Bottle of Crown and a Bag to Boot

Recently, I went to a Jazz concert in the K-State Union.  One of the groups had a trumpeter.  This trumpeter used a mute I had only heard of but never seen myself.  It was the bag that Crown Royal comes in.  He had placed it over his bell kinda like a bucket mute.  Problem is, the bucket mute is a rigid space that sound can reverberate in.  This Crown Bag was essentially just draped over the bell.  I wondered why did he do that, and why a Crown Royal bag?

Turns out it is called a Velvet Mute.  That makes sense because the Crown Royal bags are velvety. Velvet mutes decrease the sound by about 13 dB, but also give it the darker tone.  The soft velvet material absorbs a lot of the energy in the sound, and also attenuating some higher frequencies, kind of of like sound proof walls.  I found a really cool PDF that compares all the different kinds of mutes I've covered so far.  http://iwk.mdw.ac.at/Forschung/pdf_dateien/1995e-MB-CAC-mutes.pdf

Its very comparative between different types of mutes.  Disclaimer: it is in English but some of the graphs are in German.  Things to note: ohne in German means without, so no mute.  ppp represents the softest you can play, and fff represents the loudest you can play.  

This brings me to my last question, why the Crown bag?  Why not another velvety fabric.  I asked a trumpet buddy of mine who had one why he went with the Crown bag.  His answer? " It looks classy and it looks like I have just enjoyed a bottle."  Good enough for me