and Yale football teams were both undefeated in the 1968 football season. Yale was…

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of this thing called AI. You know, short for “artificial intelligence”? Not even 12 months ago, I had barely heard of it. It seemed like the product of a distant land that I only heard about once or twice a year when there was a terrorist attack, or some…

Last night, the Minnesota Twins were eliminated from the baseball playoffs. Terrible for them, but you might be asking, “What does this have to do with you?” I’m asking myself the same thing. I grew up in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and always rooted for the Twins. They even won a…

When I awoke yesterday, I didn’t know exactly what was in store for the day. I knew there were a few things to get done related to my business, need to get in a good practice session on the horn, and beyond that I wasn’t 100% sure. My wife Sana has her days off on…

One thing I found particularly interesting in my interview with Chris Botti, which I published on the Trumpet Dynamics podcast last week, was how he had aspirations to be known as a great jazz trumpeter – yet the first album he published was a pop album. In fact, hardly anyone today knows him as a…

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to meet the great Chris Botti in person and interview him for my Trumpet Dynamics podcast. You can listen to the interview here: https://trumpetdynamics.com/botti This was actually my second time interviewing Chris. The first time was when I was a wet-behind-the-ears podcaster and through a mutual connection was able to meet…

I’ve been recording and publishing interviews for nearly 9 years. And in that amount of time, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve published a video version of the interview. I’m not referring to a video with a graphic and the interview playing on YouTube, I’m talking about the two people…

Something Vinnie Ciesielski, my recent guest on the Trumpet Dynamics podcast said multiple times is along the lines of he has been given a tiny amount of talent by his Creator, and he has “worked it, kneaded it, repurposed it for everything it’s worth.” That’s not a verbatim quote, but that’s the gist of it.…