Salt of the Earth

It's all about making the right choices to become a top class soloist, so has Les Neish done just that with his latest release?

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Les Neish
Martyn Parkes (piano); Fodens Band
Conductors: Garry Cutt, Michael Fowles
Egon Recordings: CD SFZ150
Total Playing Time: 64.06

Making a name for yourself as a brass soloist is hard enough at the best of times – sheer talent is not enough.  

The hard yards of a performers progress are laid down in practice, but it is the ability to make the right choices about musical career development – and at the right time – that separates the best from the rest.

Get it right

Get it right and the future you dreamed of comes to fruition: Get it wrong, and it all becomes a question of what might have been. And brass bands are full of the latter.

They should all take a leaf out of Les Neish’s book.

Here is a very talented performer making the right choices at just the right time. It is a career in well planned long term development.  And that is so obvious with this excellent recording.

Concious step away

Here he takes a conscious step away from the cloying brass band hinterland in what is essentially an extended recital.  Foden’s accompanies him on three of the nine works, but that is more out of necessity than anything else. The remaining six works sees him joined with wonderful fluency by pianist, Martyn Parkes. 

The result enables the soloist to showcase the full range of his considerable talents in intelligently realised original compositions and clever arrangements that range from the fleet footed ‘Rumanian Dance’ by Dumitru Ionel to the extended power funk of Andy Scott’s ‘Salt of the Earth’.

Sense of ambition

You sense the ambition that goes with the repertoire – it’s a shop window of the best of Neish – and one that will attract the passing trade of a host of orchestral managers, talent scouts and concert promoters, eager to sign up a very high class musician. They won’t be disappointed.

The two major works come with Peter Meechan’s inventive three-movement concerto, ‘Episodes and Echoes’. Here the tuba is an isolated chameleon like solo voice – from a repetitive mimic, to a yearning recitalist and finally, bubbling funk inspired bass guitar. 

Contrast

In contrast, Andy Scott’s ‘Salt of the Earth’ sees the soloist intertwined with the brass ensemble –from the folksy opening that veers perilously close to Pearl & Dean cinema advert territory, through a lazy blues inspired middle and finally to red hot chilli inspired finale – full of big band latinesque motifs and licks.

The ‘Rumanian Dance No 2’ gives the CD an opening feel of Slavic excitement, played with just the right touch of the manic from the soloist, whilst Bozza’s ‘Aria for Alto Saxophone’ is a melancholic touch of Bach inspired pastiche, played with flowing lyricism.

Fruity

The fruity Serenade from ‘The Student Prince’ – is delivered with authentic Mario Lanza inspired bravura (the PR tag line for the 1954 film which didn’t actually include Mario Lanza, only his voice, called it ‘risqué and riotous fun’), whilst the darker recesses of the troubled Robert Schumann’s mind (and he had his risqué moments too) is wonderfully displayed with his rather schizoid ‘Adagio and Allegro for Horn Op.70’.

This starts in lugubrious mode and ends with what sounds like a 19th century Prozac inspired romp (he was prone to the odd dose of mercury to alleviate the problems associated with his sexual indiscretions).

Oddness

That touch of exploratory oddness is also shown with Rozen’s, ‘In the 90% (Sturgeon’s Law)’, which is a pyrotechnical goody bag of almost, and almost is of course the key, of totally unrelated ideas. It’s like sticking a handful of Revels chocolates in your mouth and trying to make sense of the taste sensation that follows. 

Right choices

An old favourite in Andy Scott’s gorgeously atmospheric ‘My Mountain Top’ is played with just the right sense of wandering sub consciousnesses, whilst the only eyebrow raiser comes with Kreisler’s ‘Praeludium and Allegro for Violin’, which seems oddly disjointed and at times a little contrived. It is the only blip on what is a cracking release (the post production work from Egon, including the sleeve notes and trendy art work is first rate).

There is no doubt Les Neish is making the right choices at the right time. His talent will take him to wherever he wishes to go.

Iwan Fox

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