Lloyd Michels

Lloyd Michael Bergman, known to his friends and colleagues as Lloyd Michels. Lloyd was born with asthma. At two-and-a-half, a severe asthma attack nearly killed him. His doctor ordered that he play the trumpet. This radically improved his lung health, and controlled his asthma. At age five, he began studying with John Fabrizio. At nine, he became a student of William Vacchiano, principal trumpet with the New York Philharmonic. (Later, Lloyd himself became a student associate with the Philharmonic.) At 11, he studied with master teacher Dr. Roy Stevens, a proponent of Bill Costello’s method. In 1961, Michels played on Si Zentner’s hit recording of “Up a Lazy River.” In 1965, he followed Bill Chase to Woody Herman’s band, where he played lead and became road manager. Returning to New York, he played lead in Clark Terry’s band. Clark nicknamed him “Karate Chops,” and introduced him to Thad Jones. (Thad then recommended him to Quincy Jones, who picked him to play lead on his Grammy-winning album “Walking In Space.”) Clark also recommended Lloyd to Duke Ellington, who hired him frequently over the years. This led to a lead trumpet role in the onstage band for the Broadway show “Sophisticated Ladies.” (Lloyd also played in the Broadway production of “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and the Off Broadway production of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road” at the Beacon Theatre.) Lloyd served as contractor and lead trumpet for the band Hines, Hines and Dad. Later, he helped contract for the Westbury Music Fair Orchestra, where he also played lead trumpet. In 1974, he created Mistura, a seven-member brass group. His Mistura recordings have not been officially released in the U.S. although “The Flasher” has appeared on the Internet. (That recording was a number-one hit in the U.K.) Then, in 1975 he contracted the Big Band Machine for Buddy Rich. Lloyd also served on the Local 802 theater committee in the late 1960s.