Hendon Salvation Army Band

Bolton Citadel
Conductor: Bandmaster Stephen Cobb
13th March

Hendon Salvation Army band is a band full of rich Salvation Army musical heritage and has been synonymous with high levels of Christian music making for over the past 25 years since Stephen Cobb has been Bandmaster.

Being an SA band, everyone who is a Salvationist and interested can join and therefore the numbers of this particular SA band are slightly larger than the standard brass band set up. The band is a very young one but has a solo cornet line-up that most, if not every band (SA and non-SA) would die for. For instance, the seven strong solo cornet section consists of ace cornet virtuoso David Daws, Matthew Cobb (ISB bumper up) and Philip Cobb (NYBB principal cornet) on seventh man down!!

An eager audience awaited Hendon SA band as they processed through the hall to take the stage. Conductor of the International Staff Band, Bandmaster Stephen Cobb followed and struck up the band into Stephen Bulla's newly published Festival March Montclair Citadel. This march features the well known gospel song "Onward Christian Soldiers" and the band displayed a good full, controlled sound throughout without any overcooking.

Immediately following was a thoughtful rendition of Fall Afresh where some beautiful sounds oozed from the band - especially the basses at the end.

Dr. Peter Graham's works have been well documented and loved the world over by audiences and his tone poem Ad Optimum is no exception. An exciting start led into a hint of untidiness in the tenor trombones although I was soon captivated by a beautiful setting of one of Peter's original SA melodies entitled "There is beauty in the name of Jesus" (which has been arranged as a trombone solo for Brett Baker from the Black Dyke Band). The euphs/solo horns made fine work of this gorgeous melody, eventually reaching the principal cornet chair where Mr Daws displayed his sublime melodic playing to the audience. The work culminated into a thrilling climax where the tune "Richmond" was given the majestic treatment that Dr.Graham has become renowned for.

Former New York Staff Band conductor Brian Bowen wrote his cornet solo Flashback in the 1960's and this particular reworked version was given its premiere performance during this concert.

The solo is a traditional theme and variations solo featuring an old SA song "Jesus is close to me" and was performed by the phenomenal David Daws. The band accompaniment was very secure and they opened up nicely in the tutti sections. However, the extra personnel I feel contributed to the accompaniment being a little on the heavy side when the soloist was playing. An excellent solo performed with great aplomb by one of the finest cornet players ever though!

Next up was another fine soloist - this time in the guise of principal trombonist Paul Hopkins who chose to play an arrangement of Joshua by Canadian Staff Band Bandmaster Kevin Hayward. The soloist gave a fine rendition of this work with some very smooth upper register playing.

John Larsson's melodies are renowned in the SA movement and here Peter Graham has given one of Larsson's melodies a mambo feel and entitled it Ask. This piece allowed the percussion section to display what weird and wonderful contraptions they use at the back of a band - and they did so to great effect!!

The last decade has seen a mammoth change in SA policy regarding its players playing in contesting bands etc. but it has also opened the gates for SA bands to play non-SA band music. Now allowed to perform contest works, Hendon decided to tackle Peter Graham's large scale contest work The Essence of Time.

Based on biblical text from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:-
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; a time to be born; a time to dance; a time to love; a time to hate; a time to die; a time to mourn; a time for war; a time for peace."

Each extract is represented by a variation, or part variation which is a portrayal of the individual characteristics of the moods of the activities listed. First performed in the European Championships in 1989, this work is still as fresh as when it was first written. Bandmaster Cobb directed a fine performance of this work which displayed fine contributions throughout the band, if a little light on the soprano cornet lines at times. What a terrific finish of the first half of this concert.

In the words of Monty Python, "and now for something completely different", which is exactly what we got for the second half of the programme. The band had changed into smart looking polo shirts and had adopted a "big band" set-up for the second half of the programme which suited the more light-hearted nature of the second half.

The band offered the audience Peter Graham's Breakout, Paul Drury's excellent circus-style march Jubilee, Ray Steadman Allen's arrangement of the shaker tune, Simple Gifts, Leonard Ballantine's Go Down Moses (featuring flugel Roger Cobb) and his arrangement of the well-known American folk-song Shenandoah Mid All The Traffic.

After a word from the scriptures and a brief thought from the officer at Hendon SA, the band finished the evening off with Peter Graham's most recently published tone poem for the SA, The Last Amen. This worked extremely well with the band in this strange formation; however it begs the question, maybe non-SA bands should take a leaf out of the presentation of Hendon SA band??

A fine evening of Christian music making at a very high level - bravo!

Jonathan W. Corry

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