Plane old Beatles.                 photo: Getty Images archives.

Dave Mason, the trumpet player on [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]The Beatles[/lastfm]‘ “Penny Lane” — not the guitarist in Traffic — has died.

In 1966, Paul McCartney was watching a TV show in December 1966 in which Mason was featured playing the piccolo trumpet on Bach‘s “Brandenburg Concerto,” and he asked producer George Martin to call Mason for the “Penny Lane” session. Mason was paid 27 pounds and 10 shillings for his performance on January 17th, 1967. “Penny Lane” was released in 1967 as a double-A-side single with “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

The trumpet Mason played on “Penny Lane” sold for over $10,000 at a Sotheby’s auction.

Mason was the principal trumpet of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Covent Garden Opera and the English Chamber Orchestra, and he taught at London’s Royal College of Music. ~JZ.