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Title Essential Brass Bands Artist Various Artists Format: Three CD Box Set Cat. No.: SOHOCD051 Barcode: 698458155122 Playing Time: over 3hrs 30mins

  One of the most thrilling sounds in music is that of a brass band in full flight. They are a living tradition that continues to be handed down today, and on these 3CDs you will find some of the best.

Track List CD1: Brass Favourites Tracks 1 – 9: The Rolls Royce Coventry Brass Band Tracks 10 – 20: Sellers Engineering Brass Band 1 Fanfare & Flourishes 2 Swing Low Sweet Chariot 3 Solitaire 4 The Magic Flute 5 Trumpets Wild 6 Star Lake 7 Share My Yoke 8 Twelfth Street Rag 9 Coronation March 10 March: Chapel Hill 11 Hora Stacato 12 Overture: Raymond 13 Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square 14 Black & White Rag 15 The Pines Of The Appian Way 16 Dem Bones 17 Reflections In Nature 18 Under The Double Eagle 19 Du Bist Die Ruh (You Are My Life) 20 Symph.No. 2 - The Little Russian CD2: Brass Goes Military Track 1: Concert Band & Chorus Of The R.A.A.F. Tracks 2 – 16: Regency Noble Footwear Band Tracks 17 – 20: Royal Festival Military Brass Band 1 Colonel Bogey 2 There's Something About A Soldier 3 Anchors Aweigh 4 A Bridge Too Far 5 The Longest Day 6 Reach For The Sky 7 The Amethyst March 8 633 Squadron 9 Tribute To Bravery 10 Lilliburlero 11 Heart Of Oak (Medley)...Rule Brittania 12 The Dambusters March 13 Soldier To The Queen 14 Men O' Wales...Men Of Harlech 15 Sarie Marais 16 The Pride O' Them 'A'...We're No Awa To Bide Awa 17 Coronation Bells 18 The Stars & Stripes 19 Royal Birthday 20 Radetsky March CD3: Brass Plays The Hits Tracks 1 – 5: Sellers Engineering Brass Band Track 6 - 10: The Rolls Royce Coventry Brass Band Track 12 - 20: South Notts Brass Band 1 Someone To Watch Over Me 2 Somewhere Over The Rainbow 3 Oklahoma! 4 Love On The Rocks 5 Send In The Clowns 6 Pop Looks Bach 7 We've Only Just Begun 8 Love Changes Everything 9 With One Look 10 Ticket To Ride 11 Get Back 12 Always On My Mind 13 Shepherd's Song 14 MacArthur Park 15 Hello 16 You Can Call Me Al 17 Don't Leave Me This Way 18 You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling 19 All I Ask Of You 20 Pie Jesu

 

