Credo

Mississauga Temple Band of the Salvation Army
Guest Trombone Soloist Brett Baker
Mississauga Temple Productions MTBCD2
Conducted by David Moulton
Total Playing Time: 54.40

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This is a good recording from a classy Canadian outfit. It features Black Dyke's Brett Baker as soloist on seven of the twelve tracks alongside a couple of marches, two big Festival Pieces and a Big Band special. The repertoire, at lot of which is new to me, is classy and full of the kind of lyricism that is often associated with the Salvation Army.

The disc opens with a festival march by William Gordon. He wrote the controversial 1997 second section nationals piece Symphony for Brass-Apocalypse. This however is a nice, bright march tightly played by the band. It is modern, but easy to listen to and I'm surprised it doesn't appear on more programmes.

Track two launches straight into the first of Brett Baker's solos with Leslie Condon's Song of Exuberance. This starts brilliantly with beautiful lyrical playing from Brett. The next minor key bolero section has all kinds of Trombone pyrotechnics then suddenly there is a major stylistic gear crunch as the Salvation Army song " Trusting Jesus now" enters. There are lots of little changes like this making the piece a little fragmented overall but band and soloist sound great so who cares?

Brett Baker follows this with a transcription of Geodicke's Concert Etude. This was originally written for Trumpet and I'm not sure how well it really works. Brett displays fantastic technique but it certainly leaves you thinking ‘ was it musically worth it?'

Track five is a different kettle of fish altogether. The band gets to show what they can do in James Curnow's magnificent Laude. It has an impressive opening and lovely melodic lines. There is some good solo cornet playing from the aptly named Melody Watson on Principal Cornet. Curnow loves his imitative counterpoint and this is a cracking piece. There is some impressive soprano playing from ‘guest' Glen Barlow and the excitement really builds with typical Curnow rhythmic writing. The band plays tightly and they create an impressive sound. The main theme ‘ Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation begins to unfold after about five minutes with a scrumptious linking section. This theme then appears in its glorious entirety. James Curnow has released this finale as a free-standing Prelude which can be heard on the recently reviewed Pennine Brass CD. Great stuff!!

‘Now' is a really tasty Trombone solo written by the band's Bass Trombonist Ty Watson especially for Bret Baker. It is based on the Hymn tune ‘Gordon' and is a lovely piece with some beautifully scored accompaniments. Brett again plays with such lyricism and there are some gorgeous, silky smooth obbligato passages - Great! The same can be said for Bill Broughton's ‘Let the Beauty of Jesus', with its Tommy Dorsey-like opening which develops into a jazz waltz.

The band stay in big band mode for a Festival Arrangement by Ian Robinson called Morning Star. This number is based on the SA song ‘ Lily of the Valley' and is in that wonderful style that you tend to associate these days with Barrie Gott.Peter Graham even gets a look in with his Trombone Solo ‘ I walked today where Jesus walked'. This, as you would expect is a classy arrangement with all the warmth associated with Peter Graham's style – lovely ‘surprise' modulations, gentle lyrical countermelodies and delicate scoring of accompaniments. Along with Brett baker's lovely phrasing and tone this is just divine!

Swing that Door by William Broughton is the final Trombone solo on the album and again is a big band number with lots of juicy Jazz harmonies and a mattering of lip trills ( you name it, this guy can do it) from Brett. Brett and the band sound so at home on this type of material, his style is spot on and what a great cornet section sound!!

On the King's Highway by Erik Leidzen is described as an ‘ eloquent street march' from the 1950's and the band produce a good balanced sound and play again very tightly with good style.

The final offering is the piece that carries the title of the CD – Credo by Lorne Barry. This has one of those slow, mysterious build ups to a big modal cadence. ( if you didn't know you'd think it was James Curnow! ) There are some great moments in the piece and the reverberation of the hall/recording works to it advantage. A good piece.

Overall, a classy CD that has some real gems that should be on band programmes over here asap.

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