The Trombonist - Spring 2020

SPRING 2020

The Trombonist

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President’s Welcome Editor’s Welcome MATTHEW GEE

BARNEY MEDL AND

This is the second time I have penned a president’s welcome. The first – a rant bemoaning the arrogance and egotism of loud playing – seems wildly out of place in this enforced period of downtime. For our own sake, our sanity and good mental health (P23–25), we should see this as a time to reflect on the importance of what we do, be it our day job, playing the trombone, or simply the little things we took for granted that lockdown has taken away.

As Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (the Principal of the Royal Academy of Music) pointed out, difficult times have historically allowed for creativity to take root in important ways. As such, content has exploded over the internet. We have tried to signpost you towards some of our favourite and are working with some really top players to create new, engaging content: check out the CLOSE TO THE ‘BONE interview series and Gordon Campbell’s awesome playlist on page 33.

If musicians have not had to don their home-school teacher’s robes, the home-recording studio appears to be the medium of choice. If you want to give it a go, there is plenty of ADVICE online. Teaching via Skype or Zoom (P26–27) has become the obvious choice for many teachers, but it comes with some serious challenges.

I request my students record themselves, send me the recordings and I then record my comments as I am listening back. This way we do not lose too much of the nuance we strive for as artists. Ian Bousfield discusses the pros and cons in his wonderful PODCAST .

These are difficult times for sure, but as Jonathan suggests: music is likely to become more, not less crucial as a result of this pandemic. I urge you all to try and remember that, reflect on it, and find a little time for music, no matter how challenging your own situation becomes.

I am delighted to present the Spring 2020 edition of The Trombonist.

As I write, we find ourselves separated from our friends and family, some, tragically, never to be reunited, and the traditional musical order has been suspended.

Yet through this, there have been many inspiring ways people have found to connect with loved ones, make music (pages 6–7, 32, & 34–35), and educate students (P26–27). When something like normal life returns, we can only hope we will at least have learnt something of lasting value, not least the fragility of many things we take for granted.

This is the first edition of The Trombonist I have had the privilege of editing. I’d like to thank Jane Salmon, my predecessor, for all the guidance she’s given me as I have taken over the reins. I’d also like to thank Peter Chester and Alison Keep, this magazine’s excellent sub-editors, our designer Sára Mikkelsen, who has produced this beautiful publication, and the whole team of interesting, entertaining, and diverse contributors.

Most importantly, many thanks to you, our readers.

Thank you for supporting The Trombonist. I hope you will find this issue packed with content of interest to brass musicians and general readers alike. If you think this is one of the best specialist music publications out there, spread the word!

Finally, you can help us as we strive to be even better.

Write to me at: editor@britishtrombonesociety.org.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue of The Trombonist and anything else that’s going on in the brass playing and wider musical world.

Until next time, I hope you stay safe, and enjoy your Spring 2020 edition of The Trombonist.

Barney Medland editor@britishtrombonesociety.org

Matthew Gee president@britishtrombonesociety.org GET IN TOUC H:

British Trombone Society, Registered Charity No: 1158011, Main Telephone: +44 (0)1924 437359 1 Ullswater Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 7PH, UNITED KINGDOM T WITTER FACEBOOK WEBSITE

THE TROMBONIST MAGAZINE TEAM EDITOR

Barney Medland editor@britishtrombonesociety.org SUB-EDITORS

Peter Chester Alison Keep NEWS EDITOR

Barney Medland news@britishtrombonesociety.org EVENTS EDITOR

Douglas Coleman events@britishtrombonesociety.org REVIEWS EDITOR

Jane Salmon reviews@britishtrombonesociety.org ADVERTISING MANAGER

Chris Valentine advertising@britishtrombonesociety.org

CONTENTS 03

WELCOME

06 08 11 12 16 17 18

MAGAZINE DESIGN

Sára Mikkelsen sra.mikkelsen@gmail.com saramikkelsen.com

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Alison Keep Becky Smith Barney Medland Daniel de Souza Douglas Coleman Gordon Campbell Jane Salmon Jeremy Price John Kenny Josh Cirtina Matthew Gee Peter Chester Pete Thornton Rob Egerton Dr Sarah Crick Thomas Gibbs Trevor Mires

20 23 26 28 32 33 34 36 37

BRITISH TROMBONE SOCIET Y :

NEWS

REPORT: BTS DAY AT RAF NORTHOLT

PRESIDENT’S TOOLKIT: AIR ATTAC KS

THE FRONT COVER: AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIC CREES

REVIEW: PRELUDES, RAGS AND CAKEWALKS

REVIEW: AND IF ALL WERE DARK, DAVID TAYLOR

FROM THE COLLIERIES TO THE STARS: A COMPOSER’S PERSPECTIVE

INTERVIEW: CALLUM AU TALKS SONGS & STORIES

MUSICIANS’ HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH

EDUCATION: REMOTE POSSIBILITIES

JAZZ BY JEREMY: DONNA LEE

FROM STAGE TO PIT …

GORDON CAMPBELL’S LOC KDOWN LISTENING

WHAT’S ON

BONUS CROSSWORD

THE L AST NOTE: THE HORNIMAN MUSEUM BRASS INSTRUMENT COLLECTION

Officers & Staff // Honorary Patrons // Committee // Officers

Member Offer BTS members now receive one month discount from our specialist Trombone and musical instrument “Harmonic” insurance product.

Simply call us on 01892 506684 or visit www.newmooninsurance.com and use code ‘BTS12411’ to obtain this offer (UK Residents only)

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News

BY BARNEY MEDL AND

BTS Members’ Survey Here at BTS HQ we are always looking at ways to serve you better. We have created a five-minute survey containing sixteen questions, to find out your thoughts on the content and services offered by the BTS. The survey is anonymous, but you are welcome to add comments, suggestions and include your name if you wish at the end of the survey.

To complete the survey, click HERE .

BTS Bursary Scheme 2020 From the 1 June to 1 August, applications will be open for the BTS Bursary Scheme 2020.

The BTS administers the scheme, which awards grants of up to £250. Anything trombone related will be considered, this might include instrument purchases, sheet music, commissions, events or music courses.

Successful applicants will be notified by 1 September 2020.

Visit the BTS WEBSITE for full terms and conditions, and for information about how to apply.

BTS Instrument Loan Applications for the BTS Instrument Loan Scheme, are open from the 1 July to 31 July. The BTS now owns two Bb/F tenor trombones (a Conn 88H and a Rath R400) and one Conn 62H bass trombone. These are available to loan to BTS members age 25 and under (on 1 Jan. 2020), for up to 12 months, whose current circumstances prevent the purchase of the type of instrument they need.

Visit the BTS WEBSITE for full terms and conditions, and for information about how to apply.

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Details Published for BTS’s Flagship Competitions The Ian Bousfield Tenor Trombone Competition and The Bob Hughes Bass Trombone Competition are the British Trombone Society’s flagship competitions, open to talented trombonists aged 30 and under for the Ian Bousfield Competition and 23 and under for the Bob Hughes Competition (as of the date of the finals).

Applications for the Ian Bousfield Competition must be received by the 3 August, with the final taking place on the 18 October, while applications for the Bob Hughes Competition must be received by the 7 September, with the final happening on the 15 November. Full details about the terms and conditions, how to enter, and the fantastic prizes available, visit the BTS WEBSITE .

MU survey reveals scale of challenge for music industry A survey of 1,459 Musicians’ Union members has revealed that one-in-five professional musicians fear they will have to abandon their career. Furthermore, two-in-five musicians surveyed fall short of the criteria needed for government assistance. Horace Trubridge, General Secretary of the MU said: ‘We risk facing a devastating impact on the music industry.

From providing us with the joy of live music, to teaching our children, musicians play a huge part in our everyday lives and to wipe out a fifth of that will have unimaginable consequences.’ The Musicians’ Union is calling on the government to provide further support for the music industry.

Warwick Music releases part of catalogue for free Warwick Music has made its top 10 most popular selling titles, the full range of Music Marvels for students, and more available as free downloads until the end of June.

CEO Steven Greenall said, ‘In these challenging times when making music together has become more

s

NEWS difficult, our team and composers have worked in partnership to support the musical community.

Digital downloads are remote and instant, and by making these free we can support teachers, students and parents with remote learning or online lessons.’

Peter Gane, founder of the British Trombone Society, has applauded the move, saying it is an ‘excellent initiative from which I hope everyone will benefit.’

Over 6000 downloads have been made so far.

OVER 1000 TROMBONISTS UNITE FOR BTS ISOL ATION MASS BLOW

The Trombonist talks to BTS Adverting Manager Chris Valentine about his amazing project, the BTS Isolation Mass Blow.

CAN YOU PLEASE EXPL AIN THE ISOL ATION MASS BLOW FOR READERS UNFAMILIAR?

The Isolation Massed Blow is our answer to social distancing restrictions. The BTS normally runs workshops and trombone days around the UK and one of the (many) highlights of these days is the massed blow that we hold at the end of the day, where all participants come together to play various pieces arranged for trombone choir. These pieces are written for all abilities and the sound is always huge!

The concept of the Isolation Massed Blow mimics this with the only difference being that people are recording their individual parts at home and send them to me to mix them together into a (really large) ensemble.

WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA?

I did! I was sitting at home thinking about ways that we might be able to create something that involves as many players as possible. The concept of the BTS massed blow was an obvious choice but the challenge was working out how to make it happen, without people being in the same room, and, of course, choosing the right piece of music to arrange. It was clear to me that the song needed to have a strong message of hope and positivity and it didn’t take long to settle on We’ll Meet Again, made famous by Vera Lynn and a true anthem during WWII. The message of the song is all about getting through tough times and knowing that we eventually will meet again, something that I feel really resonates with a lot of people at the moment. Hopefully the piece can bring a bit of joy to both its listeners but also the many musicians that have contributed to it.

HOW HAS THE RESPONSE FROM TROMBONISTS BEEN?

Amazing! (And not just trombonists either – we also have tubas, euphoniums, baritones and drums all contributing). After our sign up closed we had over

1000 participants. I haven’t checked with Guinness World Records yet but I’m hoping that we might be close to some kind of record for the largest number of trombonists on a recording.

IT MUST HAVE BEEN A LOT OF WORK TO COORDINATE, HAVE YOU DONE IT ALL YOURSELF?

Yes, it really is – I haven’t really thought about how long it’ll take to get finished as it’s probably a bit daunting, but I’m getting through it slowly but surely. I’ve done a large portion of the work but I’ve had some brilliant help from fellow BTS officers, Jane Salmon and Jon Stokes, who have chipped in with some really useful instructional videos and some administrative work, and Steve Bland, who helped me collate the recording guidelines for those that have little or no experience recording themselves at home.

