Los Angeles, California
Dominic Calicchio

Silver and Brass
ca. 1973/74
Length: 17 inches
Wind Instruments – Brasswinds – Trumpets

Engraved on bell: D. Calicchio / Los Angeles / Skoonum Horn

This horn is of the renown Calicchio quality and ingenuity. It is the Skoonum Horn made by Dominic Calicchio in his Hollywood Shop. The top bell is brass and there are two tuning triggers. Known artist to perform with the Skoonum Horn includes the Californian Skoonum Horn Master Billy Brooks.  This Skoonum Horn was specifically made for Julius ‘Billy’ Brooks by Calicchio – serial # 1946.

According to: Robb Stewart Brass Instruments: 

In 1969, Elizabeth Brooks, presumably Billy’s wife, registered a trademark for the term “Skoonum Horn.”  In the same year, Billy applied for a patent which was granted a year later. In the patent text, he claims that the trumpet “is able to generate like notes from the lower and upper bells of similar volume but different in pitch and brilliance. The notes generated by the trumpet are clear and in tune throughout the entire range of the trumpet…”

This Dominic Calicchio trumpet is the one ‘Billy’ Brooks famously played and recorded with for several decades. It was made in 1973/1974 and is known as his Skoonum Horn in which he is listed in the Musician’s Union, Local 47 as the only player of this instrument.

Julius ‘Billy’ Brooks (1926 – 2002) was the inventor and held the patent of the skoonum horn – a double-barreled trumpet.  He was one of the many great trumpeters who played with Ray Charles, with whom he co-produced ‘Windows of the Mind,” one of the Top 50 most sampled albums in history.  This solo album was released in 1974 under his name on the Ray Charles’s label. Today the album is considered an influential cult classic among many Hip Hop and Funk musicians.  Nevertheless, the material on the album covers a spectrum of different big band Jazz styles from Bebop to Blues to Funk, with Ray Charles signature style heard in some of the arrangements.  And remarkably, Brooks was one of the few Jazz horn players who experimented with electronic effects at that time, as heard on the selection: “The Speech Maker.”

According to Jason Ankerny/AllMusic:  ‘Brooks is a gifted composer with a knack for melody as well as groove, and while ‘Windows of the Mind’ delivers on the physical promise of funk, it meets the intellectual demands of jazz as well.” 

Brooks worked with Tina Turner for a year, collaborated on an album by The Four Tops, played in Ray Charles’ band, including playing with Dizzy Gillespie, played as a sideman for Cal Tjader, and toured with Lionel Hampton’s band for eighteen years.

For further information, please check Rob Stewart’s Website:  Robb Stewart Brass Instruments 

Resource:  Robb Stewart Brass Instruments; and Billy Brooks ‘Windows of the Mind’ by George C. Glasser