V for Vindabona

Voila! Vincent’s venerable Vindabona, revived by veteran vanguard of virtuosos, begins maiden voyage. A vessel of victorious vibrations that can vanquish any venue; a versatile voice of velvet violence for Valentine and vengeance.

A volcano of vintage virtuosity, Mt. Vernon developed vespers of vehement votaries keeping vigil. The verdict? Victory. A victim of the vicissitudes of fate, the vagabond valiantly returns. Verily, the Vindabona has vanquished the veil of time and emerged from the void, more vibrant than ever before to vindicate Vincent’s vision. 

When the Bach 190 development project began we wanted to continue Vincent Bach’s legacy of consulting with the top performing artists of his day like George Mager of the Boston Symphony, Bud Herseth of the Chicago Symphony, etc.  It was May of 2021 and only my 4th month on the job when Bach Artist Rashawn Ross was planning his first trip to the factory since I started there. We spent about 2 hours tweaking his existing Bach trumpets until he was really happy with them when, by sheer coincidence, the first ever prototype for the 19072V and 19072X were completed by Bach master craftsmen, Jim Scott.

The First Notes

Rashawn played the first notes on these horns (even before me!) and we knew we were on to something when they both outplayed his old horns. The 19072V was the clear winner for him that day. While the 19072X sounded amazing, every time he played it, flames appeared on the floor as if Doc Brown’s Delorean had just hit 88 mph. We elected to leave the 72X for some additional tweaks while he took the 19072V with him.

You can hear some of his first notes on the horn here.

Only a month later, Rashawn used the horn with Ariana Grande’s Music Video for “My Hair”, now sitting comfortably at 16 million views.

The Legendary Sean Jones

2 days after Rashawn’s visit, he connected me with legendary trumpet player and educator Sean Jones, Chair of the Jazz Department at Johns Hopkins. I sent him a stock 19037, 19043 and new 19072V so he could get a feel for some Bach trumpets and hopefully get a decision on at least his favorite bell as a starting point…and of course, the 72 prevailed again.

You can hear Sean’s first public performance on the 2nd ever prototype of the 19072V on Live from Emmet’s Place Vol. 62 – Sean Jones on June 28, 2021:

Not a “Jazz Trumpet”

Sean was adamant during the development process that he didn’t want to create a “jazz trumpet.” He wanted to make an American trumpet that could be used on any genre. We exchanged prototypes back and forth for feedback many times in pursuit of this goal. After about 5 months of mailing prototype trumpets back and forth, Sean was happy with the horn. We decided a trip to Elkhart to the visit the factory and play test several potential final variations of the horn was in order. We also invited his old college roommate, Melvin Jones, who had been helping us on other 190 models to join.

It ended up being a very moving experience for all. Sean was able to speak to the factory workers about getting his first Bach trumpet as a kid after playing Danny Boy and Melvin thanking them for giving him the best possible tools to provide for his family, followed by a duet with both of them. In the end, the testing was successful and we made enough progress that we would finish putting together Sean’s horn and deliver it to him at Midwest a couple weeks later!

A short 3 weeks later, I delivered the final prototype to Sean at Midwest and ran into my college band director, Alex Parker, in the process!

Sean was coaching and soloing with an exceptional middle school jazz band when I finally tracked him down in the massive McCormick Convention Center and you can hear his literal first notes on the horn in this video I took (but never shared).