Awesome posts so far.

Yes -- the DHC is over-rated. Maynard's DHC, and D, and E.... were so 'fat' they sounded like a voice, not a horn - true solfegio.

I'm glad Bryan posted what he did -- that's where I was going to go, but coming from him it carries more weight.

When I was in college our jazz program director was a purist -- and a Gozzo fan (not to mention a trombonist, but we won't hold that against him). As such, he treated our top jazz band like the great classic bands of Herman, Kenton, Ellington and Basie. Lead Trumpet was the guy who had a big fat sound and could play melodies from A above the staff to the A over high C (that was me), 2nd was the one who could manage top of staff to C all day and could play the changes (Angela Wallace Richards - now principle for the Arkansas Philharmonic), 3rd was the one who had a good sound but also had extreme high chops to throw out some accent notes and to break the lead if needed (cool dude), 4th had to have a big fat sound that 'matched' really well with the lead player's sound. In the 2nd and 3rd bands the chairs usually got filled based on who simply had the range to reach the parts -- and the end result was, of course, not as nice.

Back to the DHC.... I'd rather hear a melodic, controlled, full-of-overtones F over high C than a weak, lame-ass DHC any day.