Trumpet Guy :A Friend I Play Music With Sometimes

Trumpet Guy : Musician, A's booster
By Brenda Payton, STAFF WRITER
IT started as a fluke. Stephen Saxon was going to an A's game with a friend.
"I thought, 'I can do better than those big plastic horns,'" he said. So he took along one of his trumpets. "The piccolo trumpet. It's used mostly in Baroque music. I thought it would stand the least chance of getting hurt. Also, it really carries."
He took it along to the next game he attended as well.
"I was listening on the radio, and I heard (Ken) Korach and (Bill) King say, 'Hey, the Trumpet Guy's back.'"
And so an Oakland A's tradition was born. That was 2000.
Saxon held up his jersey to show off the words "Trumpet Guy," newly applied to the back. "I just got this back last week."
If you're an A's fan, you know the Trumpet Guy doesn't just blow his horn or play "Take me out to the ballgame."
He makes musical commentaries, or quotes as he calls them, responding to what's happening on the field or communicating with the radio play-by-play announcers.
So when A-Rod — the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in baseball — comes to the plate, he plays "If I were a rich man."
Miguel Tejada inspired a few bars from "Tequila," also played by the drummers who used to play in the bleachers. David Justice? The theme from "Perry Mason." The theme from "Perry Mason"?
"You know, justice," Saxon said. "The odder the connection, the better."
Most of his commentaries are whimsical, but at least one was serious.
"John Rocker was warming up and getting booed," he recalled. Rocker, a former reliever for the Atlanta Braves, created a furor when he insulted gays and immigrants in an interview.
"I thought, 'What would be the most meaningful response?'" Saxon said. He started quietly playing "We Shall Overcome."
"I played it all the way through. The sections on either side of me joined in and sang along. It said, 'That doesn't fly here. This is Oakland.' It was one of my favorite moments."
He loves it when he gets a laugh from the play-by-play announcers.
"I feel like I'm there contributing," he said.
The only autographed baseball he owns was signed by King, the legendary announcer who died last year.
He'll also play requests from people sitting around him.
"If they can sing it, I can play it," he said.
If you've noticed the Trumpet Guy sounds pretty good, there's a reason. He's a musician, trained in classical, jazz and Klezmer music. He also sings. In college he focused on the trumpet to let his bass voice mature. He credits a high school voice teacher, Cathy Hudnall, with teaching him everything he's needed to know as a singer.
"I thought the trumpet was the quickest route to learning music, reading, analysis. And it wouldn't hurt my voice."
Most recently, he has found himself immersed in arranging and composing for Clockwork, an a cappella quintet he sings with.
"I've done maybe 30 arrangements in the past three years. It's the first time I've been writing so much," he said.
He patiently explains the process and goal of arranging.
"It's a way of coming up with a new way of saying something through an existing piece of music," he said. "I try to maintain the voice of the group and at the same time to stretch it. I look for a melody that's stylistically happening, harmonize on that and come up with a counter point. Most groups are not able to pull it off."
And as he has gotten further into arranging, he has been doing more composing.
The Trumpet
Guy. Who knew?
"I've had people who know my playing but didn't know I was the Trumpet Guy recognize me from what I play at the games."
Clockwork, which also includes Angie Doctor, Eric Freeman, John Paddock and Jim Hale, rehearses every week.
"If we're working on new music, we'll sit around the table with our binders and a pitch pipe and read through it. When we know the notes, we go downstairs and work with the sound system and rehearse with microphones."
The group is looking forward to competing in the National Finals Harmony Sweepstakes in San Rafael on May 6.
"We came in second in 2004 when we had only had seven performances. So we have high hopes for this year."
At the games, he prefers Section 217, behind home plate but not on the first deck.
"No, I haven't gotten any complaints yet. But I choose my moments and place. I like the front row because no one is in front me," he said. "A lot of people come up and shake my hand. A few buy me beers."
Catch the Trumpet Guy at about 20 A's games a year. (Although he has become part of the A's experience, he doesn't get a free pass because of copyright and licensing requirements.) Clockwork's CD, "Tesseract,' is available at CDbaby.com or clockworksingers.com.