As I write, it’s still in the mixing process and I haven’t started on video editing yet. It already sounds fantastic and there have been hundreds of brilliant submissions with some quite breath-taking playing at times. I can’t put a date on the finished product – there are only so many hours in a day and, with over 1000 videos to compile, it’s not a quick process.

WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HAVE FOR THE PARTICIPANTS?

Thank you so much for your hard work and enthusiasm, it’s really humbling to see so many people keen to get involved in making music and I hope you are all proud of the final result. There will be a chance in the future for us all to meet again and wouldn’t it be great for us all to play this piece in the same room and at the same time? Watch this space and hopefully we can make it happen when life returns to some sort of normality.

The video will be available online on the BTS social media platforms.

And finally…

Despite the widespread hardship being faced in the musical community and wider world, many musicians are still finding ways to create music and entertain audiences. Some of our favourites are ‘A Concert in the Living Room’ by the Brighouse and Rastrick Band; the “Quarantiner” March, from Brass on the Bus, raising money for the London Music Fund; and Under The Sea from the Ifton Colliery Band, raising funds for the Wythenshawe Transplant Unit, which saved the life of Martin Bellis, the band’s bass trombone player. There’s this Game of Thrones arrangement and in The Global Trombone Hangout, many of the world’s top trombonists got together for a fascinating online conversation. Go to From Stage to Pit… (p. 32) and What’s On (p. 34) for more. ◆ 7

EP OR

BY PETER C HESTER

BTS Day at RAF Northolt SUNDAY, 31 MARCH 2020

“I’ve brought my daughter up from Cornwall today for this. She plays in a band at home, which she really enjoys, but doesn’t get much company with other trombone players, so we thought this might be fun and it is.”

So said one lady in a conversation about female trombone players, appropriately enough, on this year’s International Women’s Day, 8 March. It is certainly not a comment on musical life in Cornwall, but, in many ways, it sums up what the BTS has always been about – bringing trombone players together to play, to learn and simply enjoy that magnificent instrument we all love.

That mother and her daughter were certainly not the only ones to have travelled significant distances to be there. Of all ages and backgrounds, the goodly numbers of over 50 who attended the trombone event at RAF Northolt on 8 March were evidence, yet again, of the enthusiasm that keeps our Society going, and they were treated to some excellent performances and memorable experiences. Jonty Hill and his RAF colleagues gave us all a warm welcome. An impressive list of guests ready to share their enthusiasm and skills was on hand, including Jon Stokes, Matt Gee, Simon Minshall, Gordon Campbell, Jayne Murrill, and Sarah Williams.

We were also honoured with the presence of the great Bill Geldard, (b.1929) who reminisced about playing in bands in the 1940s, including the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, the current incarnation of which performed for us at the lunchtime concert. The thread of experience, from Bill’s generation through to young players present, like the young lady from Cornwall, and all the generations between, is an inestimably precious function of the BTS, as well as a pleasure to observe.

Ample opportunities for playing were available during the day, which started with warm-up sessions, one led by Jon Stokes and Jonty Hill, the other by Jayne Murrill and Sarah Williams, from Bones Apart. What is

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always rewarding about such sessions is the chance to listen as much as play, to hone intonation skills and play the glorious chords that trombone choirs can produce.

Playing of a different sort followed later in the morning, with two contrasting sessions. Jayne and Sarah presided over a series of performances by younger players, in a masterclass format, performances which revealed some very promising young players in the making. Alongside that, Matt Gee took an open rehearsal with a team of RAF players, on the fiendish octet Scherzo Funèbre by Derek Bourgeois. As ever the devil was in the detail and it was very instructive to see how such a piece can be put together. What was a further pleasure, however, was to then have the ‘audience’ join in, to play alongside the RAF octet. Maybe not quite as Bourgeois intended, to have 30+ players wrestling with his music, but very stimulating nonetheless.

After lunch it was time to listen – and frequently be amazed! Accompanied by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force conducted by Wing Commander Piers Morrell, a trombone-focussed programme was presented which was quite simply stunning. It opened with a UK première, At Sixty Miles an Hour by Robert Tindle, an absolute tour de force for the modern bass trombone, delivered with consummate skill by Simon Minshall. The range of colours, sounds and power in the music and playing was breath-taking. The gentler moods evoked by the next piece, Colours for Trombone by Bert Appermont, were an intended contrast, underlined by the participation of four soloists, Matt Gee, Ashley Harper, James Richardson, and Gordon MacLachan.

Each took a different section of the piece, characterised

REPORT

PHOTOGRAPHY: JONATHAN HILL

by a colour, Yellow, Red, Blue and Green, but that only served to illustrate one of the features of the trombone, that is, the different sound that individual players produce.

Gordon Langford’s smooth Scarborough Fair duet was next, with Jon Stokes and Hamish Dean taking the solo parts, Hamish having been drafted in at last minute as Gordon Campbell had a chest infection which prevented him from sustained playing on the day.

The climax of the concert was a world première, Aere Invicti by Dominic Sewell. This was a commission by the RAF to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Central Band of the Royal Air Force. It was in effect a double concerto, for two trombones, tenor and bass, with soloists Jonty Hill and Adam Smith ably demonstrating the wonderful level of playing the RAF produces.

It was fitting conclusion to what had been a very special concert.

It is always a pleasure to welcome Gordon Campbell to a BTS event and indeed he has long been our Patron.

Although a troubling chest infection prevented too much playing, we were treated to what might called an illustrated question and answer session from Gordon.

The audience supplied the questions, Gordon responded with his usual good humour and very occasionally played the answers! So we had advice on breathing and warm-up, which in his case involve simple steady extensions down the register to levels usually heard on the bass trombone. Jazz styles were subject to some analysis, with Gordon producing sounds that could have been made by any one of a number of other great players, from Tommy Dorsey, Urbie Green, to Dick

Nash. As he said, the key to all this was to listen to great players, not necessarily to copy slavishly, but to assist the development of your own repertoire of possible sounds and your own style. Gordon and Bill Geldard then shared memories of the great bands of the past, such as Ted Heath Band and the BBC bands of the 1950s and 1960s. Younger (and not so young) BTS members may well have felt they were in the presence of trombone history. Asked to comment on contemporary players he admired, his BBC Big Band colleagues got a mention, as did Mark Nightingale, Carol Jarvis, Katy Jones of the Hallé, and of course Bones Apart. No doubt all those mentioned would in their turn repay the compliment that here, in Gordon, was a trombone player that we all looked up to.

A final massed blow involving Bruckner’s Locus Iste, the Theme from Thunderbirds and even some improvising over a bass line and riff, directed respectively by Matt, Simon and Jon, finished what was a most satisfying and worthwhile day. Jonty Hill and his RAF colleagues and those professional players who give their unstinting support and enthusiasm to the Society are to be sincerely thanked. It had been a good day to play, to listen and to soak up the friendly atmosphere and rank and file members are very appreciative.

In the light of the serious national developments that took place soon after the event and the cancellation of trombone events in Huddersfield and Durham, the Northolt day will have an extra special place as a very powerful reminder of what we can, and will do again, together.

Keep safe and keep practising! ◆ 9

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PRESIDENT’S TOOLKIT:

Air attacks – energizing the front of the note

BY MATTHEW GEE

Before Christmas we started talking about the articulation system, the precise timing of the air, tongue and the slide which can produce excellent clarity and efficiency in our playing. We looked at how to break the system down into its component parts, with particular focus on how to improve our slide technique. This time we are going to look at the air, its role in articulation and how to practise it.

Starting notes without the tongue is a fundamental skill on all brass instruments. Releasing the air column through the mouth cavity induces the lips to vibrate, which when in contact with the mouthpiece create the buzz required by all brass instruments to sound. If we focus on the moment the air column passes through the lips, you will notice that the very first air to pass through the lips does not have any effect on them, before they suddenly catch and start vibrating. The key to a good air attack is to make this ‘wasted air’ as short in duration as possible. There are two ways we can think about achieving this. The first is to use a confident ‘Ha’ sound.

Pronounce the syllable and you will notice that it has an accented start followed by a slight decay. In fact, you can even hear a small amount of ‘wasted air’ before the vocal cords kick into action. The second way is to focus on the air column itself: energise the front of the column and then allow a small amount of natural decay. They both amount to the same thing, but some people find one concept easier than the other.

It is best to start simply. Pick a middle register note and use as relaxed an air column as possible. Switch the focus to the breath and ensure that there is no holding or tension between inhalation and exhalation. Really listen to the shape of the note you are playing – is the front energised? How short is the ‘wasted air’? Is this your best sound? How much pressure is there between your lips and the mouthpiece? When you are in the

practice room, remind yourself that you should be trying to play as efficiently as possible, with as little tension as possible in your body or on the air column.

Ultimately we must strive to produce uniform air attacks over the entire range. This will take some practice, but after a while you should be able to have complete trust in it. A real ‘Eureka’ moment in my student years was when I was told that the air should tell the lips where to go. The air should be in complete control and assist the lips in finding the best and most thorough vibration for that particular note. I cannot remember who told me that, but it is a phrase I continue to return to in my own practice.

Once you are feeling confident, try the following exercise from Lafosse’s ‘Trombone Technique’ book III. It only takes a couple of minutes a day, but will keep the technique of air attacks in great shape. ◆

▶ 11

BY BARNEY MEDL AND

TH‘Whatever E F RONTyou COV ER do,

take it seriously’ AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIC CREES

In February, Eric Crees retired from The Orchestra Of The Royal Opera House after almost 20 years as principal trombone. Before that, he had spent 27 years in the London Symphony Orchestra – 20 of those as co-principal. Over a wide-ranging conversation, Eric told me about his distinguished playing career, his prolific arranging, and his message for future musicians.

During his time at the Royal Opera House, Eric was a part of many outstanding performances. Three complete Ring Cycles were milestones. There was a particularly great production of Verdi’s Falstaff with Bryn Terfel in the title role and Zeffirelli’s ‘amazing’ production of Pagliacci, by Leoncavallo, was another. However, as Eric told me, ‘there have been just too many fantastic things to mention.’

‘I found it quite strange when I first took the job.

Where you sit is actually at the side of the orchestra, rather than in front of the conductor, and that’s a very different experience. Also, when playing in the pit, you get no sense of the bloom of the sound, it sounds dry.

I would go out and listen to productions I wasn’t in as often as I could to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time!

The sound is actually terrific in there; it’s really warm.

