Blaze

Richard Marshall
Cornet/Trumpet
Grimethorpe Colliery (UK Coal) Band
Conductor: Richard Evans
Doyen Recordings: CD192
Total playing time: 72.05

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In a strange way, world class cornet players can be identified by generation.

The names of Harry Mortimer, Willie Lang, Maurice Murphy, James Shepherd, Philip McCann and Roger Webster form a delineated line of historical progression from the pre war right through to beginning of the 21st Century – each the clear cornet playing icon of his age.

Their time as the pre-eminent world class performer on the instrument forms a musical strata, like geological layers of rock that can be dated not just by their time playing with the top bands in the world, but also by the individual stamp of performing identity that so singles them out from their contemporaries.  Each leaves an indelible impression on the mind of the listener – even decades after they no longer perform to the level of their musical peak; for they have had the talent and ability to be recognised as the best of their generation – even amongst impressive contemporaries.

It is some list, and those lucky enough to have heard these players in their prime will attest to the fact that they were quite outstanding performers. The question is though, who though will carry that through in the next generation to come?

Richard Marshall must surely be the man. A performer of immaculate pedigree and a musician of rare class, he now stands alone as the leading cornet player of his generation – those brought up through the last years of well funded peripatetic tuition in comprehensive schools before the cuts in funding and emphasis on ‘core' curriculum subjects relegated individual music lessons to the backwaters of education.

He is also a young man who has been nurtured and developed by sympathetic teachers and tutors and through bands who recognised talent and the need to enhance it through time and patience. His has been an ‘apprenticeship' based on the values of quality not quantity, and as a result we now have a complete performer, mature and gifted, ready to enter the extended peak years as a musician of the highest class.  

This CD release entitled, ‘Blaze' surely confirms that also, as it showcases an immense talent on breathtaking form.

The 13 tracks enable the soloist to highlight all his facets as a player on both the cornet and the trumpet, and confirm that he is outrageously good on both. This is no cornet player who can play a decent trumpet tune or a trumpet player who can play some pretty good cornet stuff. No, this is simply a brilliant player on both.

From the authentic razzle of the Kenny Baker ‘Virtuosity' which opens the CD right through to the powerful and deeply impressive technical tour de force, ‘Blaze' that ends it, we are given showpiece performances in different genres.  

It also benefits from some excellent accompaniment from the lads at Grimey and some fine direction from Richard Evans – the band plays the trumpet jazz items in a true manner and not like a brass band playing in an awful 6/8.

The cornet playing is outstanding. The lovely lyrical style he produces in the old favourite, ‘The Watermill' right through to an old historical pot boiler in ‘Princess Alice' where he sounds authentically like a late Victorian virtuoso is something to savour, whilst the more modern repertoire such as ‘Song and Dance' is delivered with a real sense of panache and just the right amount of contemporary ‘edge'.

The highlights for us were the superbly elegant and elegiac ‘Canto' by Elgar Howarth, which is a superb piece of writing performed with a deeply sensitive approach to the complex musical line, whilst in addition, ‘Titania's Aria' is given a true operatic flourish of a show that captures the mood and timbre of the soprano voice with a delicacy that is almost too fragile. It is stunning playing.

‘Mattheson's Air', is a work sadly neglected by many players (the last real top notch recorded performance we heard of this was on vinyl by Maurice Murphy with Yorkshire Imps almost twenty five years ago), but this is dragged from relative obscurity with a sublime bit of playing, whilst ‘Ave Maria' has a lovely understated sense of quality about it.

The trumpet playing is no less impressive, with the Sammy Nestico ‘Portrait of a Trumpet' given a ripper of a run through, and the old Neil Diamond classic ‘Love on the Rocks' given the type of open shirted, gold medallion stick on wig outing that makes it a corker on a night out on the karaoke with the lads.  

The Allen Vizzutti solo ‘Cascades' is delivered with frightening security and facility, and even a fairly uneven and lumpy arrangement of the jazz inspired ‘Flight of the Bumblebee' just about comes off. The title track, ‘Blaze' though is performed with such alarming technique and variance in tone and colour that it really does take the breath away – it is some performance indeed.

This really is a CD that confirms a great talent, and one that also confirms that Richard Marshall will take the opportunity when it comes to grasp the torch of being the cornet icon of the next decade in the firmest of grips. Very well produced and edited, and with an eye catching cover it is a release that enhances an already impressive talent even further. 

Iwan Fox

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