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Hall of Fame
William Fielder
Terell Stafford owes his career to William
Fielder. “If it wasn’t for Prof, I wouldn’t be
playing trumpet,” he said.
Terence Blanchard said that his lessons
with “Prof” (Fielder’s nickname) went
beyond learning how to play the horn. “He
was more than a trumpet teacher,”
Blanchard said. “He was family.”
Fielder’s on leave from his post at
Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts in
New Brunswick, N.J., where he joined the
faculty in 1979. But during his time instructing
the likes of Stafford, Blanchard, Wynton
Marsalis and Sean Jones, Fielder revolutionized
teaching methods on how
to play jazz trumpet. Having
earned degrees from the
American Conservatory of
Music, Fielder’s imprint
comes from his fluency in the
jazz and classical worlds.
“Prof is a visionary in the
African-American community,
one of the first to study the
trumpet in the European classical
tradition,” Jones said.
Fielder was born July 2,
1938, in Meridian, Miss. As a performer,
Fielder has worked with the Ellington and
Basie orchestras, Sun Ra’s Arkestra, B.B.
King, Slide Hampton and Ray Charles.
Classical performances include the
Chicago Civic Symphony and American
Conservatory Symphony and Brass
Ensemble.
Fielder’s teaching career—which started
at Alabama State in 1965—has earned him
his greatest distinction. His studies with
Chicago Symphony Orchestra classical
trumpet legends Vincent Cichowicz and
Adolph Herseth have had a lasting impact
on his teaching methods.
“My father wanted me to be a doctor,”
Fielder recalled, “and I said I was going to
leave. So [in 1957] I went to Chicago. I
heard about Adolph Herseth. I thought,
‘This man has something!’ I studied with
Cichowitz as well. He was stern. One time,
at a lesson he took his trumpet and played
Bartók’s ‘Concerto For Orchestra’ in my
ear. Then he asked me, ‘Can you play that’
‘Well, no sir, I can’t.’ ‘Why not’ ‘Sir, you
haven’t assigned it to me.’ ‘You wait for
people to assign you things’”
Jones said that Fielder’s dedication to the
Chicago methodology of brass playing
makes his lessons attractive to emerging
trumpeters who need to learn how to produce
a good sound on their horn. “He was
introduced to the airflow and breathing principles
that have become such a big part of his
playing and teaching,” Jones said.
The emphasis on breathing resonated with
Stafford. “Prof said, ‘You have a lot to learn,
but if you use wind, it doesn’t matter where
you put the mouthpiece,” Stafford said. “Air is
stagnant, turning air into wind gives you
sound, a singing quality; the trumpet should be
like singing.”
Saxophonist Ralph Bowen, a colleague of
Fielder’s on the faculty at Rutgers, said that
Fielder’s influence has extended beyond brass
players. “He’s influenced all wind players who
have had the opportunity
to have a discussion or
lesson with him,” he said
Blanchard emphasized
that Prof’s lessons
extend far beyond teaching
technique. “The thing
that struck me was when
I first met him and had a
lesson, he called later
about two hours later to
ANJA-CHRISTIN NIELSEN
see if I was practicing,”
Blanchard said. “For the
first lesson, he asked, ‘What is the trumpet’
He said it was the mirror of the mind, the
means by which you express artistic thought.
We talked about painting, art, world views.”
“He doesn’t just have a passion for music,
but a passion for people, too,” Stafford said. “I
learned how to be a good person, how to treat
people with respect. My first lesson, he asked
me, ‘What is the function and structure of the
brain’ For him it was about sound, how the
mind works along with the body.’”
Jones had a similar story about an initial
encounter with Fielder. “When I came to
Rutgers,” Jones recalled, “Prof said to call
him. We hung out all day and night. We
would go out to dinner, and he would pay; my
first lesson was three or four hours.”
When asked what he would tell 10 young
trumpet players sitting with him, Fielder said
that he would first address the basics of making
a good sound on the horn. “I would guide
them on their problems,” he said. “Basic
attack and release. They’re going to have to
get down to the basic note attacks, release and
air flow in a horizontal way. If a young player
wants to play jazz they need to study and get
the horn down. Learn to produce a beautiful
sound. On passages that are too fast, you have
to resort to multiple tonguing.
“Get the horn together. You can’t have any
conveyance if you don’t know where you’re
going on the horn.” —John Ephland
June 2009 DOWNBEAT 97