Playing at the Opera House has been a wonderful job and a nice change from the LSO. ‘If you are brought up in a symphony orchestra you can forget just how many great moments there are in opera.’ Among the ‘real hair on the back of the neck’ moments in the repertoire Eric singles out are ‘the final trio in Der Rosenkavalier, where the trumpet takes off with the melody, and you’re playing along at the side.

The opening of Otello, making that great scale up as loud as you can and setting the whole storm off, and the end of the second act of Otello where the brass takes over the whole orchestra.’ Alongside these huge moments for the brass section, ‘there are a strange two notes, a semibreve G resolving to an F# in My Tiny Hand is Frozen in La Bohème. It is something you can’t write down

12

on paper, but those were two notes I really enjoyed playing. It is a very emotional moment. It’s just the first trombone on its own. You are sitting there playing two notes – with tears running down your face!

‘One of the things people forget about the Opera House is that there is probably as much ballet as there is opera. The scores are often quite difficult, or a little on the mundane side, but if you’re playing things like Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake it’s actually physically quite a hard job. Compared to playing in a symphony orchestra I found it harder in many ways, because of the length of the shows. We’d often quip after the end of the first act of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, in terms of time, “that would have been Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.”’

When asked about how he has maintained his stamina over such a long and busy career, Eric said, ‘very early on in my career in the LSO, I noticed I was getting a little bit nervous. I found a doctor who specialised in relaxation techniques, to find a way of dealing with what people call “nerves”, and that was one of the best things I ever did. Also, it is important to do an amount of physical exercise to keep the body reasonably fit, especially what people call the core, the breathing muscles and the abdomen. I try to pass this advice on to students.

‘The other thing is saving yourself physically.

I’ve seen rather too many casualties of practising too much, people not saving themselves for the actual date.

Just playing a piece over and over again doesn’t make it better, any more than a runner would run 100 metres 50 times a day.’

R

THE FRONT COVER

Although the Opera House stage is no stranger to public controversy, Eric insists ‘it is less dramatic that you might think actually. When you’re playing in the pit you can’t see the stage. A lot of it is not to do with the music, it’s to do with the productions. There have been some bizarre productions with extraordinary things happening clearly out of their time, for example, setting pieces in such a way to completely go against the wishes of the composers. I don’t understand why directors do that just to do something new. Pieces are quite clearly set down with the directions of the composers. When a composer has dedicated years of their life to writing a piece, and a director comes in and decides they will do something completely wayward with it, I think that’s actually rather insulting.’

I was interested in what Eric thought might be a common thread uniting the many other great musicians that have been his colleagues.

He was clear it was all about ‘having complete conviction musically about what you are going to do. It is playing with an inside knowledge of the score and music, and making that completely clear when you are performing.

It is a slightly intangible thing to put your finger on, but when someone is playing with great authenticity you really think “that’s absolutely right, that’s how it should go.” Obviously, there are things we all have to do; there is having great technique, rhythm, dynamics, and so on, but once you put that to the side, it’s about the musical conviction. There are some trumpet players who can lift an orchestra single handedly. Ian Balmain, who’s recently sadly passed away, was one of those and Maurice Murphy was another.

That is something you can hardly teach really, you can just ask people to listen to how the greats do it.

‘Sadly, most conductors fail to realise that their basic job is to make it easy for the musicians to play.

I’m talking about the normal convention that musicians know of certain beats in the bar going certain ways.

Having a clear beat is extremely important, but often conductors seem to think it’s not. When a conductor isn’t being clear, it puts unnecessary strain on even great orchestras like the Royal Opera House and the LSO.

The second job of a conductor is to have a vision of how the music goes and its geography. Claudio Abbado is the classic one who had that ability. Bernard Haitink was also wonderful to play for, you knew exactly what you had to do and he made it easy for you.

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache had an incredible knowledge of the score and would go into depth in a way you might not have realised. Some of the great Russian conductors, Svetlanov for instance, were particularly good technicians who made it very easy, both for you to play and also made it very easy for you to realise what they wanted without talking too much.

To generalise, the conductor who talks too much might not always be the finest technician! I’ve been very lucky. Apart from Karajan, I’ve worked with most of the best conductors, which has been terrific.’

Among Eric’s most famous works are his performing editions of the brass music of Giovanni Gabrieli. He paid tribute to David Munrow and the Early Music Consort and Musica Reservata led by John Beckett – two early music groups he performed with while still a schoolboy – for giving him an understanding in performing early music with ‘passion and interest’ from a young age.

‘The trouble with early music is that it has been subject to mystification, as if you need to be part of a special club who know the language and speak it.

A lot of people talk about ‘urtext’ (original) editions which is rather nonsensical, as they are usually modern approximations, but often use old notational conventions, such as making the triple time sections as three semibreves to a bar to make the music ‘look’ old.

If you put an original ‘facsimile’ Gabrieli part in front of a player, which has no bar lines, and just consists of notes and rests, most people wouldn’t have a clue! I very much doubt if there is any player in the whole country who could read one of those parts successfully.

‘If you were working with Gabrieli in Venice, around about 1600, you would have been working with him and a few other people who were writing similar sorts of music and you would very soon get to know the style you were playing in. But that was 400 years ago!

Now we need some instructions how to do it.

Continues on next page …

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THE FRONT COVER

Most English speaking people, for instance, wouldn’t be able to read Elizabethan English, and reading it in modern English notation in no way detracts from the quality of the plays or poems. In Renaissance music, you need to set tempos and relate the speed of the duple to the triple time passages, which is not always obvious.

You need to show where cadences are and where the music broadens out, crescendos and diminuendos that accompany rising and falling sequences, accentuation and other conventions that would have been second nature to musicians working in a small tight knit community. The danger is that because you see nothing written on the page, you don’t do anything. That is almost certainly not the way it was done. If you read musical treatises from the time, by say Ganassi or Dalla Casa, they say you should be playing with as much expression as singers do. However, my version is not set in stone and I make no claim that my way is the only one, but I made my Gabrieli editions in order that modern musicians could play this music with ease.

When we recorded them, we had to record two or three Canzonas a session, this was the only way to do it. Fortunately, the reviews of the records were all very favourable, even from Early Music Magazine.’

As well as his editions of Gabrieli and other Renaissance brass music, Eric has arranged a huge variety of music for brass ensembles, from Romantic piano music to 20th century classical music and jazz.

‘I started arranging when the LSO brass had the chance to play brass concerts in the Barbican Centre when it opened up. The late and great LSO tuba player John Fletcher knew I did some composing and arranging and encouraged me to arrange some pieces for the LSO brass, so I got stuck in with Walton’s Prelude and Fugue: The Spitfire. There is not a lot of original brass music sadly, so we had to invent some! I was inspired by Elgar Howarth’s arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition, which in turn was made as a companion piece for Gunther Schuller’s Symphony for Brass and Percussion, which uses the same large orchestral brass ensemble.

I was trying to expand the repertoire in such a way that we could go on stage as a brass group and perform interesting programmes, and that’s what I’ve kept doing – I have now made over a hundred brass ensemble arrangements.’

To Eric, intuition plays a big role in whether he will go ahead and arrange a piece for brass ensemble, ‘I look at the music and think “will it work?”. My yardstick is if I can hear it on brass, internally, then I’ll do it.

Before I ever put pen to paper, I look at an awful lot of music and see if I think it will work or not. If the answer is that I am unsure in any way, then I won’t arrange it.

It is surprising what does work for brass. The general public still have a very limited view of what brass instruments can do, but the colours you can get out of 14

a brass ensemble, by and large, are at least as interesting as those you can get out of a string ensemble. That is not knocking the string ensemble, but they have a lot of their own repertoire, and we haven’t. If you can offer Bach, Gabrieli, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Bernstein, Copland, and so on, it means you can offer some very interesting listening.

‘I’ve been really pleased with my arrangements of Brahms: his Haydn Variations originally for two pianos, for instance, and the Op. 119 Intermezzi. They had a subtle musical quality that gave the fantastic musicians I was working with a chance to shine and show their musicality. That was my ambition, and continues with The Symphonic Brass of London.’

Eric is the artistic director of The Symphonic Brass of London; their latest release Preludes, Rags, and Cakewalks is reviewed by Jane Salmon in this magazine.

‘I spent a long time doing the 21 arrangements for Preludes, Rags, and Cakewalks. I realised there is an awful lot of rag influence and cakewalk influence on the music of Debussy and his contemporaries, and that’s how the album came about. We still have several existing programmes of varied music to record, including commissions that we’ve made from leading British composers.’

Having taught at the Guildhall School for decades, where he is Professor of Trombone and, having written popular brass tutors (available HERE , HERE , and HERE ), Eric is one of the country’s leading brass teachers.

‘There have always been good teachers,’ he tells me, ‘otherwise no tradition would last, but it can be surprisingly fragile. I think it’s probably a little bit more organised technically these days, and bit by bit people know physically what happens more.

‘Having said that, it is still surprising how badly set up students often are from school level. The general level is not as high as you would think, I still ask students about support, breathing, articulation, and other basic technical aspects, and they don’t seem to have learnt about them. Many teachers still teach in a way where students sort of put it on their face and blow and see what happens. One of my present students asked his old teacher about how to breathe better and he said ‘just sniff ’! Many teachers sadly don’t understand the basic craft of brass playing.

‘What is for sure is that students have more resources than they ever have before, in the sense of access to listening and scores. There is no excuse not to listen to music nowadays. It’s still up to the individual student to do their own work. I am surprised by how little students listen to music, if you’re not familiar with different styles, it’s impossible to play appropriately.

The most common message I have for students is, “listen to music, all of the time – and not just brass music!”’

PHOTOGRAPHY: SC HILKE MUSIC PRODUCTS, INC.

THE FRONT COVER

Eric’s message for the next generation of musicians is stark: ‘It is not an easy job being a musician. It is still a great business, but it’s tough. When I was in my early days in the profession, there were lots of recordings.

With the advent of the CD player most things were re-recorded. Now there are very few new recordings coming out. I was lucky to be in a period when I played on the iconic film scores like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Superman, and they were very well paid. Nowadays they’re not so well paid and a lot of music is recorded on synthesisers. A lot of live music has disappeared.

Fortunately, the West End Shows remain one of the better things about the music business. They are paid very well and have become havens for top quality musicians.

‘The LSO now does over 100 days touring a year – this is the way the music business has become.

Unfortunately, in this country, music has never been properly funded with proper conditions. Foreign orchestras work differently.’ Eric tells me that while he’s ‘not suggesting that everyone should jump ship’ he has been vocal in encouraging his students to look at the opportunities there are abroad, ‘Germany has over 90 orchestras.’

