Black Dyke - Above and Beyond

Conductor: Dr Nicholas Childs
Soloist: James Morrison
Ballarat Memorial Theatre & Melbourne - Hamer Hall
14 & 15 August

Black Dyke Band hasn’t toured Australia since 1988, 21 years ago.  God forbid it should be so long before we hear them again. 

You forget just how good they are. Local heroes, NAB, XLCR, Kew and the rest play what seem at the time to be wonderful performances – and they are – but Black Dyke take us to another, a higher, level. They have been, and they remain, the pacesetters, the non-pareil, the paragons of brass banding.  The sonority of the band, its wondrous depth and balance, comes from the basses and, I believe, the quality of, not just of the soloists and ‘end chairs,’ but the secondary and ‘bumper-up’ players. 

When the back row cornets stood front stage in Ballarat and played the showtune Luck be Your Lady Tonight without a trace of music or a mispitch, the evenness of tone and balance was a marvel; when the three trombones occasionally played the three notes of an arpeggio in succession there was no discernible difference in attack or timbre; when assistant principal Morvern Gilchrist or side man Tom Hutchinson dovetailed with cornet maestro Richard Marshall in Vienna Nights, there was not one iota of inferiority in the sound or performance. 

Perhaps in their solos, the big names went above and beyond the rest; that’s why they’re there.  In ensemble work, the evenness and virtuosity of every single player was the keynote. 

My companion and I laughed in amazement when the Ballarat concert opened with a cascade of Berlioz’ Le Corsair semi quavers which ran right down the band at breakneck speed.  Two bars in and we knew it was going to be a great night.  

The programs in Ballarat’s dear old Memorial Theatre and Melbourne’s modern Hamer Hall were different on paper but similar in content.  The Corsair or Glinka’s Russlan and Ludmilla; Wilby’s Vienna Nights or de Meij’s Extreme Makeover; Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s Vitae Eternum or Immortal – you take your pick.  Lucky me, I busted the budget and heard them all! 

The bonus in Melbourne was the appearance of Philip Wilby to explain and analyze briefly his Mozartian-based epic.  Through understanding it better, I enjoyed it all the more. And stentorian Matthew Routley, the monster bass player, (and you can read that any way you like!) had entirely the appropriate accent to introduce, with a potted Dyke history, Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s tribute to the band, Immortal.  It was a sensational, inspirational piece which brought the first standing ovation for the band, conductor and the composer himself, Paul Lovatt-Cooper, who seemed to be having a whale of a time all night, scooting silently around the stage playing every percussion instrument in sight. 

Melbourne also got the full range of magnificent soloists.  Richard Marshall was elegant and effortless on the cornet. David Thornton played a new exciting Wilby euphonium solo like The Flight of the Bumblebee on speed, Sandy Smith, on tenor horn crooned his own arrangement of Autumn Leaves and the incorrigible Joseph (‘a ‘Joey’ in Australia’ Childs said) played Czardas complete with multiphonics, circular breathing and a sense of humour. 

Ballarat also got a coy Alex Kerwin on flugel horn playing That’s Amore down the bell of suitor Daniel Sinclair’s tuba. Daniel tremeloed noiselessly while Alex emoted, producing an ethereal, vibraphone effect. Speaking of which instrument, percussionist Andrea Price was one of the band’s unsung heroes. She drifted in pushing the keyboard in front of her, played her solos and vanished up the back again. Her stickwork was exceptional all night and she was perhaps the most authentic of the jazz soloists in the swing numbers. The others were note perfect, of course, but Andrea had the real feel. 

Friends, Salvos and otherwise, drooled over Deep Harmony. The sound of the climaxes, the whisper of the muted second verse, was awe-inspiring. Was there a hint of untidiness in the phrasing? Did it matter? It was a simple thing of great beauty, a blessing in music. But the concert barely took a breath. Dr. Nicholas Childs linked it all together so capably. He obviously loves his band, he loves the music and he advocates their records at the mike. But to him goes the credit for the training, the programming, the ensemble sound and the total unanimity in every aspect of brass banding. It’s a perfectly presented sound spectacular right down to toes of their patent leather shoes. 

Have I forgotten anything? Oh yes, Ballarat had James Morrison too. Some Melbourne-based bandsmen expressed their pleasure to me that the capital city would have only ‘the Dyke’; indeed they indicated they’d written to tour organizers to request it. I don’t know what, if any, effect that might have had. 

I took friends to Ballarat causing them to forgo the solos Marshall and Thornton would have presented in Morrison’s absence. I felt just a twinge of guilt but, yet again we marveled at Australia’s own multi- instrumental genius – and so did the Dykemen from the looks on their faces. 

Morrison brings more than just his monstrous musicality to the program. His impish wit and patter, his musical jokes (water key emissions are merely ‘workers’ condensation,’ he said) add a dimension of its own. He played his swing repertoire on eupho, trombone and trumpet. He played his own Fugue II on the piccolo trumpet and showcased his phenomenal range and accuracy even if his sound fell a little short of the French master of the genre, Maurice André.  

His rendition of Stephen Bulla’s Blessed Assurance though was second to none, Philip Smith of the New York Symphony, for whom it was written, included. No one caresses the flugel horn melody, hits the high Bb trumpet entry or socks the super F finish like James. He was in great form and his other hymn favourite The Old Rugged Cross got another standing ovation. The second verse with just tuba and Andrea Price on vibes was all class. 

So is a Dyke concert diminished by the inclusion of James Morrison? Of course not, but the Dyke was a once-in-21-years event, so perhaps my purist friends had a point.

Me? I’m the cat who got the cream. I had my James and Black Dyke too. I heard the world’s greatest jazz multi-instrumentalist who has a real empathy with brass bands; perfect soloists – Elgar Howarth says Richard Marshall might be ‘the most outstanding cornet player England has ever had’ and I reckon Baker, Thornton and Cook are on the same plateau and Dr. Nicholas Childs, a conductor of erudition, style, wit and skill in front of one of the world’s foremost musical ensembles, the Black Dyke Band. It was a privilege to be there.

Merv Collins

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