Episode 16 - Donnie Trumpet
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Higher Ground
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 July 2016
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nico Segal, aka @DonnieTrumpet, is a musician out of Chicago whose work with Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa has gained him notoriety in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz. His most recent album, 2015's 'Surf'—an album made in collaboration with a collective of artists he calls The Social Experiment, which includes Chance and others, plus contributions from artists like Erykah Badu and more—is a masterful work of musical composition and optimistic sound. Donnie sat down with Sam to chat about growing up in Chicago, picking up the trumpet—his signature instrument—going on tour with Frank Ocean, and his decision to release his own music for free instead of through a label. Find Donnie Trumpet's music on SoundCloud @donnietrumpet. Music for the show by Vanilla @vanilla. Original illustrations by Krishna Shenoi http://krishnabalashenoi.com/.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. I'm David Remnickin each week on the New Yorker radio hour. |
| 0:12.8 | My colleagues and I unpack what's happening in a very complicated world. |
| 0:17.6 | You'll hear from the New Yorker's award-winning reporters and thinkers. |
| 0:21.0 | Jilani Cobb on race and justice. Jillapour on American history. and Thinkers and |
| 0:24.0 | Jil Lepore on American history, Vincent Cunningham and Gia Tolantino on |
| 0:27.6 | culture, Bill McKibbon on climate change and many more. |
| 0:31.6 | To get the context behind events in the news, |
| 0:34.4 | listen to the New Yorker radio hour, |
| 0:36.6 | wherever you get your podcast. I'm going to be here. Hey everyone. Welcome to Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of intimate interviews with the people shaping our culture today. |
| 1:05.7 | I'm Sam Fregoso. |
| 1:06.7 | Thank you for tuning in. |
| 1:08.3 | This week on the show we have one of my favorite working musicians, Nico Cigal, better known by his stage name Donnie Trumpet. |
| 1:15.0 | Donnie, or Nico, got a start in music as a teenager in Chicago, Illinois. |
| 1:20.0 | From an early age, he was a talented Trumpetereter playing with bands like the Ohmise. |
| 1:25.8 | But even then he wasn't merely content with playing a specific style of modern jazz. |
| 1:32.0 | His interest in rap and rock led him to forming kids these days, which included two horns, |
| 1:37.7 | a rapper, a blues rock trio, and a female singer. |
| 1:42.0 | Many of the bandmates were Donnie's childhood friends, including rapper Vic Mensa. |
| 1:47.0 | The band and their projects were ambitious from the get-go. |
| 1:51.0 | Eventually, Donnie, fresh out of high school, moved on and immediately got to work. |
| 1:55.7 | Within a couple years he goes on Frank Ocean's Channel Orange tour to play horns, works on Chance |
| 2:00.8 | the rapper's now dearly beloved Acid Rat Mix tape, then, as if that wasn't enough, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Higher Ground, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Higher Ground and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.