‘You need a portfolio career; do a bit of teaching, don’t pigeonhole yourself.

There is nothing you can’t turn your hand to if you decide to do it, and keeping your musical interest is so important. I’ve written pieces for big band and edited Gabrieli! At the same time, you need to be single minded.

If you want to be a bass trombone in a symphony orchestra, work at it! Whatever you do, take it seriously.’

Eric may have retired from the Royal Opera House, but he thinks he’s ‘been busier than ever! I’ve got compositions people have asked me to write, I still teach at Guildhall, and I have my brass group to run, The Symphonic Brass of London. I’m certainly not short of things to do. In fact, having been promoting the group and our new CD, I’ve been wondering how I had time to do this and the Opera House as well, although I will be going back there to play in a few stage bands and keep in touch. I also hope to do a little more conducting and to spread my experience around the music colleges to share what I’ve done. All in all, I’m having quite a pleasant time.’ ◆ For more about Eric Crees, visit his website: https:// ericcrees.co.uk/

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REVIEW Preludes,Rags and Cakewalks Album by The Symphonic Brass of London

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BY JANE SALMON

Preludes, Rags and Cakewalks is the latest release from THE SYMPHONIC BRASS OF LONDON . It adds exciting new colours to the piano works of the early twentieth century French composers Claude Debussy, Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud and Erik Satie while exploring the influence of ‘ragtime’ music and ‘cakewalks’ on their work. A showcase of these styles would, of course, be incomplete without the American ‘King of Ragtime’ – Scott Joplin, whose lesser known works thread this series together nicely.

This project has been masterfully collated by the ensemble’s Artistic Director, Eric Crees, who has researched each of these responses to the ragtime and cakewalk traditions with great detail and – with his widely celebrated orchestrating skill – has transformed each piece into new works for a line-up of ten-piece brass ensemble and two percussion.

This clever work has been brought to life by the musicians of The Symphonic Brass of London, a hand-picked pool of players who come together with a brilliant orchestral sound but with the versatility needed to bring a varied programme to life. This release follows the ensemble’s 2014 fantastic debut album ‘A BRIDGE OVER THE PYRENEES’ .

With such a specific focus on style, influence and era, you might expect many of the pieces on the album to sound similar, but this is a varied and carefully balanced programme. This music has it all; it’s sometimes calm – with a special nod to La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair). It has moments of terror, and is both lively and serene. The satirical nature of this music is enhanced by the characterful brass. These works successfully highlight the immense capabilities of the brass ensemble, tastefully lifted by the percussion.

This delightful collection is not just a display of brilliant brass playing and directorship, but these arrangements are so clearly a successful enhancement to what is already exciting music. This is a classy creation and everyone will find plenty to enjoy here. ◆ Preludes, Rags and Cakewalks is available to purchase from The Symphonic Brass of London’s WEBSITE .

THE SYMPHONIC BRASS OF LONDON ERIC CREES CONDUCTOR JAMES FOUNTAIN , C HRIS DEACON PICCOLO TRUMPET PAUL ARC HIBALD, KATIE SMITH TRUMPET BRUCE NOC KLES FLUGEL HORN/TRUMPET HUGH SEENAN HORN C HRISTOPHER HOULDING, SIMON WILLS, NIC K LLOYD TROMBONE C HRISTIAN JONES BASS TROMBONE ADRIAN MIOTTI TUBA SCOTT BYWATER, JONATHAN KITC HEN PERCUSSION

MPR, 2020

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EV I EW

And if All Were Dark.

I have always loved the bass trombone – as a student and young professional player in London, the players I admired most all seemed to be bass trombonists, and yet if the tenor trombone has struggled to gain recognition as a serious medium of expression as a solo instrument (outside the world of jazz, that is) then the bass trombone had an even tougher struggle. Until very recently the available solo and chamber repertoire was both scanty and mediocre. So many great players and so little to call them out of the shadows. But if all were once dark, one player has shone out like a lighthouse illuminating not one, but a multitude of possible paths: David Taylor. And of all his albums, this is perhaps the most extraordinary and original. This is not just great playing – it’s an extraordinary concept.

All of the music on this album is inspired by poetry. The music of Franz Schubert, Virgil Thompson, Franz Hackl interpreted and arranged by David Taylor, combined with his own composition and improvisations. But this is not merely a set of arrangements – the album is an intricate and labyrinthine meditation upon these composer’s musical response to the mysterious and tortured poetry of Wilhelm Mueller, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich von Schiller and Carl Sandberg. Taylor also sets his own words in the autobiographic Pencil T and Raizel G as a counterpoise to what is otherwise effectively a deconstruction of Romanticism, re-imagined as a 21st Century howl against preconceived notions of ‘beauty’. There is no political correctness on display here!

Taylor fearlessly combines extreme, distorted bass trombone sound with electronic manipulation, speech, song, manic chant, multiphonics, a wide variety of mutes, several of which are his own hybrids.

Beautiful ‘normal’ sound disintegrates into spittle, water noises, dirty vibratos, asthmatic gasps, and a tessitura that plumbs Plutonic depths. On several tracks the Washington Trombone Ensemble, directed by Chris Branagan, join Taylor to provide rich, sonorous chorallike backing.

TRIPLE LETTER BRAND, 2017

For me, perhaps the most compelling two tracks on this album are Taylor’s solo Double Tier – Shout, followed by Double Tier with the full trombone ensemble backing. Both are Taylor’s arrangements of Der Doppelgaenger from Schubert’s Wintereisse.

Taylor sings/chants the words in Shout then solos over his monumental arrangement of Schubert’s piano accompaniment to the song line. There have been a number of pieces written in commentary upon, or in homage to Schubert’s great song cycle – for me the finest being Hans Zender’s re-imagining of the complete cycle.

But David Taylor’s re-interpretation goes further, paying equal attention to both poetry and music, and succeeds in transforming them into an utterance of his own.

This is an album to be treasured; I have not encountered anything quite like it. The effect for me is less that of listening to a set of recorded musical performances, more like walking through some sort of dream-exhibition, in which familiar objects (in this case well known Germanic music and Romantic poetry) are seen refracted, strangely lit, seen at unexpected angles.

These days folks aren’t buying CDs – what a pity.

All too often we listen to single tracks, often highly compressed and on inferior equipment, frequently in noisy environments. I am no exception – this is modern life. But please don’t do that to this album! This is a concept album, par excellence; it demands to be listened to in its entirety several times before selecting individual tracks – and in some time and place when you have the quiet to let yourself sink into the density and depth of sound. The sleeve booklet is highly informative; the artwork by Ronnie Taylor is a contributory factor to one’s comprehension of the album. And the fact that the album is dedicated to Raizel G. makes a statement about the motivation behind the entire project, for all of the material which inspired David Taylor to make this music is itself unified by one common theme: love, love lost, and love found. ◆ Visit David Taylor’s WEBSITE For more about John Kenny, click HERE 17

COPYRIGHT: JOHN KENNY, EDINBURGH, 8 FEBRUARY 2020

BY JOHN KENNY

Album by David Taylor with the Washington Trombone Ensemble, directed by Chris Branagan

BY THOMAS GIBBS

From the Collieries to the Stars A COMPOSER’S PERSPECTIVE

Why the trombone?

We owe Christian Lindberg a huge debt. It’s said all the time, but it really is difficult to overstate the significance of his role in shaping the repertoire.

Yet what he has worked tirelessly to show composers and audiences alike is something that we trombonists knew already: the trombone can do anything.

Having only ever known a post-Lindberg landscape, the thought of the trombone not having a seat at the table with the other ‘great’ instruments never even had a chance to cross my mind. When the time came for me to write a trombone concerto, the questions I had to ask myself were tough: what can only the trombone do? Why the trombone? What could other instruments never do?

The instrument’s long-standing association with divinity is completely unavoidable, and of course these ideas have been brought back to the fore recently by Michael Buchanan’s fantastic work. And whilst the history of this connection is very well documented, there’s certainly space to ask ourselves how it might have come to be and, in the process, to put ourselves back into the picture.

Initially, gut feeling fixates on the sound itself. I, and on this I know I’m not just speaking for myself, am still infinitely more affected by, for example, Ian Bousfield 18

playing a single note than I am by, for example, Maurizio Pollini playing one hundred.

It’s this sentiment that often brings me back to a moment in the symphonic repertory that for me demonstrates very plainly what the trombone alone can pull off. It is Sibelius, at the key change before letter N in the first movement of his FIFTH SYMPHONY , swinging the entire mass of the orchestra around a single trombone note. This is music that, legend has it, Per Nørgård proclaimed doesn’t merely portray nature, but that actually is nature.

Admittedly, talking about anything’s connection with God is a bit of a trump card, in that any person of faith will be able to find God in everything. Similarly, in whatever sense Sibelius’s music is nature, so is all music. Yet Nørgård’s alleged remark feels like a big deal, and suggesting that Sibelius’ music is more natural than other music somehow doesn’t feel completely insane.

The patterns Nørgård found sprouting in Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony led him in the late 1950s to discover and develop what became known as his ‘infinity series’, a phenomenon that quite incredibly is one of the earliest fractals found. Chaos Theory was still comparatively young and Benoit Mandelbrot, the figure most associated with fractal geometry, in fact didn’t coin the term ‘fractal’ until some 15 years later.

A COMPOSER'S PERSPECTIVE

Nørgård’s new contrapuntal algorithm enabled him to build music from a point of such conceptual clarity that it seems to exist more like a snowflake than a symphony.

But it’s worth noting that the fullest expression of this technique, his THIRD SYMPHONY , bears the inscription ‘soli Deo gloria’ [glory to God alone]…

So perhaps this is a key: simplicity, clarity, purity, concentration, and so on. All is stripped away and we’re left with fundamental orders of nature, in such a way that even the most complex material is heard as a small branch of a living totality, in a constant state of process and transformation.

It’s barely possible to conceive of an instrument more straightforward than the trombone. From its origins in the 1400s, its form remains essentially unchanged.

A non-trombonist might feel a dying urge to point to this undisguised fact as being a bad thing, but had the trombone have needed to change, it would have. But it hasn’t, and instead behaves like an immutable beacon lighting up various points in musical history.

Iannis Xenakis’s significant interactions with the trombone provide us with a valuable case study.

His succession of works featuring a solo trombone show quite how stripped-back the writing can become whilst still maintaining vitality. From the gymnastic mosaics of KEREN , through the fluid slabs of TROORKH , to the very barest of matter in ZY THOS , the trombone loses none of its energy but instead stands its ground and almost seems to become keener.

