Full of anger and angst, The Red Planet portrays the closest neighbour to Earth as a vicious, warlike planet. Drawing on the vastness of space to create a never ending atmosphere, this march should be played with ferocity and purpose, as if Mars itself was compelling you to declare war on the universe.
Winner of the Cardiff UniBrass Composition Competition in 2014, The Red Planet is a march for full band at a 1st section difficulty. The piece can be underscored by the first track from NASA’s Symphonies of the Planets and features corrugaphones and thundersheets in the percussion section.
I was incredibly lucky to be chosen as a finalist in the Slide Factory 2013 Composition Competition with my piece Luminosity. Attending the weekend, I was blown away by the New Trombone Collectives rendition of my piece.
Judged by Johan de Meij, Hans Koolmees, George Wiegel and the New Trombone Collective, I was unfortunately not the winner. However, I had an amazing time rubbing shoulders with some of the great trombonists of our time in Ian Bousfield, Bill Watrous and many more. As part of making the final, my piece has been published by the New Trombone Collective.
Written as an exploration into the brightness of the modern trombone, Luminosity takes the names of its movements from the brightest objects in the universe, the stars; and as an additional subtitle, aspects of luminosity. Accompanying the two Alto Trombones and six Tenor Trombones are audio files created by scientists through asteroseismology; detecting the frequencies at which a star vibrates and artificially boosting those frequencies into human hearing range.
The work is written mostly in the upper register of both Alto and Tenor trombones and should encourage a bright tone from the players.
Pilbot’s Revenge is written for Big Band, with solo sections for trombone, saxes and trumpet. Each horn section is featured at times during the piece and there is an open improvisation section for the full band.
The theme is centred around a 9 note motive and is set over a diminished 7th chord progression. Starting off in a funk style, driven by the bass, the piece moves into a half-time feel featuring a wailing alto sax and saxophone section feature, moving into an energetic samba that descends into chaos, before a driving swing style finishes the piece off.
Originally composed for the Kool Skools album competition during my time at Blackburn High School, this piece was given new life and three more movements during a recording project by the Blackburn Big Band, made up of alumni of the HS.
The recording is from that session and features solos on trombone, alto sax, tenor sax and trumpet.
