Getting down to brass tactics

Joel Newell, 18, a senior, poses for a photo with his trumpet in the courtyard at West Port High School in Ocala on March 29. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

West Port High School trumpeter Joel Newell moved to Ocala when he was in eighth grade. During that time, he decided to dedicate his life to playing music, setting a course that would lead to big-time recognition.

The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America recently selected the 18-year-old prodigy as a member of its national youth ensemble, NYO Jazz. Newell is one of a handful of trumpet players chosen to perform with the group at Carnegie Hall this July. After that performance, the ensemble will tour the nation.

While in New York, Newell will study with renowned jazz trumpeter Sean Jones, artistic director for NYO Jazz. The internationally recognized educator has worked with the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and with the brass department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The New York performance won’t be the first time Newell has played Carnegie Hall. He and the West Port High School Band performed in the hallowed hall just before the COVID-19 shutdown, and he was able to play his trumpet to a live audience.

“It was one of the best times of my life,” he reminisced. “Other bands in the country, as well as our families, were there, but right when we came back down, we had to be quarantined.”  

Newell’s love of music started in church, singing in the choir with his mother and father. While attending Corner Lake Middle School in Orlando, music instructors such as Kimberly Zipoli and Carmen Aquino inspired him at a crucial time. They pushed him out of his comfort zone and encouraged his commitment to music. 

“I was a tenor, but I could sing anything before my voice dropped, which was crazy,” he said with a laugh. “Ms. Aquino, my teacher at Corner Lake–I miss her–she made me sing every single part. … So, I had really good relative pitch early on. If you gave me some chord changes, some super easy chord changes, I was able to play them without knowing the written chords.”  

Born in the Cayman Islands, Newell became a naturalized citizen of Jamaica, his parents’ homeland.

The upbeats of reggae reverberated in him from a young age. 

“Rhythm is a very, very big thing in Jamaican reggae. So, I think that influence was something that definitely set me apart from other players early on.” 

After Newell nailed the basics of horn playing, he expanded his jazz repertoire and his own style of playing, transitioning his embouchure (the position and use of the lips, tongue and teeth). 

“It’s something almost all trumpet players have to go through even though it’s such a hard process,” he said. “It’s almost like starting over, a hard but great experience.” 

Chet Baker and Wynton Marsalis made an imprint on the trumpeter’s embouchure as he came into his own stylistically. Nowadays, Newell name-checks Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown as major influences. 

As far as what the kids listen to today, Thundercat is his favorite, and it’s his dream to play with the Grammy-winning bassist and vocalist one day (you read it here first). Newell has “been hip to Japanese city pop” because of its “addictive” rock-and-soul fusion.

After performing at Carnegie Hall this July, Newell and his cohorts will begin a national tour that continues until August.

The road to the Big Apple wasn’t an easy one, but Newell’s self-discipline and unending curiosities helped him get there. Those qualities also fueled his academic successes, too.

Newell participated in both the Marion County Center for the Arts and the Early College program while studying at WPHS and will receive his associate degree before he graduates from high school in May. He plans to pursue a jazz performance major and has been accepted into all three of the colleges he’s applied to: the Berklee School of Music, the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and the jazz program at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

To learn more about NYO Jazz, visit carnegiehall.org.