Big Band

Trimba 01001-8 (1995)
First release on Moondog's own Trimba label

1. Blast Off 2:30
2. New York 3:25
3. Paris 3:23
4. Bumbo 3:07
5. Heath Of The Heather 4:59
6. Torisa 4:03
7. Shakespeare City 12:17
8. Frankanon 4:36
9. You Have To Have Hope 2:03 (Solo: Gareth Brady)
10. A. Sax 1:53
11. Reedroy 1:53 (Solo: John Harle)
12. The Cosmicode 3:05
13. Black Hole 3:50
14. Invocation 10:10

London Brass & London Saxophonic
London Saxophonic: Jon Rebbeck, Pete Davis, Tim Lines, Tim Redpath, Simon Haram, Kyle Horch, Rob Buckland, Nick Moss, David Roach, Andrew Scott, Tim Holmes, Gareth Brady, Chris Caldwell, Andy Findon, Bradley Grant
London Brass: Mark Bennett, John Barclay, Anne Mc Aneney, Nick Thompson, David Purser, Richard Edwards, Andy Fawbert, Bob Price, Peter Harvey
Vocals: Gareth Brady, Chris Caldwell, Paul Clarvis, Bradley Grant, Simon Haram, Louis Hardin, Nick Moss, David Roach, John Harle, Louis Hardin, Graham Cole,
Chris Wells, Liam Noble, Dave Berry
Gareth Brady solo on You Have to Have Hope
John Harle solo on Reedroy
Produced by John Harle Recorded Mixed at Elephont Recording Studios, London Engineered by Nick Robbins Assisted by Jem Noble
Mixed by John Harle and Nick Robbins
Mastered by Adam Skeaping at Sound Mastering Ltd.
London Musicians contractor: Gareth Brady and David Purser
John Harle appears courtesy of DECCA - Argo - Records,
London for Bauhaus Productions
Representation: Clarion/7Muses and International
Creative Management, London
All compositions and lyrics written by Louis Hardin (Moondog)
Published by Managarm
Tracks 3 and 7 published by Managarm & Roof Music
Cover design and drawing by Ilona Goebel
Graphics by Layout Gestaltung Gillmann

Sleeve Notes

I quote the words that Malcolm Sargent wrote, that "Music is the soul of Man speaking to the soul of Man in sound", as only men like Malcolm can.
Louis Hardin

The players always give me more than asked for, there to walk the second mile, if need be. As they blow they steal the show and causing me to smile the while. Of all the saxophones there is the lowest of the low, the contra bass, is heard in Shakespeare City. Did you say, there's a contra-contra-bass? Members of the London Saxophonic and the London Brass were one, September Ninth and Tenth at Elephant, before the double-day was done. Executive producer John and I expressed the view, we had a ball recording Reedroy and the rest in only eighteen hours, after all. In starting with Blast Off and ending up with Invocation, shows the range of options open to the one who's under pressure to compose. Superlatives I'm running out of as I hear the way the players play the Cosmicode, a piece they hadn't looked at prior to recording day. David Purser let me see how bass his trumpet is. To my surprise, it's leaning to the left of keys that call it all a French horn in disguise. Symphonists have said, "We'd rather hear the beat than see it." Glory be, if that's the case, in general, then there's a chance for drummer boys like me. Allow me to express my heart-felt obligation to the few who made this Big Band album possible, at all, to those who played and those who paid.
Louis Hardin

BLAST OFF
From ten to one we're counting down the numbers as I wait expectantly, to hear the 'Blast Off', which is most appealing to the little boy in me. Worlds to conquer here on Earth appear to be diminishing apace, enough to justify the cost incurred in Man's exploring Outer Space.

NEW YORK
Big apple, you're the sweetest wine sap all the way from here to Henry's Fork. You knew you were my baby, but you never knew I stole you from a stork. I plagiarize myself to say, 'I ran away from all the noise I so abhor. Before I left they told me I'd be back for more', to lay me low.

PARIS
I wrote it in my Upstate shack, as warm as toast. Outside, the knee-deep snow concealed the fact that soon the song would have its premier at the Salle Gaveaux. In writing this I used what little French I knew, grammatical or no, inserting here and there a verse in English so's to glimmer up the glow.

BUMBO
My Bumbo, less Caribbean than Tito's Mambo? There's a reason why. Because my Bumbo's in the form of double two-part canons, by the by. Trimbas are the drums you hear, the drums I played on Fifty-second Street, triangular in shape with cymbal bolted on to buzz the nut-shell beat.


HEATH ON THE HEATHER
This twenty-five part canon is constructed on a finger-twisting ground. At eight-bar intervals, the parts keep coming in, to amplify the sound. I wrote it by the Franklin Bank, Eighth Avenue and Forty-second Street, in "Fifty-five" with Ted in mind, the Englishman I never was to meet.

