Music Review: All Glorious by New York Staff Band
Music Review: All Glorious by New York Staff Band
24 January 2017
The music of Dorothy Gates is featured on the brass band album All Glorious, a fitting summation of her work as the New York Staff Band’s composer in residence from 2002- 2015.
The recording also features trombone soloists Brett Baker and Paul Woodward, both of the Black Dyke Band in the United Kingdom. Both the New York Staff Band and the soloists are in fine form over 14 entertaining, contrasting, challenging and inspirational works of music.
The strength of this album is in the music composed by Gates. The contrast of styles is refreshing to listen to, as is the “American” style of composition for brass bands. This revolves around full use of tone colours within the band, a concerted effort of not doubling instrumentation for the sake of it, and the influence of the “brighter” sounds within the band (cornets and trombones).
This is evident from the opening music of the CD, with the title track All Glorious energetically declaring the words of “O Worship the King”, using the tune of Hanover. Dambusters also utilises this sound well, with a trombone solo over the top of the bright, classic brass band march. Another energetic highlight is War Cry, an arrangement that sounds as if inspired straight from a film score mix of The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.
There are also good examples of writing for slow melodies, best displayed in Breathe, a beautiful meditation around the worship song of the same name by Darlene Zschech. The sensitive playing of the New York Staff Band leads us to the text of the song: “This is air I breath, Your holy presence, Living in me ... I’m lost without You.” This is cleverly intertwined with the tune of Carlisle, associated with the hymn Breathe on Me Breath of God. Such is the depth of this devotional music, it is hardly noticeable the song runs for almost seven minutes, not common in meditational brass music.
In His Provision we are treated to a synergy of three key ingredients to a memorable musical moment, fantastic writing, classy solo playing, and tasteful accompaniment. Gates treats this song by Gowans and Bosanko in a gentle Latin style, and it is beautifully interpreted and performed by Baker. The band accompaniment is sensitive, and the harmony between composer, soloist and band is evident. The interpretation of performance of Latin music is again mastered in the band vocal of David Danced, although my one criticism of this CD is that the brass band version of this track (so expertly arranged by Gates) was not included.
On the whole, All Glorious is one of the finer Salvation Army brass band albums to be produced in the recent past. While the musicianship is of a high quality, the real hero is in the music written and the contrast of styles on display.
All Glorious can be purchased from Salvationist Supplies: thetrade.salvos.org.au or phone (02) 9466 3257.
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