Cory Band
Soloist: Brett Baker
de haske Recordings: DHR 03-069-3

‘Dancing on the Sand’ is ostensibly a brochure production of the latest releases and potential best sellers of de haske’s impressive list of affiliated composers. 

That said, Cory and Philip Harper deserve to get a pay packet bonus after a polished showroom tour of their models that should persuade quite a few customers to dip into their pockets for a purchase or two. 

Craftsmen

The test-piece substance comes from a trio of contest craftsmen. Philip Sparke’s ‘Sinfonietta: The Town Beneath the Cliff’  (2017) is a perfectly engineered Second Section work with a distinctive Nordic flavour.  Meanwhile, ‘Black Gold’  sees Thierry Deleruyelle return to the themes of the coal mining industry (although this time in Germany) for a Third Division piece that will receive its major contest premiere at the WMC Contest in Kerkrade in 2026.

Bert Appermont’s ‘The Last Journey’  (used at the 2024 First Section Belgium Championships) has a particular individual inspiration. It reflects on the life of trombone player Siebe Wittebrood who was diagnosed with cancer aged 24, but through will power and positivity extended his life of vitality and joy until his death five years later. 

Whilst Sparke’s work is stamped like a VW Golf car in its readily identifiable quality, both Appermont and Deleruyelle cleverly draw together their design lines between filmatic emulation and calculated homage appreciation.

Emulation

Whilst Sparke’s work is stamped like a VW Golf car in its readily identifiable quality, both Appermont and Deleruyelle cleverly draw together their design lines between filmatic emulation and calculated homage appreciation. 

In performance Philip Harper does the same - even with the Frenchman’s widescreen celluloid score of the overture ‘Majesty’,  that seems to be a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II aimed at middle America plaid trousered tourists.   

Tango swagger

More sophisticated Latin-Americana comes with Brett Baker’s sumptuous rendition of ‘Tango for Joe’,  which the great Joe Alessi himself (as well as Astor Piazzolla) would doff his cap at.  It is played with a real swagger.  

Marc Jeanbourquin’s ‘El Duende’  is a sugary gobstopper of colourful fun that should get any MD’s back-end wiggling like Carmen Miranda.

Thomas Doss (more well known for his own fantastical major test-pieces) provides a touching sense of departure in ‘Farewell with a Little Smile’  – a musical ‘au revoir’ rather than permanent separation, whilst Marc Jeanbourquin’s ‘El Duende’  is a sugary gobstopper of colourful fun that should get any MD’s back-end wiggling like Carmen Miranda.

Etienne Crausaz offers a contrasting brace neatly packaged to fit into any concert programme. 

‘Grant Us Peace’  is an orchestration of his own mixed choir work that has a distinctively emotive feel, whilst the title track (already a popular seller) taps into the current appetite for a particular acceptable form of westernised levantine musicality. 

Iwan Fox

To purchase:
CD: https://www.worldofbrass.com/102399-cory-band-brass-band-cd-dancing-on-the-sand

 Play list:

1. Majesty (Thierry Deleruyelle)
2. The Last Journey (Bert Appermont)

3. Tango for Joe (Philip Sparke)
Soloist: Brett Baker
4. Grant Us Peace (Etienne Crausaz)

5-8. Sinfonietta: The Town Beneath The Cliff (Philip Sparke)
i. Fanfare
ii. Toccata
iii. Hymn
iv. Scherzo Finale 

9. Farewell with a Little Smile (Thomas Doss)
10. Black Coal (Thierry Deleruyelle)

11. El Duende (Marc Jeanbourquin)
12. Dancing on the Sand (Etienne Crausaz)