The Besson Brevete was a very popular choice for generations of Jazz trumpeters, and was played at various times by artists like Miles Davis, Rafael Mendez (the Olds Mendez was basically a copy of his old Brevete), Lee Morgan, and Fats Navarro. Most modern trumpets are in fact close copies or clones of early 20th century Besson instruments. Bach trumpets were inspired (or copied) from early Besson trumpets, and most modern trumpets closely follow the same pattern. The innovations in leadpipe design, bell shape, and wrap (the overall shape of the tubing and instrument) resulted in a far superior instrument to the trumpets of the day. It is 19 12 long (18 78 from bell rim to bell curve) without mouthpiece, the bell diameter is 4 916 and the bore measures Besson trumpets of the early 20th century were the first truly modern trumpets. The serial number indicates that this trumpet was made before 1924. We dont know how many trumpets he may have owned before making his own. There is at least one other Besson trumpet in existence that had belonged to Mr.īenge. It has a seam as seen in all original early Besson trumpets, but the same is true of Benge mouthpipes made in Chicago.
The braces between the bell and mouthpipe and first slide hook are definitely Benge parts. I can see that some of the parts are not original, but not all are obvious. I have no way of knowing if the heavy polishing was done at the Benge shop in 1970 or previous to Mr. Most modern trumpets were originally copied from the French Besson and were manufactured from about 1885.īush This trumpet has been so heavily polished that the bell stamp needed to be engraved over to make it more legible, making it look almost as if it is a counterfeit.Ĭlose examination does show that the original stamped lettering is there.
Lou Duda, the foreman of the Benge factory and outstanding trumpet craftsman, painstakingly reassembled the trumpet and presented it to Irving Bush. The instrument was disassembled in Mr Benges trumpet studio in Chicago, Illinois. Ive included a scan of Irvs story of this trumpet on his personal stationary below, but here is what it says: SeptemTo whom it may concern: The French Besson Bb trumpet, serial number 85419 is the instrument played by Elden Benge, the first trumpet with the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Frederick Stock.
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