I’ve been downloading a bunch of Wingy Manone from emusic’s Chron Classics/Complete Jazz collection. I thought I could keep away from him, but I can’t. He played the trumpet in bands with all sorts of people in New Orleans, Chicago and New York.
This Redhotjazz.com entry states:
Wingy Manone was a New Orleans trumpet player and vocalist who lost his right arm in a streetcar accident when he was ten years old. He wore a prosthetic arm while on stage performing and used it so well that many never noticed his disability.
Makes me wonder if they realise that it’s not a disability if it’s not impairing his abilities…
They mustn’t have been looking very closely when watching him play. If he lost his right hand that means he had to press the trumpet’s valve buttons with his left hand which is the wrong hand for a trumpeter.
Which means that when Manone lost his arm he would have had to re-learn how to play the trumpet with his other hand. Very impressive.
To those who didn’t notice, they must have been those silly lindy hoppers who were evidently too busy triple stepping to notice anything at all.