This Week's Featured Marker:

Trumpet Records

On November 17, 2007 a Mississippi Blues Trail marker was dedicated in front of the former site of Trumpet Records on historic Farish Street in Jackson, which was once the business and social center of the African American community. Attendees at the event included Vitrice McMurry, the daughter of Trumpet Records owner Lillian McMurry, who spoke passionately about her mother’s love of the music she recorded, and recording artist Webb Wilder, who was a nephew of the McMurry’s.

Trumpet closed in the mid-‘50s but several artists who recorded for the label were on hand for the ceremony. Birmingham-based Roscoe Robinson, who has recorded many soul and gospel records over the past sixty years, recalled recording at Trumpet in the early ‘50s as part of the gospel group the Southern Sons. Also coming in from Alabama was harmonica great Jerry “Boogie” McCain, who recorded in Trumpet in 1953 and 1954. McCain spoke at the ceremony and then performed several songs backed by the band of local bluesman Jesse Robinson; on one of the songs McCain demonstrated his ability to play skillfully with his nose!

The Trumpet marker is just several blocsk away from another marker on Farish Street that acknowledges the Alamo Theatre, which hosted talent contests, and blues/soul singer Dorothy Moore, who often won the contests. Other markers in the city celebrate the legacies of the recording labels Ace, operated by Johnny Vincent from the ‘50s until the ‘90s, and Malaco Records, which was founded in the 1960s and is still active today.

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