Like Songs From the Catherine Wheel, this one reminds me of the bedsit in Agden Road. This time I remember why: I first heard about it when it was reviewed on Radio 4's Kaleidoscope arts programme.
Something about it caught my ear, possibly sensing a kind of jazz/classical crossover. I made a note and then set about tracking the album down — which I think took me the best part of a year. It didn't help that I misheard the label as Shamross, when in fact it's Chandos. In the end I managed to order it from the musical-instrument-and-sheet-music shop on the corner of Charter Row and Rockingham Gate (I can't remember its name, but it was one of those Sheffield institutions that closed sometime in the nineties, becoming a lighting shop, which it still was last time Google drove past). [Update, April 2010: thanks to Simon Robinson for reminding me that it was called Wilson Peck.]
I don't think I've heard, or read, about the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble since that evening 23 years ago. You don't hear much about classical brass ensembles in general, do you? This album is still pretty hard to track down and has yet to be registered by MusicBrainz, Discogs, Last.fm or the normally-comprehensive Rate Your Music — though you can download it from the label's online store. As it's title suggests, it was the PJBE's last album before disbanding — the story goes that Philip Jones accidentally ran over his trumpet in his car, and, at the age of 58, took this as a sign that it was time to retire from concert performances.
I can't find any of the music from this album on YouTube, but here's another piece that gives a flavour:
To be honest, it's not really my bag in the way I hoped it might be. However, it sounds different to everything else in my collection, so that's one reason to cherish it.
| Buy direct from the record label | Wikipedia entry for the ensemble |
Comments