It's good to hear from a fellow trombonist, RedEyeC._ Yes, I'm sure "he indeed did this without any production tricks."_ It was recorded in 1968 in a studio with 20 other professional trombone players, so any "tricks" would have made him an object of ridicule in his musical community._ And in 1968 the available tricks were fewer, and less impressive._ And the sliding-range of 6 semitones (A-flat up to D) is the longest possible for a natural glissando, from the horn's 7th position (maximum length) to 1st position (minimum length).
____Although a program "will do a much smoother blend," Urbie was a skillful musician who did it very smoothly._ Probably this kind of smoothness is impossible with a typical small pitch-bend wheel -- its physical characteristics make it suitable only for faster bending -- without a program like Cubase._ In mid-September when I was doing research on features of "budget keyboards" that would be practical for group teaching in a keyboard lab, I looked at the manuals for Casio's CT-S300 ($179) and CT-X5000 ($499)._ Although neither does asymmetric bending, the x5000 has a "portamento" mode in which "sequentially pressing two keyboard keys causes the first pitch to slide smoothly into the next."_ Programs (like Cubase,...) allow more options and greater flexibility, but would they "do bends" during real-time playing? or require "doing things to the music" afterward?
____Although a program "will do a much smoother blend," Urbie was a skillful musician who did it very smoothly._ Probably this kind of smoothness is impossible with a typical small pitch-bend wheel -- its physical characteristics make it suitable only for faster bending -- without a program like Cubase._ In mid-September when I was doing research on features of "budget keyboards" that would be practical for group teaching in a keyboard lab, I looked at the manuals for Casio's CT-S300 ($179) and CT-X5000 ($499)._ Although neither does asymmetric bending, the x5000 has a "portamento" mode in which "sequentially pressing two keyboard keys causes the first pitch to slide smoothly into the next."_ Programs (like Cubase,...) allow more options and greater flexibility, but would they "do bends" during real-time playing? or require "doing things to the music" afterward?
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In my opinion - I would avoid the Casio CTX series keyboards. I still practice with a CTK-7000 - and had bought a CTX-5000 when it came out and was greatly disappointed at the overall degrading of the sounds. I think I mentioned above somewhere - the best pitch bender I have used on a keyboard is on my Roland Fantom X6 - a toggle that can also change the tone if bended down - and adds a vibrato if bended up.