What I find most interesting about this selection of works is the process of telescopic refinement seemingly driven by the potential of the trombone itself. Keren is a paragon of Xenakis’ self-borrowing of materials, sourced quite explicitly from a number of his other works of the preceding decade. Yet it’s actually experiencing the potential of the instrument’s upper register in Keren that leads the composer directly to Troorkh, and there’s a sense that Zythos is a further refinement of aspects of Troorkh. It is the trombone itself that drives this distillation.

And as for my starting place, the sound: it’s obvious that we can’t separate the sound from the physical nature of the instrument, and the slide serves as a constant reminder of this fact. Telescopic refinement is, at the end of the day, the trombone’s forte.

If we think of an infinite space, it’s easy to get carried away thinking ‘outwards’. But the harmonic scope of the trombone exists as a full continuum which, naturally, extends ‘inwards’. We could squeeze the 88 keys of a piano into the space of a semitone and it still wouldn’t be able to access the world in the way the trombone can.

Through the slide, we can touch this continuum. We can feel the constant change and, most importantly, we can shape it. In perhaps the most unlikely of places, there’s a

moment that brings a lot of this together.

My enthusiasm for both contemporary music and the trombone as an instrument were sparked simultaneously when my dad’s cousin, then a violinist with the Hallé, made reference to a Swedish trombone soloist making motorbike noises accompanied by a full orchestra.

This is obviously hilarious and more than enough to get an 11-year-old kid very excited. But the beating heart of Jan Sandström’s MOTORBIKE CONCERTO really is the section painting a race through the mountains of Provence, when, following the introduction of a small Catholic procession, the soloist assumes a sort of medial role, balancing on an invisible threshold somewhere between the tyres and the Heavens. Here, clear as day, the trombone is a messenger, a sort of breathing membrane seemingly connecting all stuff and all time: in essence, an angel.

For me, that’s the trombone. No other instrument can quite manage that. Whether in the hands of HEINRIC H SC HÜTZ or SAMIR ODEH-TAMIMI , the instrument’s inescapable directness, and the beauty of such directness, will always inspire. It can offer us glimpses of the fundamental driving force of our lives from various interlocking angles, whether via Franciscan adorations with LISZT (or STOC KHAUSEN !), or the physical scaffolding of matter with Xenakis, or even raw class antagonism with NYMAN .

Everything is connected. And for me the trombone is a perfect tool for experiencing this in a tactile way: from hymn tunes in a colliery band room, to Stockhausen’s SIGNALS OF ARMAGEDDON , the fabric is always the same – a fabric of ceaseless flux that stretches, in Engels’ words, ‘from grains of sand to stars’.

I sometimes find that, owing to my work as a composer, there’s an expectation that I might have brand new things to bring to the trombone, as if to teach the instrument something it didn’t know. But my experience has been completely the other way around: it’s the trombone that still teaches me. ◆

Thomas is a composer from the Berkshire Downs

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INT ERVI EW

BY PETE THORNTON

Callum Au Talks …

Songs & Stories Trombone star Callum Au began his career as a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and currently still plays with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, Louis Dowdeswell, and the Echoes of Ellington, as well as his own ensembles such as the Callum Au Big Band and Quintet-à-tête, a quintet co-lead with trumpeter James Davison. The quintet features Misha Mullov Abbado on bass, Matt Skelton on drums and Sam Watts on piano and plays music influenced by the Clark Terry / Bob Brookmeyer Quintet from the 1960s. Nowadays, Callum primarily works as an arranger and orchestrator and has written music for many international artists including Jamie Cullum, Randy Brecker, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Burt Bacharach. I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Callum about his upcoming album, Songs & Stories.

Pete Thornton: What made you want to record this album?

Callum Au: I recorded my first album, Something’s Coming, the first year after I graduated. I am still more than happy with the results, but it was very much in the contemporary jazz orchestra idiom. My tastes have matured a bit since then, and I wanted to put out an album that (a) would have a slightly broader appeal than the contemporary jazz orchestra niche, (b) would more accurately reflects my current musical tastes, (c) would function as a showcase for my arranging as it stands today if I have the creative latitude to write whatever I want and (d) would show off some of the insanely talented bunch of musicians I’m fortunate enough to work with every day.

PT: Sometimes jazz albums are recorded as personal milestones rather than to trying to appeal and sell to a mass audience. Could you comment a bit more on this and who you are aiming to ‘appeal’ to?

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CA: I think it’s really important that audiences actually enjoy the music that you’re putting out. If you’re not playing to an audience of some kind you might as well not bother releasing anything! Jazz has always had something of a solipsistic streak, and this is a bit of a turn-off for me. I’d rather make music that people enjoy!

PT: Tell me a bit about your influences leading up to writing this album.

CA: Musically, my influences are writers like Nelson Riddle, Vince Mendoza, Robert Farnon, and Johnny Mandel. In other words, arrangers who tell a story with their charts and really paint the picture of the song.

More personally, it was seeing other great musicians of my own generation, people like Louis Dowdeswell, Tommy Laurence, Tom Walsh, James Davison, Jake Willson, and Matt Calvert, putting out really great largescale albums and projects that made me want to make something myself. I suppose the genesis of idea for this project came from my work with Matt Skelton’s band featuring the Tippett Quartet. Matt drums on most of the record, and the Tippetts all play in the string section.

I’m lucky to work with a huge range of really talented people who are all inspiring.

PT: The album is called Songs & Stories; what story are you telling with the album?

CA: My idea was to try to make each arrangement paint the picture of what the song is trying to say, in the same way that those wonderful writers have done.

PT: Tell me about the line-up and players on the album.

Did you write with these people in mind?

CA: Every musician on the album is a master of their chosen field and I’m lucky to have them. That said, a few stand out as people I had specifically in mind when I was writing: Continues on next page …

PHOTOGRAPHY: KENNY MCCRAC KEN

W CALLUM AU TALKS

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INTERVIEW

Louis Dowdeswell (lead trumpet): He has a ridiculous and unparalleled upper register and having him gave me the ability to include certain otherwise impossible passages! He also did all the mixing and oversaw the big band sessions and is generally incredibly talented and driven.

John Mills (1st violin, including all the solos): John is one of the best violinists I’ve ever heard, and the leader of the John Wilson Orchestra and for various big Hollywood blockbusters. I have been lucky to work with him closely for several years now and his warmth of both sound and character make him the perfect concertmaster for a project like this.

Andy Wood (1st trombone): Andy will be well known to readers of your magazine as one of the busiest trombonists in the country, equally at home in the jazz and classical worlds. Andy helped to introduce me to many of the classical brass section and I knew I had to take advantage of his talents by writing him a sweet cup mute solo that again pushes the limits of credibility on I Get Along Without You Very Well.

Nadim Teimoori (solo Tenor sax on I Concentrate On You and The Night We Called It A Day): Nadim might be the best saxophonist in the world today, no exaggeration. He was the star soloist back in my NYJO days and he’s been my absolute favourite ever since, due to his melodic approach and beautiful sound as much as his formidable knowledge of jazz harmony and form.

A real standout!

Rob Barron (piano): You’ll notice on listening to the album that there are several sections of just piano and voice. Thanks to Rob, I didn’t have to write any of this out. This is because Rob improvises a much better piano part on the fly than I could write in six months! He was very generous with his time in the run up to making the album as well and really helped Claire and I conceptualise some of the pieces.

Claire Martin (voice): Of course, the most important musician on the album is Claire Martin, the singer, who I’m saving for last for that reason. Claire needs no introduction. She one of the greatest jazz singers the UK has ever produced and her career reflects that.

Her approach to telling the story of a song is what made me approach her to work on this project and I was thrilled that she agreed to be a part of it.

PT: Was it a fairly smooth journey or have there been stumbling blocks along the way?

CA: I self-funded the recording side. It’s easier that way and I treat it as an investment in my career. I’m fortunate 22

PHOTOGRAPHY: KENNY MCCRAC KEN

enough to be working with Stunt Records on the PR side, and I’m very grateful for their help, as they know much more about that than I ever will.

Basically, everyone on the record is my first choice for that chair. Of course, there were a couple of substitutions on the big orchestral day, which is inevitable given the size of the forces, but I was lucky that people were keen to do it and prioritised it over other (almost certainly better paying) things!

PT: What’s next for you? What plans do you have for this album? For example, are you planning on trying to tour it?

CA: There was an album launch concert planned at Cadogan Hall with the full orchestra, and a slicker touring band sized project planned for Summer 2020.

Unfortunately, this is all on hold now due to the Coronavirus, but we hope to relaunch this side of things next year. The digital and physical release will still be in June, though.

Other than this album, I’m also collaborating with Louis Dowdeswell on a series of big band play-along books which should be out soon, and then another topsecret project with Louis’ big band, which will come out once we’re all allowed back into the studio to record it! ◆ ‘Songs & Stories’ will be released on the 19 June 2020.

You can keep up to date with all of Callum’s work at https://callumaumusic.com/

BY DR SARA CRIC K

Mental health

DR DERMOTT DAVISON

MUSICIANS' HEALTH

In these unprecedented times looking after physical and mental health is more important than ever.

The health component of this issue is focusing on mental health, predominantly performance anxiety and addiction. However, as we are seeing in clinical practice, mental health deterioration is common during these challenging times and individuals may struggle with exacerbations of pre-existing conditions or new symptoms of anxiety and depression.

It is important to know this is common and not unexpected.

The NHS’s ‘Every Mind Matters’ has information and resources online, but if you feel you require extra support, we would encourage you to access this or speak to your GP. For this issue, I have talked with Dr Dermott Davison, an expert in performance anxiety.

Dr Davison, many thanks for speaking to us, are you able to tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to work with performers?

Thank you, Sarah. My background is as an NHS GP in Northern Ireland where I worked for many years, particularly in the areas of palliative care and community-based cancer care. Eight years ago, I moved to England and began to work as a civilian GP with the Armed Forces and, through that, encountered military musicians for the first time. I began to see conditions that I hadn’t encountered before and wanted to learn more about the medical problems that musicians encounter, so I completed an MSc in Performing Arts Medicine – essentially occupational health for performers – from University College London.

In this issue we’re exploring mental health in performers and would like your thoughts on performance anxiety.

In what areas of your work do you encounter performance anxiety?

I think performance anxiety is a common human experience – if you think about it, we all experience performance anxiety at different times in our lives – for example, before an exam or job interview. It’s a common response to feeling potentially vulnerable or exposed.

I have had people consult for anxiety ahead of exams or interviews but also before public speaking events or having to give a presentation. Where I encounter it most now is in the world of the professional military musician.

