Results
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£30.00The St Louis Blues - Sandy Coffin, W C Handy
Two-Step MarchCommissioned by John Wallace, this arrangement of The St Louis Blues has been crafted by Sandy Coffin through close listening of the available recordings of the Harlem Hellfighters Band. Sandy had been heavily involved with the Historic Brass Society symposium 2017 held in New York and assisted John with his research on this fascinating band and the style of music it generated.Eye-witness accounts refer to the 369th band 'dancing' rather than 'marching'. Above all, in modern performance, finding a 'dancing beat' is crucial to a successful performance of this Ragtime march in order to do justice to the great pioneering work of James Reese Europe.Note the flutter-tonguing and use of muting, the counter-melody in soprano cornet, and the wilder and yet wilder nature of each repetition of the Chorus.Look and Listen:Background to the Harlem HellfightersThe US Army 369th Regiment, made up largely of African-Americans from New York, became known as the Harlem Hellfighters because of the heroic reputation which accrued to them during the actions they engaged in during the First World War in Europe.James Reese Europe was one of the most active African-American composer/musical directors in the pre-war American music scene. The legendary Harlem Hellfighters Band, which he assembled in 1917 from African-American and Puerto Rican musicians, came at an important transitional point in musical history. A new form of music called jazz was emerging from Ragtime and the performing style of Europe's band was immersed in the flow of this new direction.Europe's Harlem Hellfighters influenced and inspired everyone who heard them, including the welcoming crowd when they disembarked in France, bowled over by their swinging rendition of La Marseillaise. Reese Europe became a war hero, commanding a machine-gun unit as well as the band.On return from War in 1919 the band led a ticker-tape parade along Fifth Avenue in New York and soon made about 30 shellac recordings. These recordings display some of the fingerprints of their performing style: ragging, improvising, muting, wailing, smearing (their word for glissando) - and from the evidence of their recordings they took the printed page as a blueprint for individuality.In May 1919 during the Hellfighters' triumphant coast-to-coast tour after their return, James Reese Europe was tragically murdered, bringing to premature close, at the age of 39, the work of a great musical innovator.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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Play a Simple Melody - Irving Berlin - Len Jenkins
"Play a Simple Melody" is a song from the 1914 musical, "Watch Your Step"; the first stage musical that Berlin wrote. It is one of the few true examples of counterpoint in American popular music. First a "simple melody" plays alone; this is then followed by a jaunty contrasting melody, and finally, the two melodies play together, each with independent lyrics. Another example of this genre is "(I wonder why) You're Just in Love", also available for Brass Band from Wobbleco Music.
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Game Of Thrones - Ramin Djawadi - Len Jenkins
"Game of Thrones" is an American fantasy drama television series based on George Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" and has received widespread acclaim by critics, although its use of nudity and violence has caused controversy. Filmed in Belfast and on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco, it premiered in 2011 and continues into a fourth season in 2014. The series interweaves several plot lines and through its morally ambiguous characters, explores the issues of social hierarchy, religion, loyalty, corruption, sexuality, civil war, crime, and punishment. It is set in a period that contains elements from the dark ages through to the medieval. The music for the series was composed by Ramin Djawadi and is noted for its popular main theme which is presented here as an arrangement for Brass Band. In keeping with the period depicted, the piece contains a significant contribution from the percussion section and care has been taken to achieve the desired effect with the normal resources of the average band.
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Bernie's Song - Miller/Leiber/Stoller ver.Mulligan, arr.John Dankworth - Len Jenkins
Bernie's Tune is a 1953 jazz standard with music written by Bernie Miller and lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was popularised through a recording by the quartet of the American saxophonist and composer Gerry Mulligan, and the tune was a popular choice for musicians jamming at the time. Information about the composer is scarce. All that people really know of him is that he was a piano player from Washington DC. Gerry Mulligan's version was subsequently arranged by the late, legendary John Dankworth and this arrangement for brass band has been faithfully based on it to evoke the atmosphere of that golden era.
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Merry Christmas Polka - Sonny Burke - Len Jenkins
"Sonny" Burke was an American arranger, composer, Big Band leader and producer who during the 1940s and 1950s worked as an arranger for the Charlie Spivak and Jimmy Dorsey bands, among others. In 1955, along with Peggy Lee, he wrote the songs to Disney's Lady and the Tramp.Later he became musical director of Warner Bros. Records / Reprise Records and was responsible for many of Frank Sinatra's albums, and produced Sinatra's recording of "My Way". He was also the bandleader for recordings of leading singers such as Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras, and it was with them that Merry Christmas Polka became famous.
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£52.00Stories for Saroyan - Elgar Howarth
Stories for Saroyan was written for Robert Childs and has also been performed to great acclaim by his son David Childs. A concerto of stature, graced with the composer's hallmark scoring, intense passion, and enigma! The Saroyan of the title is the American author William Saroyan whose tales inspired the composition. Saroyan, who one the Pulitzer Prize and turned it down, became known for loosly structured, impressionistic plays and stories stressing his belief in people's basic innocence. Elgar Howarth has set the standard of modern brass arranging, and his original works feature largely in the Winwood Music catalogue
Estimated dispatch 7-9 working days
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£62.00Stories for Saroyan (Parts only) - Elgar Howarth
Stories for Saroyan was written for Robert Childs and has also been performed to great acclaim by his son David Childs. A concerto of stature, graced with the composer's hallmark scoring, intense passion, and enigma! The Saroyan of the title is the American author William Saroyan whose tales inspired the composition. Saroyan, who one the Pulitzer Prize and turned it down, became known for loosly structured, impressionistic plays and stories stressing his belief in people's basic innocence. Elgar Howarth has set the standard of modern brass arranging, and his original works feature largely in the Winwood Music catalogue
Estimated dispatch 7-9 working days
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£39.95Argentine Melody (Score and Parts) - Andrew Lloyd Webber arr. Stephen Bulla
The flavour of South American dance effectively translated to the brass band idiom by a master arranger.
Estimated dispatch 7-9 working days
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£39.95No Matter What (Score and Parts) - Andrew Lloyd Webber arr. Ray Farr
The biggest hit song from the Lloyd Webber/Jim Steinman musical Whistle Down The Wind which was reset in the American south. A massive success for the boy band Boyzone and popular everywhere, the music transfers to the brass band sonority with ease. Ideal for summer concerts.
Estimated dispatch 7-9 working days
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£39.95The Vaults of Heaven (Score and Parts) - Andrew Lloyd Webber arr. Ray Farr
A stirring 'Gospel' number from the Lloyd Webber/Jim Steinman musical Whistle Down The Wind which was reset in the American south.
Estimated dispatch 7-9 working days