Received a Facebook notice in my email this morning.
Admittedly, Fred Mills was not a high-profile guy, except in the music (brass) world.
Fred played trumpet in the Canadian Brass, a rather irreverent brass quintet that got its start in the late Sixties. Fred was noted for his impeccable piccolo trumpet playing. Fred and Ronald Romm, the other trumpet player with the Canadian Brass, recorded the first theme for CBS' Sunday Morning, in unison. The performance of the trumpet fanfare (Abblasen) attributed to Gottfried Reiche, a trumpeter/composer of the Baroque era (roughly 1680 to 1750), is the signature piece of the program. The recording of two trumpeters sounded like one player due to their performance precision.
The recording was superceded by Wynton Marsalis in more recent years, who played it solo. True to form, Wynton added a few flourishes to the original work.
Fred Mills left the Canadian Brass some years ago in favor of teaching. But his work inspired untold thousands of musicians while he brought the piccolo trumpet into the jazz idiom with style, grace, and just a touch of panache.
He will be missed.