Sleevenotes
Essential Brass Bands The sound of a brass band in full flight is possibly one of music’s most evocative. It’s also one that now seems as nostalgic as a sepia-tinted photograph – or, at least, the Hovis advert they used to run on the television with its cobbled streets and old-fashioned bicycles. The golden age of brass is surely a thing of the past…or is it? Things aren’t actually quite as bleak, dark or satanic as that; a cursory search of the Internet is enough to reveal a brass band scene thriving at grass-roots level that is dedicated to saving this unique musical experience for future generations. The phenomenon is a truly international one, with America and Australia unlikely hotbeds of interest; indeed, the Concert Band of the Royal Australian Air Force makes a welcome appearance here. Our compilation includes offerings from bands old and new, past and present. As is clear from the names, many were associated with their members’ places of work and some inevitably perished as the traditional industries – footwear, mining, millworking, etc – contracted or disappeared entirely. But others continue to this day, maintaining a proud musical tradition in the current millennium. Our first volume includes selections from a band with a famous name whose six-decade-plus history is rather more convoluted than the average ‘works band’. The Rolls-Royce Coventry Band was formed in the Forties as an Air Training Corps band, becoming the Coventry School of Music Brass Band after the war and, in 1957, the Coventry Festival Band. In 1982 the room in which the band rehearsed was condemned as unsafe and obscurity beckoned. Happily, its future was assured when local car makers Rolls-Royce plc provided new rehearsal facilities. In return, the band was renamed the Rolls-Royce (Coventry) Band, spreading its benefactor’s already well-known name still wider. In 2002 Jaguar Cars became the band’s new sponsor, and it is as the Jaguar Band that it plays on today. . Our second volume, Brass Goes Military, concentrates on the stirring parade-ground themes for which brass is ideally suited thanks to the portability of instruments which can be played on the march. The crossover to the movie world is apparent here, and signature tunes like ‘The Longest Day’, ‘Reach For The Sky’ and ‘633 Squadron’ will stir the blood of anyone who recalls thrilling to those Fifties and Sixties tales of derring-do, some filmed before the advent of colour. The Regency Noble Footwear Band don their highly polished hobnail boots to do these justice. There are now regular festivals of military brass, the first having taken place in St. Petersburg in 1996, and these are ideal places to hear the music in which these bands specialise. But that’s not the only location: the ‘Dam Busters March’ by Eric Coates can still be heard in football grounds, particularly during England matches. And even though the practice of bands being used for half-time and pre-match entertainment is relatively rare these days, perhaps as much due to wear and tear on the playing surface as changing fashions, supporters of teams like Sheffield Wednesday have taken to playing impromptu recitals from the terraces – surely evidence that grass-roots interest remains high. The ‘Stars And Stripes’, played here by the Royal Festival Military Brass Band, recognises the United States’ rich brass heritage. Many notable events in American history occurred within earshot of a military musical unit. The signing of the Declaration of Independence was accompanied by fifes and drums, while musicians of both sides played a major part in the Civil War. Coming up to date, bands such as the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the 1st Infantry Division have received decorations for their performance in combat, while military bands continue to travel the world as public relations representatives of the US armed forces. The South Notts Brass Band, which supplies a large proportion of our third disc, is very much still around, as was proved in 2003 by the best-selling ‘Brass Band Favourites’ CD. This saw the band tackle a number of pop and soul classics, of which we present ten of the best here. Particularly impressive are ‘All I Ask of You’, from the classic Lloyd Webber stage musical Phantom Of The Opera, which brings out all the evocative qualities of the instrumentation, and the Phil Spector / Righteous Brothers’ classic ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’. The selections on Brass Plays The Hits range from relatively recent chart items from the pens of Paul Simon (‘You Can Call Me Al’), Lionel Richie (‘Hello’) and Lennon/McCartney (‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘Get Back’) to gems from an earlier period. Movie-watchers know that ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ was the highlight of The Wizard Of Oz, first screened in 1939 and still a celluloid classic today. Would you guess, though, that ‘Send In The Clowns’, though very much a Broadway standard, was written by Stephen Sondheim as recently as 1973? Another great show tune, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s‘ Oklahoma!’, lifted wartime spirits when it opened in New York in 1943, while in contrasting mood, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’, ostensibly a love song written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1926, has achieved a religious significance the talented brothers may never have intended. This is thanks to lines like ’Where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?’ not to mention the title’s use by various compassionate organisations. Either way, its contemplative nature is ideally suited to brass-band instrumentation. The major factor that has given brass-band music longevity is its roots in working-class communities. It’s a tradition that’s been handed down, along with treasured instruments, from father to son through the ages and thus will endure. More than that, there’s been a recent surge of interest in central Europe, where musicians from Romania and Hungary have added a Balkan brass dimension to what we now term ‘world music’. So whether forming part of a defiant second line in hurricane-torn New Orleans, emanating from behind the former Iron Curtain or proclaiming the continuing tradition in Britain, brass-band music will continue to be heard. Enjoy these 60 hand-picked tracks of brassy brilliance! Michael Heatley