The London Trombone Sound

Things they don't tell you in the CD booklet...

By Anthony Parsons

The London Trombone SoundWith The London Violin Sound, The London Viola Sound and The London Cello Sound already in its catalogue, CALA Records skirted around London's double bass players and headed instead for the brass section, specifically for the trombone.

CALA Managing Director, Robin Osterley, approached LSO principal, Eric Crees, to write the scores, and in thinking over the project, Eric recalled rehearsal tea-breaks in the past when he had discussed such an idea with colleagues, and now realised with certainty that "given the extraordinary standard and versatility of the capital's trombonists ... there should be a representative document to capture something which we felt, perhaps proudly, but certainly not vainly, was a little bit special".

Selling the idea to the professionals was easy; the problem lay in getting them all together for three sessions fitted around their main orchestral commitments, plus a rehearsal. The solution was to book the sessions to begin at 11.00 p.m.; and at 2.00 a.m. on three July mornings, sixteen very tired trombonists with thirty-two even tireder lips headed home for a few hours' sleep before normal service was resumed at morning rehearsals.

The sessions were booked to take place at a north London church much used for orchestral recordings, but from the start Eric had doubts about its suitability for this particular group of instruments. All Hallows is set in an area of densely populated four storey Victorian terraced houses that you can reach in seventh position from the southern borders of Hampstead Heath. The rehearsal was called at the earlier time of ten o'clock, and sensitive to the alleged needs of brass players, CALA had laid on generous refreshments "both solid and liquid, to revive any flagging spirits, and after the inevitable gossip and banter that accompanies sixteen trombonists in the same room, the sessions went off with a splendid bonhomie".

Eric had worked out an embouchure preservation scheme that moved players around among the parts, and with the right bums on the right seats, the first sounds filled the fine acoustics of the church. Richard Edwards, jazz soloist on three of the tracks, wanted to do his numbers first. Dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sound so touching as Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that passers-by loitered for a few moments beside the church at that drowsy, dog-walking time of evening. But when it came to Eric Clapton's Layla, with encouragement from Paul Clarvis and Gary Kettel on drums and percussion, plus Steve Greetham, bass guitar, the change of mood kept Hampsteaders from their slumbers. After about an hour of rehearsing, the vicar, a worried man, sidled in and said that the locals were getting ugly and the sooner the ensemble relocated the better.

This presented something of a problem. Getting on for midnight is no time to be fixing the venue for tomorrow night's sessions, but while the producers wrestled with that one, Eric and his men worked their way through all the arrangements at the lower end of the trombone's dynamic possibilities, and they went home with instructions to phone in the next day to find out where the recording sessions might be.

But someone was indeed watching over them. In an ecclesiastical coincidence of Trollopian elegance, who should be visiting All Hallows vicarage but the vicar of St Augustine's, Kilburn, only a mile or so away, set well apart from its parishioners and often used by orchestras without causing offence - so far. "It was the first place I'd thought of booking anyway," said Eric. "I was always apprehensive about All Hallows." As luck would have it, Abbey Road was also available for one of the evenings. It was decided to do the jazz numbers there, and the rest, including "76 Trombones" and all the telephoning that involved, at St Augustine's. Somehow, everyone turned up at the right place at the right time, and in fact Eric was pleased at the opportunity to use Abbey Road for the lighter numbers, where the band could easily be fitted with click tracks to help ensemble work.

Whatever the operational difficulties, the dates provided an unique opportunity for colleagues from seven orchestras to work together as a single high-class unit. The mutual respect and admiration among highly experienced professionals made the work exciting and satisfying, even when the pressure was really on. Most of it simply came together naturally.

The final, and probably biggest ever, recording session for a trombone band also assembled six principal trombonists of the Hallé Orchestra spanning forty years: Maisie Ringham, Chris Mowat, Dudley Bright, Roger Harvey, Mike Hext and Ian Bousfield. (The late Terence Nagle is the only name missing from this sequence.) When it was all over, Chris Mowat, BBC SO, remarked that they had never had an official tune-up. But as he also said, "You won't find a single out-of-tune note anywhere". It was all a highly enjoyable but serious business, and the refreshments were definitely kept at arm's length until the 76 trombonists had finished the job. After that, well...

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ITF 2008