Gilbert Morrison 75th Birthday Celebration

North Shore Band Rooms, Takapuna
Featuring: Auckland City Brass Band conducted by Andrew Leech
North Shore Brass conducted by Brent Large
Guest Soloist: Riki McDonnell

What a look on Gilbert Morrison's face. He thought he was just attending a concert at North Shore Band Room, little did he know until the beginning of the concert that he and his wife Patricia were the guests of honour. The concert was a celebration for Gil Morrison's 75th birthday and his work in the New Zealand brass band movement. Gilbert Morrison is still teaching the future generation of New Zealand brass banding and was, up until a few years ago, a prominent adjudicator and conductor both here and across the Tasman.

Soprano Cornet player for Auckland City Brass Band

Auckland City Brass Band under the direction of Andrew Leech who was one of Gil's pupils were up first. They presented a programme, which was identical to one of Gil's whilst he was at Takapuna at the Auckland Entertainment Contest.

They kicked off in fine style with Bandology. The band was precise and produced a compact sound with some excellent contributions from the bands soprano player.

The band continued with an expressive account of Believe Me All Those Endearing Young Charms, a romp through Post Horn Galop, Trumpets Wild and finishing off with a selection from Jesus Christ Superstar, which featured some beautiful playing from Robert Leech (Andrew's son) who is being taught by Gil Morrison.

North Shore Brass has some of the best rehearsal facilities I have ever seen. The main rehearsal room is named after Gilbert Morrison. However, it is quite a challenging acoustic for a concert. If Luciano Pavarotti came to North Shore Band Room I'm sure he'd be made to sound like a Pop Idol wannabe! It really swallows the sound up, but that is exactly what you want out of a rehearsal room.

Barry Moss with Patricia and Gilbert Morrison

After a short interval and after many people had greeted Gilbert and his wife Patricia, the compére Barry Moss introduced North Shore Brass to the stage. They began their programme (again influenced by pieces associated with Gil Morrison) with Gordon Langford's New World Fantasy; this featured some lovely playing from the band's solo trombone player.

Gilbert Vinter's Symphony of Marches was performed next, the difficult opening almost perfect, there was some exceptional work from the band's solo tuba player, Denis Spurdle and very precise playing all round. It is a very challenging piece to pull off convincingly and North Shore gave a very good account.

North Shore's front row cornets

Gilbert's most famous protégé Riki McDonnell was the featured soloist in Carnival Cocktail arranged by Steven Sykes. It doesn't matter where Riki plays, at the Royal Albert Hall, in an intimate theatre or in this case at North Shore Band Rooms, Riki always performs with the same conviction and musicality. Many soloists could take a leaf out of Riki's book as far as stage presence and stage etiquette go. He performed Carnival Cocktail with panache and technical brilliance. Riki presented Gil with a copy of his newly released CD, Poles Apart.

Andrew Leech then joined Riki in the beautiful duet, Deep inside the Sacred Temple from The Pearlfishers. This was a very moving account indeed.

The third movement of Rhapsody in Brass by Dean Goffin and Cornet Carillon followed. Then a wonderful moment, Gil was asked to conduct the band in the hymn, The Reason. This particular setting was a fond favourite of Gil's. He looked shocked to be asked to conduct. Right from the first note, it was pure magic. I have never witnessed his conducting before, however I was mesmerized. The only way I can describe it is that it appears that Gilbert Morrison music pouring out of him. I have never seen a hymn tune to be so nurtured and so tenderly shaped before. I wish I had been here when he was conducting full-time. It is safe to say that this was one of the magical moments in life, to hear and be in the presence of such a loyal servant of brass banding.

Gilbert Morrison conducts The Reason

The band finished off the concert with Leslie Condon's, The Present Age, which was given to Gilbert by Eric Ball. The opening was truly amazing, very precise and led by the euphonium and baritones, which included Riki McDonnell, Andrew Leech and Steven Booth. There were some wonderful contributions from Keith Patey on flugel and Vaughn McDonald on principal cornet. Some very precise playing although occasionally overshadowed by intonation issues across the band.

The packed audience was very warm in their applause, it was a wonderful afternoon and I feel very privileged to have been there.

Alexandra Kerwin

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