Jerry Franks

Jerry Franks (b. Uniontown, Pennsylvania, c. 1938 - d. 1989 -- Trumpet player and teacher. Jerry Franks was a legendary trumpet teacher, who focused on precision and technique -- especially multiple tonguing -- and altering teeth structure in order to expand the upper register. A deeply religious man, Franks maintained a private studio of around ninety students of various ages and abilities while teaching instrumental music at Grace College in Winona Lake, where he settled in the 1966. Students from all over the Midwest traveled to Northern Indiana to learn from Jerry Franks. Because of diabetes, he lost his eyesight in 1978; however, he never lost his faith and his devotion to teaching the trumpet. After being taught by his musical parents, he studied music at the University of West Virginia. During his junior year of college, he played a solo at the Music Educator's National Conference, where -- on the merit of his performance -- he was offered a job playing lead trumpet with NBC Orchestra. He opted to finish his education and he ended up teaching instrumental music in the Pennsylvania public schools for several years. Concurrently, he worked as a studio musician alongside such greats as Buddy Morrow and Doc Severinsen, and he was also a soloist for the Buescher Instrument Company. He built up such a reputation that later on Doc announced on the Tonight Show that a trumpet teacher in Winona Lake, Indiana, was a better player than he. Franks’s virtuosity can be heard on an LP that he recorded with his own groups from Grace College. His most prominent ensemble was Dimensions of Brass, which toured extensively with Jerry as a soloist.