TORISA
The clarinet is bass enough to blend with tenors and a horn to play Torisa, entry one, in such a fashion it's the passion of the day. Torisa is the portrait of a lovely lady, lov'lier than most, nay, lov'lier than any loveliness I care to name or dare to toast. Torisa is a nom de plume. I never met a person so reserved. In view of that, because of that, her anonymity must be preserved.

SHAKESPEARE CITY
I wouldn't mind admitting, writing Shakespeare City had me on a high, and there I heard my muse declare, "You have to quantify to qualify." A pair of sixteen-bar chromatics represent the Bard around the world. unto the right - unto the left, the Shakespeare Flag imperial unfurled. I dedicate this piece to Will who doesn't know it hath a way with my Ilona who adores it more the more she hears it, more than meets the eye.

FRANKANON
In Frankanon, or Frank Anonymous, or Frank in Canon Form, I show my deep regard and everlasting friendship for the nicest boy I know. When Frank was twelve he saw me in the village and he wanted me to stay with him and his for Christmas. They adopted me. That's why I'm there today.

YOU HAVE TO HAVE HOPE
Bill Clinton lived in Hope, I Iived in Batesville, Arkansas. We never met. I heard he played the sax, for which I wrote the piece he hasn't heard, as yet. "Back in Arkansas" are words that fit a falling bit of melody. I'm harking back some sixty years to Batesville Bess and all she did for me.

A SAX
His hundredth anniversary has come and gone. It's time to send a fax, to all the Charlie Parkers back in Birdland who have chops for such an axe. I wish there was a way to say to him in person what the saxophone has meant and is to mean. "You're heaven-sent contraption birds me to the bone."

REEDROY
Reedroy is, indeed, a solo suitable for savages that sing, for savaging the saxophone with semiquavers worthy of a king. As difficult as Reedroy is, it could have been more difficult and still, despite how hard I made it, virtuoso, he'd have played it, with a will.

COSMICODE
Proof that God, the Megamind, exists is in the overtones from one to nine which have to do with form, revealing how the Universe is run. The overtones from one to nine equate the Code, the Code that has a key. That key is diminuation. Two to one, the ratio rises out of three.

BLACK HOLE
How sinister it seems to me to be, a wrong that is, that isn't right, where time and space are out of place, where light is hidden under total night. The gong, which has the most important part, creates an atmosphere for me to contemplate in fear the awesomeness of Density's propensity.

INVOCATION
Communication carries on between the living and the dead, between the living and the living twixt the galaxies that can and can't be seen. Spreading out before you is a triple canon on a single tone, low A that sixteen players in synchrony, but each is on his own.

PARIS
Paris, Paris Mais qui, mon petit Mais qui, mon petit, Paris. Paris, Paris Mais qui, mon chérie Mais qui, mon chérie, Paris. When I'm walking down the avenue I'm as high as Eiffel is to you. Paris, Paris Mais qui, c'est la vie Mais qui, c'est la vie, Paris. Paris, Paris Mais qui, mon petit Mais qui, mon petit, Paris. Paris, Paris Mais qui, mon chérie Mais qui, mon chérie, Paris. You're a choosy floozy with a flair, just the one for Louis Debonnaire. Paris, Paris Mais qui, c'est la vie Mais qui, c'est la vie, Paris.

NEW YORK
New York, New York, New York is a busy place New York is a dizzy place, but it's home. New York, New York, New York is a haugthy place New York is a naughty place, but it's home. I ran away from all the noise I so abhor, before I left they told me I'd be back for more. New York, New York, for more of New York, for more of my home, my home, sweet home. New York, New York, New York is a lusty place New York is a crusty place, but it's home. New York, New York, New York is a dowdy place New York is a rowdy place, but it's home. I ran away from all the noise I so abhor, before I left they told me I'd be back for more. New York, New York, for more of New York, for more of my home, my home, sweet home. New York, New York, New York!

SHAKESPEARE CITY
Shakespeare City, we're in love with you, all because you took his name. Who but you enshrined his last remains, for all the globe to honour. The name you bear is there for all to see. As you like it, so does he. We're to hear Hamlet at the rose, to be or not to be.

BLAST OFF - 4-part canon
NEW YORK - contrapuntal, free parts
PARIS - 5-part canon, free parts
BUMBO - double 2-part canons
HEATH ON THE HEATHER - 25-part canon over a ground
TORISA - 6-part canon
SHAKESPEARE CITY - two 6-part canons and two chromatic sections
FANKANON - 6-part canon
YOU HAVE TO HAVE HOPE - chaconne, tenor solo
A SAX - 9-part canon on a tetratonic scale
REEDROY - chaconne, soprano solo
COSMICODE - Part 1: intro, thematic and harmonic.
Part 2: overtone continuum, multiple counterpoint
BLACK HOLE - chromatic with free parts
INVOCATION - 16-part canon on one tone