Her Trumpet Takes Her Round The World

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 24, 25 November 1938, Page 7

Her Trumpet Takes Her Round

The World

As a frail little girl with a future of not much, she was given a trumpet as a health measure. lt was an odd trick of Fate that placed in her hands the instrument which, all the rest of her life, was to mean so much to her, The trumpet was given to her for a weakness, but she made a strength out of it..

"‘T found I could express myself with it,’’ Grace Adams Fast told the "Record."’? ‘I had to breathe deeply to play it, my: appetite increased, { felt better. Of course, it can be over-done. 8 ‘‘But the trumpet has brought me health, joy and everything in life that is worth while and now it is allowing me to see the world.’’ In the studios of 2Y¥A the tall, jet-haired, striking lady smiled. She had just toured Australia, touring for the ABC and giving theatre perform~ ances. Now she is touring New Zealand under.a six-weeks engagement to the NBS. And after that Australia, the Hast, Africa and London. She travels, so to speak, on a magic trumpet. S HE became famous, through her trumpet. ER trumpet has become famous in the United States. She hag played her magic trumpet at the opening of the famous ’Frisco bridge, in White House for President Roosevelt, in the Grand Canyon for the memorial service to Will Rogers, on the steps of the Capitol in Washington at sunrise for the Easter Service. This last was not so surprising. a, The trumpet is famous in the story of the Bible. One Joshua had a famous trumpet and there is a certain Gabriel in the Bible well known for his trumpet. . **T consider myself a Gabrielle,’’ smiled Grace Adams Hast. So in Easter Sunday services she played her trumpets,’ often at. -nine services a day. She played ‘‘The Holy City’’ and ‘‘Hosanna.~ When she was asked to pilav as soloist .

Se tetas" wel ii for the Calvary in at the Easter morning sunrise service she gladly acepted. GHE bought a white tailored outfit to play in, but when the morning came rain wags pouring down. ‘*In the end,’’ she said, ‘‘I wore a dollar white rubber eape with an old felt hat; I thought I would be the only one there, playing to myself in the vain."’ But when she arrived she found thousands waiting in the rain, and as she played the rain dropped off the end of her trumpet. It is not easy to play a trumpet in the rain, At the end of the service the sun came out and she played ‘‘The Holy City" i in the sunshine. The Crazy City (QNCE her magic trumpet took her to Hollywood, the city of the films. She found it a strange place. _ There they paid her for two weeks and then gave her a contract to | sign. She read the contract, "I found I was to have no say about what I was to do. They were going to remodel me and make me another person altogether, ‘They were going to make me wear clothes I did not want to wear and play music I did not want to play. "They didn’t want me to be Grave Adams East,’’ she said, ‘‘They wanted me to’ hecome a boop-2-doop performer,’’. They wanted to destroy the character she had spent a lifetime in creating. She toid them to get a little girl of 18 and train her to do-what they wanted, They "w ‘were rather shocked.

‘"‘You are the first who has turned down good money like this,’’ they said. In A Night Club UT Grace Adams knew what she wanted to do with her trumpet. She had. _ proved it an instrument of charm and rare beauty. She had studied breath control and phrasing so that she played it as a singer would sing. She played German lieder on her trumpet, the colourful music of the French composer Ravel. ; Once she went into a negro night club in Southern California te find Ravel. He was working there to get atmosphere. I¢ is rare indeed for a white woman to go into a negro night club, but she had to see Ravel. She had her written transcription of his Habanera for the trumpet. "‘T took it to him trembling,’’ she said. He went straight to the piano and she played her trumpet to his accompaniment. They worked for two hours. At the end of that time Ravel said: "That is quite remarkable, Miss East. You play it as I mean it to be played. I don’t mean it to be a ditty. It is meant to be ultra-sophisticated,’? So Habanera is, says Miss Adams East. It is queer and strange and exciting, like some kind of cheese you’ve never tasted, "Rhapsody In Blue" N HER concert recitals in the States she includes a technical work written for the trumpet. "It is expected,’’ she says. For the piece de resistance at the end she plays George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody’ in Blue.’’ a " Again she made the transcription for trumpet from the rhapsody and .took it to Gershwin-‘‘one of the few musicians. who had all the joys of his success before he died’’-selecting the main themes from the work suitable for the trumpet. on ‘You have succeeded in taking the meat of ‘my work,’’ Gershwin told her, when he heard the transcription.

HE aims at playing the trumpet as a singer would sing. ‘‘I do not believe ‘in the tooting method:’’ She worked. hard, studying German lieder with singing coaches, until she had mastered the art Of phrasing. — ' "Now she interprets her German lieder through the instrument. "And if T interpret it as it should be,’ she says, *T can make it tell a story." At Grand Canyon BUT she does not play all Gerinan lieder on her trumpet. One piece of hers that she is fond of is "Home On The Range’-the favourite ‘melody: of President Roosevelt-and her friend Will Rogers. ° Up till his death, says Grace Adams Hast, "Will Rogers was most-adored man in . . Once she joined . with him in 2 concert for a vast. charitable’ institution, the "McKinley Boys’ Home. She played "Home On The Range. 4 > The concert, " scheduled for two hours, ’ lasted four ‘hours. Will. Rogers, in the middie ‘of making a film, had to leave before the . Supper. But before he left he donated a per- . ‘sonal cheque to the charity of 5 dollars a seat for every seat in the hall. ‘There were 6000 at the concert; his cheque came to 30,000 ‘dollars, "He was just full, of those tricks," sayz Grace Adams East. HEN they brought his body back fron Alaska. there was a funeral service at ‘Glendale, suburb: of Los Angeles. There was -@ public ceremony at the Hollywood Bowl. _.. There was yet another at the Grand Cam yon,. and that ceremony seemed really te belong: to Will Rogers. | ‘On a pinnacle of the’ Grand Canyon Grace Adams East played her trumpet at the sem Vice, in ‘memory of Will. Rogers. There was snow on’ the ground. "As each slow phrase ‘was played, the seven echoes of the great ‘canyon cut by the Colorado River caught the sound, flung it faint ‘and fainter still, seven times from’ echo to echo, until the last note died away. . SHE PLAYED. "HOME ON THE -RANGE." . i