Irving Bush was a well known trumpet player for many decades in L.A., playing commercially with the big bands of Nelson Riddle and Harry James before joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where his tenure lasted 20 years and included the duties of Personnel Manager. Irving Bush was associated with nearly every aspect of the music profession - performance in multiple genres, instrument and mouthpiece manufacturing, and education.

Bush performed for many motion picture studios including 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros Pictures. For several years, Irving was Nat "King" Cole's hand-picked first trumpet player. Bush also recorded with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Sarah Vaughan and Barbara Streisand. On the symphonic side, he recorded with the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony with Igor Stravinsky conducting, and numerous recordings by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, Carlo Giulini, Erik Leinsdorf, Michael Tilson Thomas, Andre Previn and Leonard Bernstein.

Irving Bush published numerous articles on trumpet related subjects and is author of "Artistic Trumpet Technique and Study." He was also a design and research consultant for several trumpet manufacturers. Mr. Bush served for many years on the faculty of the University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles. After retiring from the Phil, he remained active in the AFM Local 47 management until his death.

Irving Bush had a subtle sense of humor which he shared mostly with his colleagues. The reverse side of his business card read:

"There are two sides to a trumpeter’s personality—there is the one that lives only to lay waste to the woodwinds and strings, leaving them lying blue and lifeless along the swath of destruction that is a trumpeter’s fury; then there is the dark side"

Irving also designed his own line of popular mouthpieces, and used to advertise in the Local 47 paper with something a bit more risqué: "Put Your Lips To A Bush!" At any rate, these mouthpieces were (and still are!) very popular.

Each Bush mouthpiece has been scientifically designed to produce an accurate qualitative trumpet tone. Every model was extensively tested for intonation, ease of response, flexibility and individual lip comfort. All mouthpieces are measured for exactness using state of the art equipment. Years of research and testing have resulted in brass mouthpieces of superb excellence.

This mouthpiece is the W-3. Let's break that down: the W refers to the wide cup, and 3 refers to a shallow cup. Inner rim diameter is 0.656", putting it in the neighborhood of a Bach 7F or Schilke 13A. This would be a good big band player's mouthpiece. Comfortable rim (ooooh, that rim!), clear and broad sound, clean articulation.