© Andrea Canter
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| Jake Baldwin, fall 2008 |
When I first met Jake Baldwin, he was a sixteen-year-old trumpet
prodigy at Minnetonka
High School, playing in an early edition of the Dakota Combo under the leadership of another
trumpeter, Kelly Rossum. Jake played with the Combo for two years before graduating
and moving on to studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. About to
begin his final year at NEC, Jake has continued along his early trajectory,
excelling at NEC, leading an exciting ensemble on the Dakota Jazz Club stage at
Late Night gigs during school breaks, performing in the finals of the
International Trumpet Guild Solo Competition here in Minneapolis in 2011, and,
last weekend, appearing as student guest artist at the monthly PipJazz Sunday
concert at Landmark Center in St. Paul. And he’s back at the Dakota Saturday
night with former Combo cohorts Joe Strachan (piano) and Cory Grindberg (bass),
along with another trumpet whiz, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, and rising star drummer
Miguel Hurtado.
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| Jake at the ITG Competition, 2011 |
But that’s no ordinary trumpet he’s blowing these days. It’s
an original design with two extra valves, one for quarter tones and one that
extends the trumpet’s range downward. It’s Jake’s own design. He built the
trumpet. Although his family moved away from the Twin Cities shortly after Jake
enrolled at NEC, he still views this area as “home” and sought a summer job
here. What’s a perfect job for a young trumpeter? Building trumpets in a
trumpet factory, of course. Sweat equity and metal shavings aside, Jake now has
credentials that few performers can match – he built his instrument. He
understands every inch of that brass tubing. He not only creates his sound with
his embouchure, fingers and lung power – he took total charge of how that air
passes through the instrument.
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| Jake with Pippi Ardennia, PipJazz at Landmark |
Jake initiated his new horn at Landmark Sunday night and
plans to bring it to the Dakota this weekend. If you close your eyes, you might
not recognize the nuances that differentiate this trumpet from any other. At
least if you are not a well-schooled musician. On the other hand, you (like me)
might be thinking, “This trumpeter has a really cool sound…. There’s just something
a little different about it.”
It’s not just Jake. It’s the horn that Jake built. And he
owns every note.
All photos by Andrea Canter. The Jake Baldwin Quintet plays Late Night at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis on August 18th, 11:30 pm.