What do performers mean when they describe performance anxiety?

Many people will have heard of the term ‘stage fright’.

It’s not used so much nowadays. The terms stage fright, performance anxiety and music performance anxiety have at times been used interchangeably but most now use the term ‘music performance anxiety’.

Various definitions have emerged over the years.

Professor Dianna Kenny defines it as ‘the experience of marked and persistent anxious apprehension related to musical performance’* – I think that captures it very well – basically getting unpleasantly and persistently nervous ahead of a performance. Now a degree of excitement and mental arousal is necessary ahead of any performance, but music performance anxiety can be so severe as to consume the musician, impairing his/ her performance and even overall quality of life. Less commonly, it can even cause a musician to freeze or not be able to pick up his/her instrument or perform.

Performers must find it all rather scary when it first starts, what are some of the signs and symptoms they report?

I think the first thing I would say is that music performance anxiety can occur at any stage of a musician’s career, even after many years in the industry.

It’s also found across every genre of music and can be influenced by other factors or events going on in the musician’s wider life.

Continues on next page …

23

MUSICIANS' HEALTH

With regard to symptoms, musicians may notice that they are feeling more anxious than usual ahead of a performance. They may experience physical symptoms such as dry mouth, feeling shaky, perhaps feeling short of breath or faint. Other physical symptoms include having sweaty hands or feeling ‘butterflies in the stomach’. They may notice that their performance is impaired e.g. a brass or woodwind player may hear a ‘wobble’ when holding a sustained note.

The physical symptoms often cause alarm and may lead to emotional and behavioural symptoms too.

Musicians may feel tense or nervous all the time, unable to relax or even tearful. Sleep may be disturbed and they may become more worried and pre-occupied with their performance. Often, they bottle it up and may feel down, guilty or become depressed. Behaviour can be affected too, with musicians becoming withdrawn or not engaging as much socially with others or avoiding playing or picking up their instrument. They may seek to lessen the anxiety with alcohol or other means.

Often things are compounded if musicians perceive the culture of their musical environment to be unsupportive, critical or negatively judgemental.

All of which sounds very negative but music performance anxiety can be helped and I’ve seen musicians return to performing at a level that satisfies them – often self being the harshest critic.

Are there any particular triggers you see in patients?

Some people are more prone to anxiety disorders – a combination of genetics, personality and life experiences will all shape our propensity to become anxious. On top of that then we may see triggers or times when music performance anxiety may present or become worse. These can include approaching exams, auditions, solos or other ‘big gigs’, particularly if the musician has not had not enough time or is feeling otherwise underprepared to be performance ready.

And again, there can be influences at play from other life events or situations which may have an individual more anxious already.

What longer term treatments do you suggest to your patients?

It really saddens me when the world of music becomes a source of anxiety and stress for musicians. There is help available!

First, I usually acknowledge that they have done well by speaking about it. It isn’t easy as often there can be a sense of secrecy or a reluctance to speak for fear or being perceived as weak, or of their colleagues hearing about it. This can mean that when a musician does seek help, things may have been difficult for quite some time.

If a musician thinks he or she may have music performance anxiety, it may be helpful to see a health 24

professional, such as a GP, in the first instance, to rule out other causes for anxiety or symptoms and if necessary, to seek help.

Generally, treatments for music performance anxiety will consist of some form of therapy which may include challenging thought patterns and the messages we tell ourselves. Some therapies may include simulating the situations that provoke anxiety, such as an audition or exam, in order to allow the musicians to recognise and learn how to safely manage their feelings and responses.

Some people find certain routines or rituals before a performance can help diminish anxiety. If possible, it can be helpful to find a supportive musical ‘buddy’ who can advise on technique or practising tips. And I would suggest considering informing a line manager or member of staff.

Practically, it is always worth looking at lifestyle too, encouraging healthy practices with a good diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep and not abusing alcohol or other substances. Having interests and hobbies outside of music, things that we enjoy, that bring us life, are worth pursuing too. If possible, find someone to talk to, a friend, someone to confide in, someone who can be trusted.

In the long term, the goal is to help musicians learn to recognize their own triggers or signs of becoming anxious and to develop coping strategies they can use to manage things early.

Can you advise further resources for readers who may be struggling?

To begin with, there are a number of apps and self-help resources to help with anxiety. Although they address anxiety in general and not music performance anxiety specifically, they can often help with useful exercises and material. I would advise that people look at a few of the apps to see if one or two feel to be right for them.

The NHS Choices Moodzone or NHS Apps Library (Mental Health) are good places to start and list apps that are trusted.

As I mentioned earlier, it may be helpful to consult your GP to discuss things and have any necessary investigations, referrals or follow-up.

For more specialized help, BAPAM (the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine), runs a number of clinics and maintains a directory of health professionals, across a number of disciplines, who may be able to help. Also, sometimes colleagues may know of practitioners who have been of help.

Finally, let’s remember that we are all just human beings and exercise a little kindness and compassion – to ourselves and to each other. With the right help and support, anxious musicians can become more comfortable performing and, more importantly, start to enjoy their music once again. ◆

* Kenny, D.T., Negative emotions in music making: Performance anxiety in Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications, P.S. Juslin, J. A., Editor. 2009, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

MUSICIANS' HEALTH

‘I don’t have a problem …

I just like a DRINK’ This short blog about alcohol addiction was written prior to the emergence of COVID-19, with live performance in mind, but there is concern the current situation may increase worrying patterns of alcohol use. If it triggers any warning bells, please consider contacting some of the support organisations listed at the end.

Do family, friends or colleagues comment on your drinking? Do you fail to have an ‘off switch’, or wake in the morning worrying about your behaviour, or spend the day riddled with feelings of guilt?

Alcohol is a psychoactive (mind-altering) drug that affects thinking and behaviour. A depressant, it slows down our heart-rate, breathing, thoughts and actions.1 Legal but lethal, its use is widely accepted within the performing world, allowing those who drink for the ‘wrong’ reasons to remain hidden within.

APPROPRIATE DRINKERS HAVE ALCOHOL AT THE PERIPHERY OF LIFE, NOT THE FOCUS Short but intense periods of work – with perfection often the impossible goal – place great pressure on performers. Some thrive on this feeling; for others it spirals out of control resulting in debilitating anxiety.

A common coping-mechanism is alcohol.

The reasons are multifaceted, however it is often used to mask/self-medicate social, performance-related or generalised anxiety. Use can escalate, with the artist then unable to work without it. Due to its chemical effect on the brain a tolerance develops, more is required to have the same effect.2 Channel 4 ran a series called Addicts’ Symphony where musicians were very open about alcoholism/addiction and performance anxiety; the interviews are candid and thought-provoking.

IMPLICATIONS OF ALCOHOL USE Health implications of alcohol use are well known, including; high blood pressure, liver disease, heart failure, and mental health problems. As a depressant – despite the initial lowering of inhibitions creating false confidence – long-term use can have serious moodaltering effects.

HELP AND ADVICE

CHANGING BEHAVIOUR This requires total honestly with oneself; recognising a potential problem and wanting change. The severity of drinking stipulates the help required. For many, self-reflection and simple lifestyle measures may enable a return to sensible alcohol use once cause and inner drives are addressed. However, for some, even after prolonged abstinence there is an immediate reinstatement of behaviour, indicating an inability to moderate drinking.3 It is important that if you are drinking heavily you must not stop suddenly without seeking medical advice. ◆ 25

BY TREVOR MIRES

Remote Possibilities EDUCATION

The self-isolation we are all going through presents so many challenges. For us musicians, it can feel like someone has pressed the ‘pause’ button on our creative and professional lives. However, it is clear that musicians around the world continue to be tenacious and positive in their search for ways they can present their art, hone their craft, and also share their knowledge and experience with others.

I have been teaching a small number of students for a few years now. I want to make sure that the fruits of their hard work continue to develop during this period of self-isolation. Since ‘physical’ one-to-one lessons are now out of the question, the obvious alternative to this is to meet up on the internet, via a video conference application of some kind.

I quickly found out that my students use a variety of different hardware devices (Macs, PC’s, iPhones, android, and such). Therefore, I needed to find a platform that was accessible to all of my students rather than attempt to do FaceTime lessons for three students, Skype for two of them, and so on. Actually, my first thought was to try using Skype, as this was the last video conferencing app I’d used previously. However, I couldn’t remember my password and the process of trying to reset it seemed to be taking longer than it does to watch the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy (and was a lot less enjoyable).

After posting a request for advice on Facebook (I also tried Friends Reunited, Myspace, and videosofcatsdoingthefunniestthings.com, but none of these seemed to be of any help), a number of people suggested using something called Zoom. I checked it out. The basic usage package is free. This package puts a 40-minute time limit on calls involving three or more people, however, as I am teaching one-to-one, this is no problem for me.

26

After reading several bits of advice on configuring the Zoom application for better video clarity, clearer microphone reception, and lower latency levels, I quickly concluded that the smartest move would be to just turn it on and do a trombone lesson. This plan of attack has consistently served me badly in the past, including highlights such as attempting to construct a child’s trampoline without the instructions (7 hours, one broken finger), and the assembly of a bunk bed using a YouTube instructional video for a completely different bunk bed (13 hours … the result looking like something out of one of Picasso’s nightmares).

On this occasion, I was lucky.

There are a number of ways to set up a ‘meeting’ on the app. The way I do it is to click on ‘host a meeting’, and then ‘invite’. From here, I select the option to send an invite via email to my students. I do this around 15 minutes before each lesson.

On the first occasion, everything seemed to work great, given the circumstances. I could hear my student crystal clear, and the student could hear me (unfortunately for them). Latency (the level of delay to an audio signal being delivered to the intended listener) was pretty low and the lesson was able to flow without too many hiccups.

EDUCATION

The second lesson presented a few challenges.

Teacher and student seemed to be unable to get the video working, and also couldn’t hear each other properly. Apart from that, everything worked amazingly! After both of us restarted, we were able to do the lesson. From then on, I make sure that ‘video on’ is always selected …

I have so far opted to use the audio input from my computer’s built-in microphone, rather than use one of my studio microphones. This has generally worked fine.

I have selected the output audio to go through my studio speakers as they have good quality sound (and they are loud).

Some students have experimented with using headphones. This seems to work fine, although there have been problems when using Bluetooth headphones: they seem to add to the levels of latency. They can also add ‘compression’ to the student’s audio when they play the trombone, especially if the headphones have a ‘noise cancelling’ facility, something my neighbours would love to install around my whole house.

