Solo Reflections

James Shepherd Versatile Brass
Kirklees Music: CD KRCD 1041
Total Playing Time: 60.36

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Featuring:
James Shepherd, Colin Aspinall, J. Graham Walker, David Horsfield, Alan Widdop, Gordon Higginbottom, Angelo Bearpark, Kevin Holdgate, Stephen Thornton, Derek Southcott, David Moore, Kevin Edwards, David Dransfield.

James Shepherd is an icon of the brass band world. Forever set in the memory as the man on the front cover of the famous "High Peak" album, Shepherd remains the most potent image of the superstar cornet player – composed and sturdy – a quiet genius resplendent in his Black Dyke uniform with his trusty Besson International cornet casually angled on his right knee. He looked as good as he played, and he was the man that a thousand young cornet players just wanted to emulate.

Shepherd remains as popular today as he ever was in his time as Principal Cornet of Black Dyke, for in 1972, and perhaps at his peak as a player, he decided to leave Dyke and set up his eponymous "Versatile Brass".

Unlike today where just about every top class player belongs to some "ensemble" or other, the JSVB was really the groundbreaking move that brought high quality brass ensemble playing to an audience that up until then had little or no knowledge about anything other than the fully blown brass band. It was also a very brave move into the unknown and Shepherd was lucky to be able to persuade some of the very best players of the period to join him on his personal odyssey.

That it worked, is testament to the hard graft, undoubted skills and dedication he and his fellow performers brought to the enterprise – that it is still going strong after 30 years is just simply amazing. The man and his vision should be celebrated throughout the length and breadth of the land.

This lovely CD brings us the solo highlights from those early years – roughly 1972 – 1983 or thereabouts and showcases the talents of the men (were there any female members of JSVB?) who really were the backbone of the group for nearly all of that period. The names reel off the tongue like a list of old champion boxers – Horsfield, Walker, Thornton, Aspinall, Southcott and Higginbottom – names to cherish in the memory and players who graced many of the very best bands in the country during the late 1960's and 1970's. They were players who were taught in the "old school" way – rock solid techniques allied to a keen sense of lyrical playing and throughout this release you are reminded that these were performers of the highest class. All this and the great man himself playing with the classic cornet sound and a technique (especially double and triple tonguing) that was as clean as an angel's conscious and as rapid as a rattlesnake with a stutter.

The one thing we do forget however is that Shepherd and his group started from scratch – no reams of arrangements and special compositions to delve right into - and so much of their early material had to be produced by the players themselves or put together with the help of people such as Roy Newsome or Frank Renton. Some of the material now sounds dated and a little naïve perhaps, but the class of the performances still shines through as good as it ever was.

Shepherd delivers two gems of classic cornet playing with the Goedicke "Concert Study" and Gossec's "Tambourin", whilst Gordon Higginbottom gives a masterclass performance of Bellini's "Concerto for Horn" arranged by Roy Newsome. If there has been better players ever to grace their instrument than these two then we would love to meet them.

Angelo Bearpark rattles off "Carnival of Venice" in a style that almost mimics Shepherd – what a fine player this bloke was - whilst David Horsfield produces a lovely understated performance of "Scarborough Fair" that is a timely reminder to the new generation of flugel players of how to add just the right amount of filigree decoration to enhance rather than detract from the original idea.

The trombone players all enjoy themselves, with Derek Southcott's "Czardas" sounding a touch rushed, but still pretty good and Kevin Holdgate, Alan Widdop and David Dransfield making the most of some limited early repertoire. Colin Aspinall, who was a stalwart for nearly all of those 30 years romps with aplomb through "Four Preludes" and Stephen Thornton – a very fine player indeed, makes the most of a pretty awful piece from the pen of William Relton entitled "Trumpetistics".

David Moore gives a beautifully controlled account of Ray Woodfield's "Caprice" – the type of solo (like his Varied Mood) that brought the best out of this player, whilst Graham Walker is superb in his own arrangement of "Sonata in A" by Torelli – piccolo trumpet playing of a very high class indeed.

Finally though, a special mention to the percussion work of Kevin Edwards who gives a brilliant showcase account of "Solfeggietto" by Bach arranged by the man himself. How he played both the marimba and xylophone together in such a way is never explained, but it remains a piece of quite awesome playing – especially with the soft brush snare accompaniment. Perhaps it was over dubbed, but even so, we haven't heard much better anywhere since.

All in all then a super reminder of a group of players who today's generation of superstars have a lot to thank for. The standard of the recording echoes the limitations of the originals (remember they were done on LP's nearly 30 years ago) and the one thing that we can say was truly awful about JSVB was their dress sense. There are some pictures in the sleeve notes that would make even Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen wince. There is even a few pictures of Frank Renton with a hair style to die for.

That being said though, listening to JSVB once more reminds us of the great Bill Shankly's saying, "Form is just temporary, class is permanent". With this welcome release, that will never, ever be in doubt.

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