Gull Dances

Composed by
Terry Johns
Arranged by
Price
£ 20.00 

The composer, who lives and works at the edge of the Forth estuary in Edinburgh has been inspired here by the intriguing “tap” dance that the gulls perform on the grass at certain times to encourage worms to break the surface.

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Description

The composer, who lives and works at the edge of the Forth estuary in Edinburgh has been inspired here by the intriguing “tap” dance that the gulls perform on the grass at certain times to encourage worms to break the surface. The middle movements describe the birds’ “dancing” in flight, with a waltz and a slow soaring melody. The piece was written for the COOP Glasgow Brass Band on the occasion of their winning the Scottish brass band championship in 2009 and was broadcast on BBC Scotland’s “Classics Unwrapped” in November of that year.

The son of a Welsh miner, Terry Johns is a french horn player with a distinguished career as a member of the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony orchestras, the Barry Tuckwell horn quartet, the Alan Civil horn quartet, and the Jack Brymer wind soloists. He played with many jazz “greats”, including Tubby Hayes, Kenny Wheeler, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, and John Dankworth. He is also a composer of music for the studio, television. He has written music for the RPO and LSO brass and he composed the theme and incidental music for Harlech TV’s “The Pretenders”. For this he recruited players from the ranks of the RPO, and the LSO, for the studio orchestra led by Sidney Sax, and conducted the sessions himself. In 1984 the actor Robert Hardy while arranging the memorial service for Richard Burton at the church of St Martin in the fields, invited Terry to arrange the final hymn (Battle Hymn of the republic) for the Rhos Cwm Tawe male voice choir and to compose an obbligato solo trumpet part for Maurice Murphy. The music was completed in a sleeper compartment between Edinburgh and London just hours before the service, with the soloist proof-reading from the top bunk! Terry has recently published the first part of his autobiographical “Letters from Lines and Spaces”.  The second part is to be published in 2013.


“This intriguing "water-borne" voyage runs the gamut from more classically-tinged interpretations to straight-ahead and improvised jazz. Along that journey we are treated to a highly inspired and masterfully presented performance.”

Nicholas F. Mondello
Allaboutjazz.com

“An absorbing selection of refined choices and inspirational highlights. Marvellous."

Keith Ames
The Musician (MU)

“One of the all time great brass recordings OF ALL TIME”

Jiggs Whigham
International Jazz Trombone Soloist and Musical Director, BBC Big Band

“Under the Spell of Spain is an extraordinary CD, in company with the finest large brass ensemble recordings ever made. This is a must buy CD!”

Don Lucas
Boston University writing in the International Trombone Association Journal

“Brilliant technique and superb artistry from all concerned.”

Denis Wick

“Brilliant technique and superb artistry from all concerned.”

Denis Wick
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