Introducing the second of three ‘Living Legends’ concerts, Jeremy Wise explained his intention to take both band and guest soloist out of their comfort zone to perform music that was a little different from their normal repertoire.

In a business where meaningless superlatives are often bandied around, and where even the mediocre can be praised to high heaven, Mike Lovatt was the featured artist to whom the epithet ‘great’ really can be applied.  

Not only was his playing outstanding, but he quickly won over the audience with his lively humour, self-deprecating anecdotes, and the sheer enjoyment that was apparent both in his own playing and in his appreciation of Redbridge’s contributions.

Resonant acoustic

The band opened with ‘Summon the Dragon’, the impressive cornet fanfare echoing in the resonant acoustic and the busy four-man percussion team making their mark.  ‘Marche Militaire Francais’ to follow was taken at a cracking pace, but with wonderfully clean articulation and nicely integrated runs.

Trumpet hero 

One of Mike’s trumpet heroes was Kenny Baker, and he has been fortunate enough to obtain some of his arrangements, including ‘Georgia’.  Explaining that the solo line is often not written out at all, he brought into play a large arsenal of jungle effects, aided by excellent accompaniment from the band.

Smooth Serenade

Redebridge showed a neat sense of light style with the dislocated rhythms of Derek Bourgeois’ ‘Serenade’, that flowed so smoothly that you were barely aware of the frequent changes in time signature that originally accompanied the composer’s wife as she walked down the wedding aisle with a broken leg!  

Mike then joined in with ‘Virtuosity’ - his solo demonstrating amply that sometimes less is more. 

A moment of calm with ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, featuring wonderfully controlled playing and carefully blended sounds, was the prelude to Mike returning with the flugel for ‘Have you met Miss Jones?’, played with a nicely understated opening, before letting rip on trumpet.

The first half closed with the imposing sounds of ‘Marche Slav’, moving from the rather ominous start from the low brass to the triumphant ending.

Soaring trumpet 

John Williams ‘Summon the Heroes’, opened the second half which featured Mike’s Eb trumpet soaring over the band.  

There was more atmospheric music to follow, with flugel and trumpet employed in ‘Night in Tunisia’ with its lovely sotto voce accompaniment supporting the soloist admirably, and with the flugel exploring areas of the range seldom heard in brass band circles.

Vocal talents

‘I Bob Un’ - a set of variations on the hymn tune ‘Rachie’ by Tom Davoren, including lyrical solos from Cliff Pask and Lisa Brill, preceded the exuberant ‘Lady of Spain’, for which Mike, Jeremy Wise and members of the band became a pretty good impromptu vocal ensemble.

In deference to it being Remembrance weekend, the band played an exquisite ‘Nimrod’ before the Michael Buble-inspired version of ‘Cry me a River’, movingly dedicated to the memory of Derek Watkins.

Spectacular finale

Mike then took a seat next to soprano David Cooper for Alan Catherall’s pot boiler arrangement of ‘MacArthur Park’ - his telling contributions including a screamer of note to close!

After a sparkling encore of ‘Trumpet Blues and Cantabile’, Mike was presented with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne, which he brandished in the air with glee.  

Redbridge should be commended for their initiative in arranging this series of concerts, the final one of which, on 30th November, has Philip Cobb as the guest. 

Peter Bale