Black Dyke
15-Aug-2009Conductor: Dr Nicholas Childs
Soloist: James Morrison
Perth Concert Hall
Perth
Sunday 9th August
Sitting in a seventh row seat during a Black Dyke concert is an experience you're unlikely to forget.
You'll also probably never need to use a blow dryer again.
First rank
It's been more than twenty years since this venerable brass band, formed in 1855 in a small mill town in the North of England, visited these shores but it was worth the wait.
For this was brass playing of the absolute first rank: unfailingly musical, thrillingly virtuosic and redolent not only of raging winter storms but also the mildest spring sunshine. Oh and there were plenty of gags along the way.
Like flugelhorn player Alexandra Kerwin playing into Daniel Sinclair's trembling tuba to create a mandolin effect in 'That's Amore'; or Brett Baker's insane trombone solo in 'Fantastic Polka'; or Joseph Cook's positively suicidal tuba solo in 'Czardas' originally for violin.
Dazzled
Speaking of soloists, Australia's premier jazz mulit-instrumentalist is travelling with Black Dyke Band and in this second concert of the tour (the band's genial conductor Dr Nicholas Childs jokingly assured us that the previous night's performance was only a warm up) he dazzled an already overwhelmed audience with two sets of jazz standards, hymns and original tunes, including 'Caravan' by Duke Ellington, a mellow 'Blessed Assurance' and neo-Baroque 'Fugue II', Morrison's dextrous piccolo trumpet playing here recalling that late great exponent of the trumpet, Maurice Andre.
Whole star
But the band as a whole was the real star, with astonishing over-the-top performances of showpieces such as Berlioz's 'Le Corsair', Respighi's 'Pines of the Appian Way' balanced by a more nuanced approach to substantial fare such as Black Dyke drummer Paul Lovatt-Cooper's epic concert work, 'Within Blue Empires'.
Brassy goodbye
During the final encore the musicians exited one section at a time a la Haydn's 'Farewell Symphony', leaving Cook to regale the audience with some more tuba magic.
Unable to resist one last joke, they suddenly reappeared to say a right brassy goodbye.
William Yeoman
This review appeared in the West Australian newspaper on Monday 10th August
