lonelyangel

I don't really like 'blowing my own trumpet' but i thought I'd give you all a heads up on this great new piece.

Last week I spent a really enjoyable 3 days rehearsing and recording Guy Barkers major new work for jazz orchestra and narrator (Michael Brandon) for BBc Radio 3 as part of the London Jazz festival.

Its called 'dZf' and is a reworking of the story of Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute' set in 1950s New York in a 'jazz noir' style. The hero of the Magic Flute, Price Tamino becomes jazz trumpet player Bobby Tamino and the other characters in the opera are transformed into gangsters, hit men and 'ladies of the night'.

The music is all brand new composition and the band is a real jazz ensemble of hand picked soloists, including rising star Guilleme Simcock on piano and my good friend and Eclipse stablemate Byron Wallen. The writing and arranging is superb. Guy is well known as the UKs most high profile jazz trumpeter but in recent years has been building a reputation as a composer - he wrote and performed the jazz tracks for the film The Talented Mr Ripley a few years ago. He captures the essense of 150s New York in this score - its very much music of and in the tradition.

If you like Mozart, Mickey Spillane or are a fan of modern big band writing then check this out.

The show lasts for an hour and a half including an explanatory interview with Guy before the performance.

The piece was recorded live in the BBC Maidavale studios in front of an invited audience of 250 people. For what its worth, I am playing mainly the 2nd trumpet book - its me on the Flugel solo in the 3rd or 4th movement and trading 4s with Nathan bray the lead player in the finale.

You can listen to the gig on the BBc website for the next 7 days only!!

Here's the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzlineup/pip/yb55h/

If that doesnt work the show is called jazz line up its on radio 3 and was first broadcast on 25/11 at 4pm - so you should be able to find it by searching on the BBc site.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best. Noel.

Alex Yates

Thank you for the "heads up" Noel. I will give it a listen. It sounds like a wonderful collaboration. I bet you had a great time recording this, eh?

Cheers!

Solar Bell

Noel,

This is a must listen for the jazz or big band guys on this forum!

I just spent this am listening to it!

Fantastic! Those are some great horns! Great sound! Great range!

I especially like the tune right after Viper gets it.

Nice flugelhorn on the song for Pammy.

Horizontal Facilitators of masculine wish fulfillment??????

Now That was funny!!

GREAT SHOW!

Michael Brandon was perfect as narrator.

-cw-

lonelyangel

Just found this review of the gig from The Independant On Line and thought it might be informative and encourage a few more people to check out the link in my original post to listen to this great new work.

The link is only up for the next 4 days!!

dZf London Jazz Festival
BBC Studios, London
The night Mozart met Mickey Spillane
By Sholto Byrnes
Published:*26 November 2006

Imagine that Schikaneder hadn't been around to write the libretto to The Magic Flute, suggested the thriller writer Rob Ryan, and that Mozart had had to rely on Mickey Spillane to do the job instead. That is how Ryan conceived his task when Guy Barker asked him to rework the plot of Die Zauberflöte and set it in 1950s New York as dZf. Other than that, Ryan's canvas was blank. "The story makes no sense," Barker had warned him, and Ryan agreed. If, halfway through a performance, opera buffs recognise the similarities - just as West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet - Barker will be content.
So instead of Prince Tamino, we have a hot young trumpeter, Bobby Tamino; Pammy instead of Pamina. Her mother, the Queen of the Night, becomes Harlem's leading brothel madam, Queen Righteous; Monostatos is reborn as a gangster (Sid "the monster" Monesterio) and Papageno as Bird Carter.
Only there are no singers in dZf, Barker's score to Ryan's updated plot, which was commissioned by the BBC for the London Jazz Festival. Eventually the story should be told by dancers - Barker was inspired by Gene Kelly's 1956 film, Invitation to the Dance, and he hopes at some point in the future that dZf may become a movie on similar lines. For the work's first outing, however, Michael Brandon added narration to the music performed by big band and recorded live at the BBC's Maida Vale studios.
It's a hugely ambitious, highly programmatic project; for a jazz score, there's very little improvisation, as Barker wrote tightly with dance movement in mind. Brandon's oiled gravel voice is perfect for the narration (there's a family connection here, too, as Barker's father was a stuntman on the Dempsey and Makepeace television series), but a detailed knowledge of the plot is essential without the visuals. If, before choreography has been added, dZf is performed again as a concert piece, I would suggest the audience be issued with a full synopsis.
Barker draws the listener in to the story by giving the different characters their own motifs, from Bird Carter's chipper whistle of a tune to the grotesque antics of a basso profundo trio of contrabass clarinet, bass trombone and tubax (which sounds a full octave lower than the baritone saxophone) representing the "Midgets of Mixology". These three "little people" conjure up a potion which allows Bobby Tamino one night of glory in which he plays a solo of impossible brilliance at the Temple jazz club, thus winning Pammy's heart.
This is the central scene in dZf, written around a snappy, happy-go-lucky theme that shows off Barker's expert demarcation and interplay between the big band sections. Hearing this, one can imagine Gene Kelly's athletic form twisting gracefully around the club, just as, in the overture at the beginning, Ralph Salmins' drums bring to mind the great dirty glory of central New York - steam vents erupting on the streets while sharp-suited men on the make swill bourbon on the rocks at bars on the corner.
The music is totally American and of the period, while still being original and new. Barker has the knack of writing with complete stylistic sympathy, but adding his own mildly hallucinatory twist. Bobby doesn't get the girl, after all. Queen Righteous reclaims her daughter after a shootout at a warehouse, and Bobby can never recreate his performance that night at the Temple.
"I'd like to give you a happy ending," explains Ryan's narration. "But this is New York. This is jazz, baby." Just before Pammy is parted from Bobby for good, however, they have one last dance; then Bobby is left alone with his memories. "They say some nights," continues Ryan's script, "if you're hangin' around where the Savoy or the Five Spot or Temple Street used to be, if you listen real hard, you can hear his horn ringing down the alley, beautiful and sweet, still trying to find that magic one more time."
The magic is certainly present in Barker's magnificent new composition, and this is just the beginning for dZf. With the addition of choreography, it could be one of the most stunning new dance and music collaborations to be seen for many years.

PS Alex - I had a great fun on this gig, at least I didn't make anybody feel ill ;)

lonelyangel

Just in case you missed this thread, this evening and tomorrow is your last chance to hear the world premier recording of this new work. After that the link will be taken down.
Hope you enjoy listening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzlineup/pip/yb55h/

All the best. Noel.