I just wanted to share this with you.

Today, I visited my father’s grave. His stone reflects his service in the U.S. Army as a PVT at war time, World War I.  Born in 1896, he would be 120 years of age this year. As I approached his grave marker, which I knew was a bit overgrown with grass, I notice what I though was a piece of paper sitting on it. As I got closer, I noticed that the color was red, white and blue . . . but it wasn’t just a piece of paper at all. It was a tattered piece of cloth . . . a…

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About two years ago, I was cast as an extra in the filming of the Warner Brothers film "Dawn of Justice." They needed "military type" people as extras in the movie... bald or "high & tight" hair style and absolutely no facial hair period.

 

Off I went to my fitting appointed and after the wardrobe personnel looked me over, I was custom fitted in a Marine Corp, Class A dress uniform, baring two slver stars on the epaulet and a host of bars and medals on the breast of the coat. Measurements were completed…

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Every social site and twitter-twatter, Facebook & spacebook and instagram & instant spam are increasingly being filled with more and more violent videos, TMI posts and dirty pictures and most recently, election year garbage. This stuff is making it not so fun to peruse the sites and communicate with you friends and take in positive information. To the folks right in the middle of this digital evolution, it may seem like a normal process. But to any old pencil and pen, 20 something person in the seventies…

Recently I’ve discovered something special that I have to share with trumpet players all over the world. I love things the WORK . . . and when I discover things the WORK, I like to share them. It’s about the GAP. I’m referring to the short distance between your mouthpiece’s shank and the horn’s leadpipe. It’s measured in millimeters. The larger GAP causes back pressure, which actually assists in a couple of ways, but hinders the horns performances in many ways. However, let me say this . . . generally…

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My other hero, my Dad, was a War World One Army Veteran. On October 20 of this year, my other hero would have been 119 years old. My other hero passed away on May 31, 1972 when I was nineteen, one day after the day we celebrate those who served to protect us.

 

Pictured, is my other hero, and a picture of me. They are cropped, but his was taken in approximately 1956, when I was about three years old. The cropped photo of myself was taken in 2013. In both photos, we both are approximately the same age (60…

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Mr.Robinson holds a special place in my heart. I will never forget the look on my Father’s face when we met him.  Let me explain. 

My Dad, Lloyd “Do-Love” Hoggatt was born in Nashville, TN in 1896.  He moved to Minnesota in the mid 1920’s where he played professional baseball in the “Negro League.” At that time, a “Negro” was not allowed to play in the ‘major league.’  There are several books including “The Biographical Encyclopedia – The Negro Baseball Leagues” by James A. Riley, that discuss the plight…

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When we talk about the half of anything, we think of something that’s divided into two parts. It’s a bit abstract to think of anything that has three halves, yep there are three halves. I think of our lives as having three halves or parts.  

 

Follow me on this journey: From birth to theoretically our eighteenth birthday (or until we are independent of our parents, guardians or authority figure), we are nurtured, taught and generally directed toward independence. We go through stages of stages, many of…

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Last week, I attended the 2015 Jazz Connect Conference, held at the St. Peters Church in New York. In attendance, were musicians, producers, music educators, record company executives, music journalist and more. The panel and plenary sessions were complete with information on branding, artist owned and run labels and the role of social media, just to name a very few. However, a common thread throughout most of the presentations had something to do with the replenishing of the jazz audience. This was…

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I want to thank everyone for your good wishes on my first time out for a Grammy nomination with my new album “This Comes With It.” I fell short of the nomination this year but I promise to keep writing and trying to keep it fresh for my next opportunity. Congratulations to those artists that made the cut this year, I wish you the best.

Guymon Ensley