Louis Dowdeswell: Live at the Cadogan Hall
My second trip to Cadogan Hall in just a few days brought a very different experience, with the auditorium resounding to the music of a big band and brass orchestra celebrating the launch of Louis Dowdeswell’s ‘Out of Print’.
I reviewed the album itself, so I knew what to expect, but hearing this amazing music performed live was even better than the recording. My review had been entirely without sleeve notes, so I hadn’t realised that the whole repertoire was arranged by the simply extraordinary Callum Au.
Out of Print combines the inspired pairing of Au and Dowdeswell and the Cadogan Hall evening brought them together with a collection of brilliant musicians.
The packed stage - big band on one side and brass ensemble on the other - was enhanced by nine trumpets (Dowdeswell in the centre) starting the show in Au’s staggering arrangement of the William Tell Overture. Throughout the evening, Dowdeswell paid tribute to his mentors, teachers and colleagues, beginning with Bill Ashton, who created NYJO that had provided such a great environment for many of the musicians on stage to develop their big band and studio playing. The other eight trumpets featured at the start came from each of the ensembles and there were many occasions where the music featured ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’ musicians swapping sides of stage and style.
With conducting assistance from brass supremo Mark David, the evening featured the tracks from Out of Print - with Jerusalem as an encore sending us out into the streets with a spring in our steps. But it also included a number of extra tunes from either side of the stage. One of the highlights was Rebecca Crawshaw accompanied by the entire ensemble in a humorous performance of My Grandfather’s Clock.
There was more humour in the truly wonderful Slide of the Valkyries that featured all the trombone players and some deft swapping of solos (8s, 4s and 2s at the end). More sombre moments included Nessun Dorma and Nimrod, providing an entertaining event of extraordinary music.
Cadogan Hall was full of brilliant musicians (many were in the audience, too) to hear what was billed as ‘For One Night Only’ and we all hope there might be more to come in time.
Get your own copy of ‘Out of Print’
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