Name: Al Schiffrin
Date: Nov. 20, 2007
I WAS A STUDENT OF HIS IN THE MID 50’S AT THE NED MAHONEY SCHOOL OF MUSIC IN HEMPSTEAD N.Y. HE WAS A JOY TO STUDY WITH AND WITH ME HIS FAVORITE EXPRESSION WAS ....THATS FIERCE..... ESPECIALLY WHEN IN AN ERNEST WILLIAMS DUET I HAD TO START ONE SECTION ON A HIGH B. THE ODDS WERE ABOUT 50 50 I WOULD HIT IT.I COMPLETED MY B.S. IN MUS. ED. AS A BARITONE HORN MAJOR AND I KNOW HE WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD OF ME. I COULD FINALLY HIT THE HIGH B CONSISTENTLY. HE WAS AN INSPIRATION TO ME THROUGHOUT MY CAREER AS A MUSIC TEACHER.
AS A STUDENT OF HIS IN THE MID 50’S AT THE NED MAHONEY SCHOOL OF MUSIC IN HEMPSTEAD N.Y. HE WAS A JOY TO STUDY WITH AND WITH ME HIS FAVORITE EXPRESSION WAS ....THATS FIERCE..... ESPECIALLY WHEN IN AN ERNEST WILLIAMS DUET I HAD TO START ONE SECTION ON A HIGH B. THE ODDS WERE ABOUT 50 50 I WOULD HIT IT.I COMPLETED MY B.S. IN MUS. ED. AS A BARITONE HORN MAJOR AND I KNOW HE WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD OF ME. I COULD FINALLY HIT THE HIGH B CONSISTENTLY. HE WAS AN INSPIRATION TO ME THROUGHOUT MY CAREER AS A MUSIC TEACHER.
Name:Richard Eimers
EMail:dina1954@earthlink.net.
Date:May 28, 2007
Mark
We just found and read the website that you created for Jimmy Burke. We were especially glad to find this website because he is my cousin and we knew him very well. We enjoyed listening to his music that was included in the website. How can we download his music onto my hard drive and/or buy some kind of recording. I have always wanted his recordings because I can remember listening to him playing "Carnival of Venice" in his mother's home. I even remember listening to him on Milton Cross Children's Hour every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. as the perminent guest soloist with his mother as the pianist. I appreciate any information you can give me in getting and keeping his recordings. My e-mail address is: dina1954@earthlink.net. (Phone # edited) Are you located in the NewYorkCity area? We will be coming to Long Island the end of June and the beginning of July. Hope to hear from you soon.
Richard Eimers (my mother was a Burke)
Name: Hank Yang
Date: May 27, 2007
"I consider Mr Burke to be one of the last great cornetists. His triple tonguing was unique; by applying double tonguing syllables for his triple tonguing he was able to keep the rhythm VERY precise. His playing spoke for itself and the amazement for his dazzling musicianship and technique is only surpassed by the inspiration derived from his biography."
Hank Yang
Name: Lorna and Warren Mizener
Email:mizener@rogers.com
Date: May 2, 2007
Your web-site is a wonderful tribute to Jimmy Burke!
When I was about 13 years old, James Burke came to Knowlton, Quebec, Canada, to perform as guest soloist with the Knowlton High School Band. At the concert on 12 May 1956, he
performed several solos with piano, accompanied by his wife, but the highlights, for me, were
the solos he played accompanied by our band. I particularly remember The Harp of Tara (Walter Rogers) and, of course, The Carnival of Venice (Arban). Two other solos which he played on that occasion (his own The Magic Trumpet and The Bugler (E. F. Goldman) became
key items of my personal solo repertoire during my high school years. I vividly remember Burke's big open cornet tone and his flawless technique. What an inspiring day it was for this
young trumpeter!
Later, in August 1959, I attended the Gleneagle Music Camp in Newport, Vermont. Also in
attendance was James Burke's son, Mitchell, a remarkable cornet player himself. I remember
that he performed the Carnival of Venice with the camp band accompanying him.
James Burke returned one more time to perform with the K.H.S. Band on 1 October 1960. By
then, I had graduated from high school and was attending the University of New Brunswick in
Fredericton, New Brunswick. I remember making the 500 mile overnight train trip home just to
hear and see James Burke again on that occasion.
Thanks again for creating this great site!
Name: Paul Giguere
Date: March 11, 2007
In 1949, I was attending Brown University in Providence R.I. and never missed watching the Band of America Broadcasts. One weekend, I managed to get to NYC and got a ticket to the Belasco Theater to finally see the band. Did I ever luck out; James Burke was featured playing the Carnival of Venice. Truly fantastic! I managed to find the recording later which I still have. What a great trumpeter. Paul Giguere. Manchester, Ct.
