Jimmy Rowles' Holton/Leblanc C Trumpet
I purchased this trumpet from Stacy Rowles in 2009, a very short time before her untimely and tragic death. On the same visit, she left her Calcichio pocket trumpet for some repairs and returned to pick it up just a few days before the car accident that lead to her passing. Stacy was always straightforward communicator but she seemed especially appreciative of the repairs and fact that I had purchased three of her instruments, since she needed the funds to pay her mortgage (remember the recession?). With an enthusiastic hug, she was gone from my shop.
Stacy had told me that this C trumpet was specially made for her dad, the legendary jazz pianist, Jimmy Rowles. She told me that her dad played just a little trumpet in the military, although had not become very proficient. Only after seeing her success on trumpet and flugelhorn and the two of them enjoying performing together on their respective instruments did he decide that he would like to play the trumpet with her as well. This trumpet was custom built for Jimmy by G. Leblanc Corporation, parent company of Holton as well as distributor of their French products (Courtois, Leblanc, Noblet etc.).
I now wish that I had asked more questions of Stacy regarding the origins of this project, although she did tell me that his request was to have a trumpet that he wouldn't have to transpose all the tunes that he knows on the piano, but still have the sound of a Bb trumpet. Sure enough, it has the bell and mouthpipe from Holton's Bb trumpet model T101, which was their new model at the time.
This trumpet is well built, but any experienced brass repairman could have taken the bell and mouthpipe from a Holton trumpet and cut them to the correct lengths to fit the existing Leblanc C trumpet valve assembly. I'm quite sure that Stacy's story is true, however, and this trumpet is an excellent playing instrument, certainly not a chance assemblage of parts.
The bore is .441", the over all length is 19 1/16"" and the bell diameter is 5".