King Kong - A Live Musical Production - The Cory Band
The Cory Band opened their Trilogy at Birmingham Town Hall with King Kong, special guests for this concert were The Langley Band.
Advertised as a ‘Live Musical Production’ in the first half we were treated to a great selection of pieces opening with ‘Birdland’ Joe Zawinul, arr. Sandy Smith, a great tune to get the concert started. ‘Sicilian Vespers’ Giuseppe Verdi, arr. Howard Lorriman is a delightful piece and a ‘sit back and enjoy’ performance, such depth of sound and with great balance the music really does flow so beautifully. ‘Finale from Violin Concerto’ Mendelssohn, arr. Leigh Baker, Cornet: Tom Hutchinson, simply jaw dropping dexterity from Tom and the acrobatics that sound so easy, a smile to the audience during a few bars rest and then back in at full tilt, nothing suffers from the frantic tempo, every note clean and very much appreciated by the audience.
'Nimrod' Edward Elgar, arr. Denis Wright – A well known piece that would grace any concert or occasion, sometimes taken right down in tempo, a well-chosen gear from Philip Harper makes this a delight to listen to and soak up those beautiful chords. 'Banana Island' Etienne Crausaz – A light and upbeat piece that gives the percussion team a chance to shine and the bright sound from across the band brings this item in the programme to life.
'Endearing Young Charms' arr. Stanley Boddington
Euphonium: Glyn Williams, an Aire-Varie that was like liquid gold, the flow and seemingly effortless performance from Glyn is a delight, moving through the octaves with ease, not challenged enough by what was on the part we hear pedal notes that the engine room would be proud of and then up to top D at various points, including the last note of the solo. An audience pleaser and you can see why, what a great performance.
'Florentiner March' Julius Fucik, arr. Barsotti, into the break with a brass band favourite, a piece that will be in many Brass Band libraries across the world.
Interval
'Midway' John Williams, arr. Harper opened the 2nd half and gets everyone in the mood for a good movie, popcorn at the ready and into the movie we go.
KING KONG (with Langley Band)
‘A reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol’
Without giving too much away the story is based on Scrooge (Edwin Scrooch in this case) who is preparing his band for a concert ‘A night at the Movies’ Scrooch is a Brass Band Conductor who is a bully, always shouting at the players, a quite horrible man and it is hoped that over the Cory Trilogy of classic Hollywood movies he will learn from the ghost of a past conductor how this behaviour should stop, for the first dream to show the error of his ways we go into the 1930’s and King Kong.
The music and multi-media experience tells the story with narration from Philip Harper and some outstanding arrangements that pull the story of this epic film together.
Allegretto from Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven, arr. Harper)
King Kong March (Max Steiner, arr. Harper)
A Night on Skull Mountain (Mussorgsky, arr. Harper)
Rhapsody in Blonde (Gershwin, arr. Harper)
It’s a Monster (Bettencourt/Cherone, arr. Harper)
New York Rampage (Philip Harper)
Empire State Finale (Philip Harper)
I Want to Break Free (John Deacon, arr. Harper)
The pull of the concert was Cory Band and King Kong, throughout the production we are following the story line through the on-screen images, the narration and the music, the playing is of the highest standard as you would expect from Cory and the work from the rest of the team to put this production together really comes through in the professional way it is presented.
This concert was a very innovative way of bringing the big screen and the brass band together, a different take on the ‘Brassed Off’, ‘Snowman’ and ‘Wallace and Gromit’ events that are very popular, it is a proven way of entertaining the public, a public that may not necessarily be from a banding background, this of course is essential for the future well-being of banding so bravo to Cory Band for this excellent ‘Trilogy’ project.
To the Brass Band purist this may not be a ‘proper concert’ but from the outset and in all the advertising this was not being publicised as a brass band concert, King Kong was very much at the centre of the advertising for this event and those that arrived in Birmingham Town Hall were intrigued as to how this would unfold and all left smiling, in conversation and very pleased they came.
The performance was recorded by WoBPlay and will be available to view on their platform in the New-Year.
