My name is James Kates. I have played the trumpet (more recently cornet) since fifth grade. I have been playing for more than 50 years. You can do the math.

I have played in school concert bands, college jazz bands, pick-up combos, church ensembles, a weekend dance band, and numerous community concert bands in Wisconsin and Michigan. I love listening to many kinds of music, including grand opera and straight-ahead jazz. And Dutchmen-style polka. My tastes are eclectic, to say the least.

I haven’t played music for money since 1980. I retired in 2024 from my job as a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. From 1980 to 2009, I was a newspaper reporter and editor in Michigan (Saginaw and Lansing), Milwaukee and Philadelphia.