I must admit I normally listen to a CD for music to feature on my radio station.
As such it should also meet a certain criteria: High quality playing of engaging repertoire. It doesn’t have to try and educate you, but it can never be boring.
Black Dyke has been ticking the boxes on my personal check-list for inclusion for more years than I care to mention, and under Prof Nicholas Childs their link with Obrasso has always provided ample opportunity to enjoy easy-listening, audience friendly music making.
Duality of purpose
There is a duality of purpose of course; the enjoyment is also aimed at getting people to buy the music played, but that has perhaps always been the case with these recordings. And it succeeds.
The use of quality arrangers on familiar repertoire is balanced by some interesting new ‘voices’ – resulting in one of the joys that comes with discovering something that tickles your fancy – and there are quite a few with these 19 tracks.
For instance, ‘The Windmills of your Mind’ - a classic 1960s pop hit for Michel Legrand (made famous in the film ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’) is hauntingly beautiful, whilst ‘French Folk Festival’ is a kaleidoscope of Gallic fun.
The soloists are on super form - the pick perhaps being Zoe Hancock on ‘The Last Rose of Summer’. It’s playing that lingers in the air.
For instance, ‘The Windmills of your Mind’ - a classic 1960s pop hit for Michel Legrand (made famous in the film ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’) is hauntingly beautiful, whilst ‘French Folk Festival’ is a kaleidoscope of Gallic fun.
Something for everyone
There is in fact something for everyone; from the boldness of the short ‘Opening for an Occasion’ and the jazzy swagger of ‘Forty Second Street’, to a suave touch of ‘Harmony Bossa Nova’ and the obligatory moments of cheesy ‘Euro-pop’.
However, the touch of Cuban sensuality on ‘Havana Fire!’ and the strutting bluffness of the paso-doble ‘El Perello’ are mini-classics.
All are played with a classy depth of polished quality – care and attention given to style as well as detail, with the percussion in particular, excellent.
Although there were one or two tracks out of nineteen that have perhaps been given a refreshed make-over, for my money, and for my purpose in particular, it’s a breath of refreshing globally inspired air.
Dr. Jim Fox
To purchase:
http://www.worldofbrass.com/cds/new-releases/100392.html
Play list:
1. Opening for an Occasion (Jean-Pierre Hartmann)
2. Pulsar (Alan Fernie)
3. Song for a Little Rose (Howard Lorriman)
4. Brass Rock (Sandy Smith)
5. French Folk Festival (Based on 'Frère Jacques') (Trad)
6. The Last Rose of Summer (Trad)
Soloist: Zoe Hancock
7. El Perello (Johan Nijs)
8. Harmony Bossa Nova (Alan Fernie)
Soloists: Richard Marshall & Siobhan Bates
9. Alperose (Hanspeter Amman)
10. More than just a Flight (Johan Nijs)
11. Helter-Skelter (W G Lemon)
Soloist: Anne Challinor
12. Autumn in Ellmau (Alan Fernie)
13. Havana Fire! (Mambo) (Alan Fernie)
14. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me (Giuseppe Donaggio)
15. Forty Second Street (Dubin & Harry Warren)
16. The Windmills of your Mind (Michel Legrand)
17. A Postcard from Russia (Trad)
18. Musik, Musik (March) (Frantisek Kmoch)
19. Ol’ Man River (Jerome Kern)
