There was a time when brass bands thought they could get on very nicely without resorting to much of a contribution from the players hidden behind the bass section.

Not now they don’t. 

Gifted performers

Over the years the movement has produced some wonderfully gifted performers - players such as Jack Miles of Munn & Feltons and the great Colin Waggot who spent a lot of time performing solos spots at the Festival Concerts in London.

More latterly the likes of Simone Rebello, Cathy Gilbertson, Dave Danford and Gavin Pritchard, to name four, have become performers every bit as good as any featured top class cornet or euphonium star.

To that list can be added the name of Yasuaki Fukuhara, who in conjunction with Leyland Band (he has subsequently joined Black Dyke), released this first solo CD earlier this year.

On this evidence he also joins a distinguished line of percussion artists who give the brass band genre an added dimension of musical possibilities.

Premiere recordings

Featuring eight works, four of which are premiere recordings, he performs with superb facility on the xylophone, marimba and vibraphone - although also showing his versatility on toms, glock and the like during the three movement work that completes the disc and gives it its title.

Tour de force

‘The Golden Apples of the Sun’ is a tour de force that requires a wide variety of tuned and unturned skills and styles. The mysterious opening on toms, gradually intensifying through the sparsely scored glock/vibraphone duet to the volcanic finale, voiced by tumultuous bells, brings Rodney Newton’s richly crafted work to life in a real firecracker reading.

David Danford contributes two works; the shorter of which, ‘Battlefield’ depicts the 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury, recalling the fearsome dash of horses, clash of armour and deadly attack of sword and arrow. 

The longer ‘Marimba Concerto’ is a more lucid work, skipping straight from a playful jig to a minor keyed melancholic central section and chill-out finale. 

Further contrast

Further contrast is shown with ‘Anthracite Dances’ - a ragtime improvisation that has the xylophone inventing the solo line over chords from the lower band. 

The composer, James McFadyen, has underpinned the enjoyable feature with a shadowy undercurrent - rather like eating a bar of milk chocolate with a seam of the dark rum and raisin running through it. It’s a commanding performance. 

Spellbinding

All these works were commissioned by Yasuaki and gain their first recordings, accompanied by a sympathetic, tasteful Leyland Band under Richard Evans.

The remaining contributions are all unaccompanied. 

‘Texas Hoedown’ neatly conjures up images of the Lone Star state in all its glory, both old and new, whilst the spellbinding serenity of ‘Suomineito’, meaning ‘Finish girl’, brings a tranquillity that is matched by the ‘Transformation of Pachelbel’s Canon’. 

Meanwhile, the ‘Dream of the Cherry Blossoms’ is a hypnotic composition from Keiko Abe, the world-famous marimbist, which mesmerises yet sooths - an improvisatory work that really does captures the feeling of ‘petals falling’.

It rather sums up a highly engaging recording: No wonder brass bands can no longer try to hide away the brilliance of percussion players of this quality anymore.

Steve Jack

Contents

1. Battlefield, David Danford, 3:35
2. Dream of the Cherry Blossoms, Keiko Abe, 5:55
3. Texas Hoedown, David Freidman, 7:06
4-6. Marimba Concerto, David Danford
I. 1st Movement, 4:56
II. 2nd Movement, 5:13
III. 3rd Movement, 4:46
7. Suomineito, Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, 4:25
8. Anthracite Dances, James McFadyen, 4:58
9. Transformation of Pachelbel's Canon, Nanae Mimura, 8:24
10-12. The Golden Apples of the Sun, Rodney Newton
I. Through Hollow Lands and Hilly Lands, 7:39
II. The Silver Apples of the Moon, 5:54
III. The Golden Apples of the Sun, 4.13