Name: Joseph McKain:
Date: January 31, 2007
I was a student of Mr. Burke at Ithaca College in 1961-62. I am now retired after 34 years of teaching. I regard Mr. Burke as one of the most influential persons of my life. I still treasure a handwritten letter he sent me along with a sketch of his "Hocus Polka" cadenza.
As I look back now, I realize how much of 'Him' was a part of my teaching. His mannerism, his ability to inspire and of course, his love of Clarke's 'Technical Studies'.
Joseph McKain
Ithaca College B.S. Music Ed 1965
Date: Wed Jul 26 05:53:21 GMT-12:00 2006
I want to thank you for such a beautiful website in honor of my Dad. I am just learning all about the computer world, and this was the first site I wanted to visit. I loved seeing the names of my Dads friends and students, many of them I recogonize from the wonderful Bay Shore days. It is hard to believe it was 25 years on June 26th that he passed away. I hope you are enjoying your journey on the JImmy Burke trail of research. The geneology bug bit me after he passed,and as my Dad would say it has been a blast. Hope you enjoy the summer and I will keep in touch. Joneta Burke
I first heard James Burke when I was 10 years old and the Band of
America was on radio. I was a clarinet student, and I listened
religiously. I becamse an All_state player, then National H>S Band
player in 1956......then I played clarinet at Harvard, but eventually
went into medicine. When I was training in NY, I heard the Goldman Band
every chance I got, when they played in the parks. Anyone remember
hearing on the Band of America radio a solo once played on the Eb
cornet (I think) by Fernando Pasqualone?
What memories........oh, I was a neighbor in my childhood of Walter M.
Smith Jr., the son of the legenday cornetist, and his son Walter M.
Smith III (called Twinky Smith for some reason) played in the Quincy,
Ma High School band with me !!!!!!!
kenneth R. Zack, M.D. Newton , Mass
Name: Wayne Dietterick
Date: Mon Apr 10 05:46:20 GMT-12:00 2006
I just found your website by doing a search on James F. Burke. He was a guest soloist for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region II State Band Festival, March 6-8, 1969, held at Tulpehocken High School in Bernville, PA, in which I participated as a bass clarinetist as a junior from Central Columbia High School, Bloomsburg, PA. I was just listening to the recording that I still have from the festival on which he plays Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday with two of the high school trumpeters from the festival band – what a great recording and what a great musician. I recall his disability now after reading the website but had completely forgotten that aspect of his life. Thanks for bringing that back to me, which rekindles my appreciation (37 years later!) even more for his talent and musicianship. I’m honored to say that I’m in the group photograph of the entire band that was placed on the front of the record jacket, with him standing in the front row with all of the participating band directors and the guest conductor, Henry A. Gass. That year’s state band festival was my most favorite festival band experience, and one of the reasons was James F. Burke as guest soloist. I hope that my sharing this experience will let you and others know that “Jimmy” continues to live on in the lives of so many others that he touched with his music. Thank you for this site.
Best regards,
Wayne Dietterick
Name: Unknown
Date: Wed Apr 5 19:42:04 GMT-12:00 2006
Thanks so much for putting this tribute together.
I studied with Mr. Burke from about 1978 to 1981. He was a gracious man who had a fatherly approach to teaching, and I always came away from a lesson with him feeling great (even when I was "a sinner" and hadn't practiced enough). He had a gentle soul and cheeriness that made a profound impact on me.
My fond memories of him included the drive from the Islip train station to his house in Bay Shore, in his cream white Eldorado; his laugh; playing duets with him (gosh that was great); his way of always saying "you're a gentleman and a scholar" which made me grin from ear to ear, and which I think I had never been called before- at the age of 15. I also remember being proud when he guest conducted our orchestra at the University of Vermont summer music session, where I first met him and became his student.
I fondly remember his help in meeting me at Giardinelli's on 46th street in NYC to pick out my trumpet (I chose a silver Yamaha YTR-734), which I had saved up for (and still play to this day). I do recall his fingering the trumpet for me when I was struggling, and using his hand to direct my breathing (as someone else had noted). I still do the chromatic warm-ups although its been a few years since I've looked at the Arbans, but I play out with a Swing band every now and then, and have always kept up my chops...one of these days I'll quit my day job.
Thanks again for putting together this website- great material (although I couldn't access the mp3s!).... I am so glad to have discovered it through a Google search.
Mr. Burke remains a guiding presence in my life, one of a few rare gems I have met in my 40+ years on this planet....and I think of him very often.
Author unknown