Compression, in an audio sense, is basically a process where either a quiet audio signal is amplified to make it louder, or a loud signal is reduced. In the context of a lesson, we would find that when students use noise cancelling headphones, I could hear them talking clearly, but once they play trombone this loud signal would suddenly cut to barely audible after a few seconds.

Audio latency also seems to be affected by the quality of the student and teacher’s Wi-Fi connection. On one occasion, the Wi-Fi connection for the student was so bad that we had to continue the lesson without any video feed. We still managed to have a productive lesson, despite this.

The slight latency, and not being physically in the room with a student, mean that the lessons flow in a different way. I try to play in the lessons as much as possible – both on my own, and also with the student. This can range from giving examples, accompanying the students with a bassline whilst the student blows over some chord changes, trading solos, duets, and so on.

This actually works very well, and in some ways can be more valuable. Student and teacher are forced to be a little more patient and listen to each other before playing back to them. A more considered approach manifests.

We often use a metronome in our regular lessons and I am keen to continue this. If both parties have their own metronome, we find they can use this when playing.

Latency means that it doesn’t work for the teacher to use his metronome for the student to play along with.

I have found that we are listening to records a lot more.

I have a record player in my studio, and during this isolation time I have taken the opportunity for revisit my collection. There’s Wayne Henderson, Bill Harris, Frank Rosolino, Bob Brookmeyer, Craig Harris, J.J. Johnson, Benny Green, Joseph Bowie, Curtis Fuller, Kai Winding, George Bohanon, Conrad Herwig, Ryan Porter, whatever I dig out of the shelves. I save my Cast of EastEnders Sings Pub Singalong Classics for my own personal evening listening.

One feature that we have found particularly useful has been the ‘share screen’ function. This enables users to share the outlook of their respective desktop screen with the student. We have used this to study example scores, transcriptions, exercises that I write out, and also watching videos of musical performances together.

At time of writing, I have been using Zoom to teach for about three weeks, and it has enabled us to continue the hard work that my students have been putting in so far.

I would therefore recommend the Zoom application to anyone wanting to teach online during this time. ◆ Trevor is a leading performer and arranger. He teaches jazz trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Trinity Laban.

Because of latency, I quickly realised that playing together with the student, in real time, was not possible.

We also quickly realised that we were accidentally interrupting each other when talking. Therefore, we find that we have to listen to each other play in turn.

27

BY JEREMY PRICE

JAZZ

BY JEREMY DONNA LEE For this issue I’m moving away from transcribed improvisations and moving into the realm of technical studies.

When trombonists think of ‘studies’ we probably first think of Lafosse, Kopprasch, Arban, and the like. Some Bach cello suites may also be treated as studies or ‘études’. Jazz musicians use the same materials as classical and brass band musicians based on the theory that good technique is good technique regardless of genre, but there are additional methods to add to the catalogue if you are a jazz trombonist.

Using Charlie Parker heads as studies is a widespread practice amongst jazz musicians of all instruments, not just saxophonists. The tune Donna Lee has become a benchmark of dexterity, swing phrasing, sound, projection and articulation for all jazz musicians and looks like it’s here to stay as a rite of passage.

For, saxophone and trumpet, the original instruments it was written for in 1947, it remains a tough challenge.

For trombone it’s an absolute beast!

That said, a YOUTUBE search of ‘Donna Lee trombone’ pulls up some stunning renditions, but it does remain an extraordinary feat to get it up to the originally recorded tempo of crotchet=224. Versions vary in accuracy, and often rely on covering fire from the recording turned up high or a second front line instrument obscuring the ghosted notes from the trombonist. And some feel like you are watching ‘extreme sport’ rather than music, but we can only applaud the tenacity to bag this rarely achieved summit.

As with most studies, the point is to set a personal best and use them as a way to incrementally improve.

I’ve been playing Donna Lee for years (well trying to!) and it’s pretty useful to show me where I am in my technique and whether I’ve let things slip. (Usually have!) I use the Lafosse famous 12 Toute La Technique studies in the same way. I can recall to what standard I could play the studies when really in shape, and strive to get back up there or maybe (shock horror) actually get better.

28

Donna Lee is a be-bop head composed on the chord changes of an older standard known as Indiana.

Although credited as composed by Charlie Parker, it was in fact written by Miles Davis. But it’s on a Charlie Parker Quintet album with Miles as a side musician so deserves to be in the great Parker lexicon. Parker’s heads tend to be more syncopated, with this one being more of a ‘four to the floor’ old fashioned swing era feel.

This aspect makes it harder to find the lift needed to make it swing as there are so many chord tones on the beat. Other Parker heads I could recommend that are actually far more manageable than Donna Lee on trombone are Yardbird Suite, Au Privave and Anthrapology. You can have fun finding your own in the great tome of received wisdom that is the Parker Omnibook. By using these as studies, you are of course simultaneously absorbing great melodic lines and jazz vocabulary that will come out in your solos as a result of committing them to memory.

In our edition here, immaculately prepared by ROB EGERTON , you’ll see I’ve added some recommended slide positions. The object is to try and preserve the swing phrasing and aid dexterity by keeping the slide moving in the same direction for the duration of the phrases.

A trick you will have to master before getting started is the ability to make a turn by doing a lip break.

Bar 1 and bar 3 are initial examples, where you tongue the first note and fourth only, and make the impression of an articulation by crossing over to the

JAZZ BY JEREMY

next harmonic series. If you have super-fast tonguing, then you may be able to articulate each note in the turn at speed but this will sound too heavy for the decorative swing ornament that it is. In bar 3 I’ve recommended 7th position for the Ab but you only really need to move up to the next harmonic in the series to get the effect.

Probably the hardest phrase to make swing is bars 13 and 14.

I’m suggesting the Bb in 5th then back in st 1 so that you can play other notes of the phrase en route as it were. Then bars 15, 16, resolving on 17 fit perfectly under the slide in normal positions. Bliss!

Try 150 bpm as your first benchmark tempo meaning practice with a metronome on 2 and 4 at 75 bpm.

Or if, like many us in jazz, you have found the brilliant Drum Genius app (for APPLE or ANDROID ), you can put on Swing med.

Up 08 (c) Jack DeJohnette which is 173 bpm. Or if you’re brave enough to try the original tempo use Swing med. Up 13 Mel Lewis at 226 bpm.

A link to the original is HERE while I can also recommend a Slide Hampton version HERE .

This for me is one of the best versions because Slide not only manages the head admirably at this furious tempo but afterwards plays such a musical solo. Music first! Jazz is not an extreme sport!

To see some Brits doing an amazing job, check out the Lawrence Cottle Big Band here, which includes a great trombone solo from NEIL SIDWELL .

So I hope you have enjoyed this latest offering of Jazz by Jeremy, which I’ve tried to make entirely suitable for lockdown. Perhaps I have initiated a spate of uploads to YouTube of BTS members wrestling with Donna Lee and their new home studio. Let me know if you put one out there. ◆ 29 ILLUSTRATION: ISTOC K

LINK: ROB EGERTON JAZZ TRANSCRIPTIONS

Trombone

Donna Lee Miles Davis

q = 230

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25

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28

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LINK: ROB EGERTON JAZZ TRANSCRIPTIONS

Bb Treble Clef

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25

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29

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31

From the Stage to the Pit …

This feature was going to be somewhat redundant for at least this issue of The Trombonist … and perhaps the next, due to COVID19. Due to the danger presented with mass-gatherings such as concerts, and the subsequent Nation-wide lock down not a single orchestra or theatre company is left performing in their usual fashion. While we are all not only incredibly sad to not be able to perform to the public, it’s also an incredibly worrying time for our industry (and of course many others) which naturally relies heavily on ticket sales for income. However, what can we do instead? Well as I’m sure you’ve noticed, many people are turning to the internet and social media to bring music to people and many in the classical music industry are doing the same. This has been in the form of a multitude of solo performances and multi-tracked videos which have really been proving the worth of social media! However, if you, like us, need a bit more than that then we thought we’d compile a small list of just a few of the orchestras and companies that are now streaming past-performances.

SYMPHONIC HIGHLIGHTS BY JOSH CIRTINA

THE ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is streaming past performances weekly which you can can view HERE. BERLIN PHILHARMONIC’S DIGITAL CONCERT HALL

The BERLIN PHILHARMONIC’S DIGITAL CONCERT HALL is an online platform with a vast number of past performances spanning over 50 years. Throughout April they were granting free access for 1-month, even if that deal has ended, it’s well worth subscribing to.

THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The London Symphony Orchestra is live-streaming past performances, see the What’s On page in this issue for more information.

There wasn’t room to list them all here, but orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia and many others are all releasing past performances from time to time along with some great ‘at home’ content from their musicians, follow their pages on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube or check out their websites for details.

OPERA PIC KS BY BEC KY SMITH

THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

The Royal Opera House has introduced the #OURHOUSETOYOURHOUSE tag for all its online content which can be watched on YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK .

32

BY JOSH CIRTINA AND BEC KY SMITH

OPERA NORTH

Opera North are currently showing their epic stage performance of The Ring Cycle, yes the whole thing!

If you have a few hours to spare (15 to be precise) it’s definitely worth a watch. See the What’s On page for more information.

THE MET OPERA

The Met Opera in New York are doing nightly screenings of lots of favourites: WWW.METOPERA .ORG OPERA VISION

But perhaps for me, the most exciting discovery is the website Opera Vision: WWW.OPERAVISION.EU This EU funded project was set up to bring opera to everybody by watching live streams or performances on demand. Not only is there a huge library of performances from over 25 opera companies, but additional interviews, backstage tours, and introductions to opera where you can learn about the art form with stories and articles. There are resources for young audiences and for artistic career development.

The website is in English, French, and German, thoughtfully curated, and free for everyone to browse and explore. It really is an opera-lover’s online heaven!

And if you are new to opera, a brilliant place to start out.

I highly recommend this site, and if I have one thing to be thankful for during this lockdown, it’s the discovery of this website. Enjoy!

To close, it’s worth mentioning that many of the orchestras and theatres have begun asking for donations to help support the companies while performances can’t happen (for good reason). If you are in the position to do so, please donate to your chosen orchestra or theatre company as many of them are already on their knees. Remember the classical music industry, as a whole, encompasses a colossal range of areas of music in our lives; from on stage performances of great music to the film music industry, education projects in the community, radio, TV … the list goes on.

