John,

When you one day become a player, you’ll look back at what you said here and understand it better. I think Ian would tell you the same thing. It's not so much a question of do you want to or NOT want to use pitch bend...or....can you sound good and get by without using it…or…will the "pitch bend police" write you up if you don't use it?

It's about hearing an arrangement in your head (while you’re playing) and realizing it through PB. When I’m playing a song, I don’t just hear a flat trumpet line in my mind…I also hear where I want to PB notes and how it adds to my forward momentum of the song. It brings me and my playing to life and hopefully that transcends to the audience.

A good example (though not the only one) is St. Louis Blues. You really can’t play that effectively without PB. Another tune I do is Clyde McCoy’s Sugar Blues. The original is made up of bent notes. The song is so simple you have no choice. And then there’s every other song on the planet that benefits from PB.

That PB really helps get what’s inside of me OUTSIDE of me. I almost get a high when I bend a note. But that’s me….I just happen to have a fetish for PB the way some folks have a fetish for “smilies.”

Lucky