The professor of music had an article published in the professional trumpet journal.
Professor of Music Thomas Erdmann had a 6,000-word article published in the October 2015 issue of The International Trumpet Guild Journal.
The article, Bob Findley: Listening His Way To Lasting Fame, is about Hollywood studio and jazz trumpeter Bob Findley. While he is best known as being the trumpeter in the band that played on The Gong Show and The Gong Show Movie, the 70+ year old musician still continues to have a thriving performance career in Hollywood studios. Among the other things he’s done is play on 23 Academy Award broadcasts as a member of the house orchestra, performed on hundreds of movie soundtracks including The Blues Brothers and The Little Mermaid, performed on thousands of television soundtracks including Cheers, Newlywed Game, and over 257 episodes of various Star Trek shows, and had featured solos on Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune.
In live venues he’s worked with Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Jaco Pastorius, Sammy Davis Jr., Sinead O’Connor, and The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, among others. On over 1,000 recordings he’s worked with artists as diverse as Steely Dan, Extreme, Neil Diamond, Megadeath, and Wynton Marsalis, to list just a few. His trumpet playing has also been featured on commercials for Coke, Cadillac, Acura, Levi’s, and Nissan. He spent 10 years playing full time in Las Vegas showbands after originally coming up playing in the Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller bands.
As a jazz artist he’s worked all over the world and has a number of recordings as a leader, some with his trumpet playing brother Chuck.