Thanks for your support, and happy watching & listening! ◆

JOSH IS PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE IN THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORC HESTRA BEC KY IS PRINCIPAL TROMBONE AT THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA

GORDON CAMPBELL’S LOCKDOWN LISTENING

IMPOSSIBLE

From THE TROMBONES INC. featuring Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Cleveland, and Frank Rosolino STARDUST

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra

SOUNDWINGS INC., 1986

The inimitable Gordon Campbell, iconic jazz trombonist and Honorary Patron of the BTS, has compiled this playlist to get you through.

AT SUNDOWN

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra TROMBONOLOGY

NIGHT TRAIN

Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra SULTRY SERENADE

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra SHENANDOAH

Bill Watrous, from the album SOMEPL ACE

ELSE

POLL WINNERS RECORDS, 2012

Tommy Dorsey

and SALT PEANUTS Supersax, from the album SALT PEANUTS JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

From the album TUTTI’S

TRUMPETS AND TROMBONES

To see Gordon’s full playlist, click here: GORDON CAMPBELL’S BTS PLAYLIST

For further lockdown listening, check out of tunes featuring great jazz trombonist of old, Tricky Sam Nanton.

THIS PLAYLIST

Tommy Dorsey, from an advert in a 1942 issue of Billboard Magazine

CONFIRMATION , LOVER MAN ,

33

What’s

on

T HE CONCERT HALLS ARE CLOSED. THE GIGS ARE CANCELLED AND THE TROMBONISTS ARE BANISHED TO THEIR HOMES.

BTS DATES BTS DAY: DURHAM – CANCELLED It is with regret that, due to the current circumstances surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic, the BTS Day planned for Sunday, 17 May 2020 has been cancelled.

BTS ANNUAL BURSARY Applications open 1 June and close 1 August BTS INSTRUMENT LOAN SCHEME Applications open 1 July and close 31 July FINALS OF THE IAN BOUSFIELD TENOR TROMBONE COMPETITION 2020 Sunday 18 October, 2020 Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff Entries must be received by Monday, 3 August 2020 FINALS OF THE BOB HUGHES BASS TROMBONE COMPETITION 2020 Sunday 15 November, 2020 As part of the BTS Day at Oundle School Entries must be received by Monday, 7 September 2020

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In response to the Covid-19 crisis, many of musics' biggest and most famous organisations are putting out world-class performances for free. Here we have picked a selection of content that represents world class Trombone playing of all kinds …

LSO ALWAYS PLAYING The ‘LSO Always Playing’ initiative sees a concert from their archives released every Sunday and Thursday.

Concerts are being announced at short notice. See HERE for more details.

RPO AT HOME The RPO Trombones have presented a beautiful arrangement of ELGAR’S NIMROD as part of the RPO at home series. You can find it at the following link and check the RPO WEBSITE for further content.

OPERA NORTH Opera North’s semi-staged Ring Cycle of 2016 is available on their WEBSITE .

SEPTURA The Septura Brass septet have lots of fantastic footage on their WEBSITE , FACEBOOK page and YOUTUBE , including a lovely performance of a Bordogni Vocalise

by Matt Gee and Matt Knight.

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LONDON TROMBONISTS IN LOCKDOWN Superlative Trombonist and Arranger Callum Au performs his arrangement of Little Girl Blue alongside many well-known faces from the UK scene.

How many players can you name?

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER The Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra has a fantastic FACEBOOK page and YOUTUBE Channel.

We particularly enjoyed this spectacular solo from Eliot Mason – For the unbelievable musicianship, and for Wynton Marsalis’ facial expressions in the background!

Elliot Mason SOLO from The Business of America is Business.

CAROL JARVIS Carol has a beautiful series of Ballads with strings available to watch, see I Think of You HERE . Others are available on Carol’s YOUTUBE channel.

BRASS BANDS THE CORY BAND THE CORY BAND have a fantastic YOUTUBE channel containing remotely recorded performances that include the Band itself, and other musicians from the wider Banding community.

BLACK DYKE BAND Black Dyke Band are running a series called ‘Black Dyke goes Solo’ featuring members of the band. Brett Baker features in Episode 2. See the Black Dyke Band FACEBOOK page for more information.

FODENS BAND Fodens Band are running a ‘Stay at home Banding’ series featuring the full band and members of their local Banding community. See the Fodens Band FACEBOOK page for the latest performances.

MUSIC COLLEGES NEW RELEASES TOM GREEN SEPTET Tipping point by the Tom Green Septet was released on April the 17th. Their tour has been cancelled but the album can be purchased HERE .

The Observer writes ‘A kaleidoscope of harmony that is not only phenomenally skilful, but absorbing and endlessly entertaining’.

CALLUM AU Callum Au’s new ALBUM Songs & Stories will be released on 19th June 2020. See our interview with Callum on page 20 in this issue for more information.

MASTERCLASSES If you find yourself struggling for motivation now is a good time to explore some of the masterclasses and teaching resources that are available online.

Ian Bousefield’s YOUTUBE channel has videos dealing with all aspects of Trombone technique and performance.

BTS President, Mattew Gee has produced a series of 50 Practice Tips that he is releasing through his FACEBOOK page.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC Students from the Royal Academy of Music are participating in an initiative called #RAMPlaysOn. #RAMPlaysON videos are up on FACEBOOK , INSTAGRAM and T WITTER . Check out the WEBSITE to find the latest performances in this series.

THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC The Royal College of Music has launched a free online Concert Series. Watch the RCM Symphony Orchestra perform some of the great pieces of the Symphonic repertoire conducted by Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy and others. New performances released weekly, see the WEBSITE for more details.

THE ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC The Royal Northern College of Music is broadcasting performances and other content across their social media channels using #keepmusicplaying. See their WEBSITE for more details.

For more dates and information, please check our WEBSITE

Do you know of an event that should feature in our next publication?

LET US KNOW

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Lockdown Crossword CLUES DOWN

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS CROSSWORD Set by Anklepoise 1

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SURPRISINGLY, IT'S NEVER PUT BAC K IN THE MARKET (8)

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OFFICER WITH IT FINISHING OFF VERY DECISIVE WIN? (8)

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RIP UP ROOT TO MAKE FRAGRANT PETALS (3–6)

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MONEY WELL SPENT ON HEARING AIDS? (5,10)

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SPIN IT WITH A KEYBOARD PL AYER (7)

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ON ITS OWN IT'S PART OF THE PUZZLE (3–5)

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11. DEAFENING BOSS NOT RIGHT ABOUT UNIVERSIT Y (8) 12. END OF HOME SURROUNDED BY COD, PERHAPS (6) 24

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WINTER 2019 CROSSWORD COMPETITION. ANSWERS FOR THE WINTER 2019 CROSSWORD COMPETITION. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PRINTABLE VERSION OF THE ANSWERS.

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THE LAST NOTE

The Horniman Museum Brass Instrument Collection

BY DANIEL DE SOUZA

Nestled on the brow of a hill heading out of Forest Hill towards Dulwich, in deepest South-East London, the Horniman Museum makes for an impressive sight, a façade of Victorian buildings complete with a clocktower, set in beautiful parkland and gardens. The current buildings opened in 1901 and were commissioned by the tea merchant, Frederick John Horniman, to house his ever-expanding collection of scientific, anthropological and cultural items; he later gifted the museum and its contents to the London County Council. It now attracts a steady stream of visitors to its aquarium, anthropological and world cultures galleries, excellent tea room, gardens, nature walks, farmers markets, overstuffed Walrus, and of course the musical-instrument galleries.

A Designated Outstanding Collection, there are some 9,500 musical instruments and objects covering cultures all over the world and across all time periods, making it one of the most comprehensive in the country. Some of these were part of Frederick Horniman’s original collection, but for the trombonist the interesting instruments are part of two other collections donated to the museum in later years.

In 1947 the composer and violinist, Adam Carse, donated his collection of 350 wind and brass instruments to the museum in memory of his son Edward, who had died in action in 1945. Carse is best known for his educational works for piano and violin, many of which are still listed in the various exam syllabuses, but he also wrote five symphonies as well as various chamber, orchestral and brass band works.

His collection seems to have begun in 1895, when he acquired ‘my first instrument, an old ivory flute by Cahusac, given to me by my barber at Blackheath in exchange for an old bicycle.’1 Quite an inauspicious beginning for what is an extraordinary collection of instruments. In the Journal of the Galpin Society, Carse desribed some highlights of his collection in a rather idiosyncratic way, asking his readers to allow him to ‘let fancy take the lead, to let loose the imagination, and to build up a picture that is pure phantasy, yet is one which will not be with out its historical significance’2. He goes on to describe a series of imagined historical musicians, who enter the collection and choose 1) CARSE, ADAM, “THE ‘ADAM CARSE’ COLLECTION OF WIND INSTRUMENTS.” THE GALPIN SOCIET Y JOURNAL, VOL. 2, MARC H 1949, P. 3 HTTPS://WWW.JSTOR.ORG/STABLE/841390 2) IBID, P. 3

their instrument. Maybe some of you will recognise this description!

A bearded and homely-looking man … respectable and worthy, but poor in this world’s goods … picks out the old alto trombone which is inscribed Macht Michael Nagel, Nurnberg, 1663 … he was a Stadtpfiefer or civic musician … he did his job and earned just a bare living, but left no name behind him; an unimportant musician with no recorded career.3 The instrument mentioned is still in the collection (HERE ), and whilst it is now known to be a composite of various 17th century components, we can see how it obviously caught the imagination of the collector!

The other part of the current collection of interest is the former Boosey and Hawkes collection; this features a treasure trove of 19th and 20th century brass instruments, from all companies owned or formerly owned by that great bastion of British brass, Boosey, Hawkes, Boosey and Hawkes, as well as Distin. There’s a wealth of low brass instruments here, from a complete 1923 Hawkes and Sons SOPRANO TROMBONE outfit, various saxhorns, euphoniums trombones, G/D Bass trombones, to the component parts of an Eb tuba in various states of manufacture. One of the more unusual instruments is a c.1885 Boosey and Co. CONTRABASS TROMBONE , with a double slide, and a circular bell section that loops around the players left arm. This particular instrument was also probably the inspiration for a ONE-HANDED TROMBONE (demonstrated in THIS photo) with double slide and a stand designed and made by Boosey and Hawkes in the mid 20th century.

The Horniman Museum and its musical instrument gallery are well worth a visit, with lovely grounds, and plenty to do and see aside from old trombones! Whilst they may be off limits at the moment due to the social distancing measures in place, the museum’s informative website is still available and well worth a browse. You can also see the musical instrument collection in full on the MINIMuk WEBSITE . ◆ Daniel is a professional freelance horn player and brass instrument historian.

For more information about the Horniman Museum & Gardens,visit their WEBSITE .

3) IBID, P. 4

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