Results
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£30.00Meanwhile - Jock McKenzie
Just imagine being free of stress, anxiety, time pressures, workload & the general 'busy-ness' of everyday life... For the lucky few that may find themselves in this position, the clock keeps ticking for the rest of us. "Meanwhile" seeks to represent the relentless challenges of the 'everyday'. It is a full-on, driving swing number, very much in the style of a big band chart. In my orchestration of this piece I have deliberately treated the brass dectet somewhat similarly to that of a big band / jazz orchestra. The two 'rows' of four trumpets and four trombones are employed in the typical way, with the horn representing a unison / octave saxophone section. The tuba busily walks around the harmonic foundation of the piece. This piece was conceived out of the chaos of an overcrowded school music department. In one room I was rehearsing a brass ensemble whilst the other side of a (very) thin wall was a saxophone group attempting to make themselves heard over our dulcet tones. The brass ensemble would stop regularly to receive pearls of wisdom from yours truly, MEANWHILE the saxes could be heard in these gaps, plodding through their material. This seemed to go on interminably. In this piece the independent horn line represents the work weary saxes; occasionally breaking through the textures of the other brass lines. J.M.
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£30.00No Other Option - Jock McKenzie
I seem to have taught a number of students in recent years who have either embarked on medical careers or are studying to do so. Whether it be our beleaguered NHS in general or the working conditions of Junior Doctors in particular, sentiments naturally run high. I was asked & inspired to write a piece for some of these 'medical musicians' to perform in situations of protest or industrial action; situations in which they felt there was "No OtherOption" than to make their feelings known through their chosen path of protest. There is a deliberate irony in the fact that this piece is written in the style of an upbeat and good-humoured folk reel.
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£30.00O Tannenbaum - Traditional German Carol
O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree) is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional 15th century folk song it became associated with the fir tree, traditionally used as a Christmas tree in German tradition. By the early 20th century it was being sung as a Christmas carol. The modern lyrics were written in 1824 by Ernst Anschutz, sourcing his material from an old 16th century Silesian folk song by Melchior Frank. My arrangement presents the traditional material in a full-on, big band swing style.
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£30.00O.B.1. Fanfare - Tom Watson
Tom Watson was born into a musical family in Hertfordshire, England and showed a flare for playing the trumpet from the age of just 4. Taught by his father James Watson, the prolific international soloist, conductor, educator and session trumpeter, Tom studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he gained a first class honours degree. Whilst still at college, Tom embarked on a varied professional freelance-playing career and was guest principal trumpet with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra performing under Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding, and Sir Neville Marriner. Tom can be regularly found performing and recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and many of the UK's finest orchestras. Commercially, Tom has played in sessions or concerts for artists such as Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Jones, Dame Shirley Bassey, Ozzy Osbourne, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Jarvis Cocker, Pete Doherty, Nick Cave, Karl Jenkins and Victoria Wood. Some of his film session work has included recording the scores for Brave, Eragon and Stormbreaker. Tom also works as a musical director, arranging and conducting various projects such as Tony Christie's album Made in Sheffield and for renowned harpist Catrin Finch. Tom also runs his own independent recording and production company Pro Audio, part of Prozone Music, which Tom owns and runs alongside his brother William. The O.B.1. Fanfare was written for the Harper Ensemble, a brass ensemble comprising of Tom's contemporaries from his time at the Royal Academy of Music. It was written for the Leicester Square UK premiere of the film "Ali" starring Will Smith. Composed as a salute to Hollywood and the big screen, this fine pastiche of film scoring is an ideal fanfare and concert opener.
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£30.00Ouro - Jock McKenzie
In Portuguese 'Ouro' translates as 'Gold'. This piece was written at the time when the country of Brazil was making-preparations for hosting the 2014 football world cup and subsequently the 2016 Olympic Games. In the pursuit for 'Gold', this piece seeks to blend elements of Brazilian samba alongside other everyday rhythms of Latin-American music, in particular Salsa.
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£30.00Quarks & Things - Jock McKenzie
In the world of physics, a 'quark' is one of the smallest known particles of matter. They were present at the Big Bang and theory suggests that within 5 minutes of this most momentous of events they were already teaming up with other particles to form the building blocks of our very existence. Musically I had a very small idea, nothing more than a one bar motif including the often-used triplet figure which I endeavoured to make into something more substantial; much as quarks do themselves. The finished product is wrapped up in a street swing feel in an attempt to evoke the funkier edge of the New Orleans style brass bands.
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£30.00Red Hot Pepper Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, professionally known asJelly Roll Morton, was an Americanragtimeandearly jazzpianist, band leader andcomposer who started his career inNew Orleans,Louisiana. Widely recognised as a pivotal figure in earlyjazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spiritand characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition in 1915. Morton is also notable for writing suchstandardsas "KingPorter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I HeardBuddy BoldenSay". Notorious for his arrogance and self-promotion, Morton claimed to have invented jazz outright in 1902, much to the derisionof fellow musicians and the critics. At the age of fourteen, Morton began working as a piano player in a brothel (or, as it was referred to back then, a sporting house). In that atmosphere,he often sang smutty lyrics and took the nickname "Jelly Roll". While working there,he was living with his religious, church-going great-grandmother; who he convinced that he worked as a night watchman in a barrel factory. After Morton's grandmother found out that he was playing jazz in a local brothel, she kicked him out of her house and told him that "devil music" would surely bring about his downfall. Born in downtown New Orleans,Louisiana, his exact birth date differs depending to whichever source you want to believe; his half-sisters claimed he was born in September 1885 but his World War 1 draft card showed September 1884 and his California death certificate listed his birth as September 1889. He died in 1941 in Los Angeles.
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£30.00Say Cheese - Jock McKenzie
I felt the urge to write something happy; something with a smile on its musical face. The end result...? Well, maybe it wears more of an inane grin than anything else, but at least it's cheesy! A bit of a sun-drenched, lively Latin groove built around a persistent (almost to the point of annoyance) four bar harmonic 'vamp', this piece seeks to find a smile on its face via the various melodies & counter-figures written around it - rather like being persuaded to say "cheese" for an exasperated photographer. J.M.
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£30.00See Ya Later - Jock McKenzie
This is my attempt to write an encore type piece in a South African 'township' style - inspired by some of the great South African musicians such as Abdulla Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela and Dudu Pukwana. So much of their music really wore a smile - J.M.
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£30.00Showboating - Jock McKenzie
Showboating makes use of many cliche Balkan musical traits, not least it's shifting use of the 7/8 time signature. Due to all things Covid-19 related this piece was written to challenge students to record their part remotely to a 7/8 click track. Hence, no rall's or accel's just the proverbial '**** off a shovel constant driving pulse.