"Nobody," says a fellow Bourbon Street trumpeter, "ever outblew Al." Even allowing for civic partisanship, the boast is not unreasonable. New Orleans Trumpeter Al ("The Monster") Hirt, 38, is a "center-lip" man who blows straight from the diaphragm and generates such a wind that trying to top him, testifies another associate, is like "blowing down the throat of a hurricane." In recent months, the hurricane has swirled through Las Vegas (The Dunes), Manhattan (Basin Street East) and the TV networks with an impact that has made Trumpeter Hirt one of the hottest properties in jazz.
Casual Kazoo. Last week, fresh off the...