Brass Hits Hollywood
Perth Festival 2025
Perth Concert Hall 31/05/25
Mike Lovatt’s Brass Pack, Mike Lovatt (musical director / trumpet), Colin Skinner (conductor / arranger / composer), Anna-Jane Casey (vocalist
The closing concert of this year’s Perth Festival of the Arts brought a big swing band with a difference, Mike Lovatt’s Brass Pack, to Perth Concert Hall on the night of 31st May with a programme of music from the movies, in ‘Brass Hits Hollywood’. Inspired by the iconic Billy May’s Big Fat Brass of the late 50s, the band plays arrangements by its conductor Colin Skinner which inhabit a sound world that reaches beyond that of the wartime swing bands. In forming the band from hand-picked players of the utmost musicality and versatility, musical director Mike Lovatt has eschewed saxophones in favour of 4 French horns, led by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s principal horn Lauren Reeves-Rawlings. With 6 trumpets (including Mike himself) and 4 trombones, he has added 2 tubas to give a fuller and more rounded brass sound. Added to this, there is a full jazz drumkit, 3 percussionists with timpani, tuned percussion and a few additional orchestral untuned percussion instruments. Added to that are double bass, guitar, piano and harp, giving Colin Skinner an enviable arranger’s palette, which I am delighted to say he fully exploits. As well as instrumental numbers, there were songs from the movies. Musical theatre artiste Anna-Jane Casey did the honours. The concert was well attended.
The concert opened with the ‘Brass Hits Hollywood Overture’ a medley which included the opening credits of ‘Gone With the Wind’, the jaunty march from’The Great Escape’, the jazzy melody of the Andrews Sisters classic ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’, and the Romance from ‘Doctor Zhivago’. Mike joined as solo trumpet for the Disney signature ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’, followed by ‘As Time Goes By’ from ‘Casablanca’, concluding with a coda fashioned from the ‘Gone With the Wind’ theme.
The classic ‘Bidin’ My Time’ from ‘Girl Crazy’ by the Gershwins received a jazzy treatment with some stylish trombone glissandi, the first of many waltz-time reframings (of which Colin Skinner seems fond) and a cheeky quotation from ‘My Grandfather's Clock’. It was followed by an arrangement of ‘Pure Imagination’ from the movie of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ for Mike’s solo trumpet and the band (featuring another waltz interlude).
Anna-Jane Casey came to the stage, clad in a snappy white trouser suit, for three song numbers, starting with two from ‘My Fair Lady’, jazzy versions of ‘Show Me’ and ‘Wouldn’t It Be Loverly’. The latter was a super arrangement with a Mancini ‘Pink Panther’-style vibe and a great trumpet solo. Cole Porter’s ‘Too Darn Hot’ from ‘Kiss Me Kate’ had a Latin jazz feel, with a cheeky quotation from Maurice Jarre’s score for ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. The vocals for this segment were satisfactory but I have heard better. Stylish and idiomatic certainly, but little to seduce the ear.
Two instrumental numbers concluded the first half. ‘Young at Heart’, a Frank Sinatra hit in 1953, was so successful that a movie script that he was shooting with Doris Day had its title changed to match the song so that it could feature in the opening and closing credits (though it’s not strictly a “song from the movie”). It received a fine dreamy arrangement with a nice piano solo and a super drum solo, In a change to the programme, it was followed by another excellent Colin Skinner arrangement of some of Elmer Bernstein’s score for another Sinatra movie, ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’. Gangster jazz with hints of the ‘other’ Bernstein had some clever polyrhythms and great solos for trumpet and drumkit.
‘Bali Hai’ from Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘South Pacific’ opened the second half in a Latin jazz arrangement incorporating an extended drum solo cadenza. Some particularly fine playing from the trumpets and trombones also merited mention. Gershwin’s ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ from ‘Lady Be Good’ followed, with a slow drag and another waltz interlude bracketed by the agile syncopation. Excellent. The melody of the song ‘(Love is) The Tender Trap’ from the Frank Sinatra / Debbie Reynolds movie received a warm setting with some great trombone writing.
Anna returned to the stage in a dark pink frock for another three vocal numbers. ‘Something Good’ from the movie version of ‘The Sound of Music’ was sung straight, channelling Julie Andrews, before a hot fast waltz instrumental version took flight, was joined by the singer briefly before returning to the straight version to finish. A delicious bluesy version of ‘Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine’ from ‘Showboat’ seemed to channel Ella Fitzgerald, with lovely writing for double bass, trumpet and horn, joined by trombone later. I loved the arrangement and the performance. ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ from ‘Funny Girl’ channelled a breezy Barbra Streisand to perfection, with a big finish. This vocal segment was immensely satisfying in a way that the earlier one just wasn’t. Chalk and cheese.
Jerry Goldsmith’s music for the 1974 neo-noir movie ‘Chinatown’ with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway was the raw material for the next short instrumental. Goldsmith’s score, which was written in just 10 days, features an important solo trumpet line, which was played on the movie sound track, as on literally thousands of other movies, by Uan Rasey, who Mike Lovatt revealed to be his personal hero. Mike channelled Uan in the dreamy arrangement of Goldsmith’s lovely melody.
The programme concluded with a ‘John Williams Suite’, a medley of the most famous tunes from movies with Williams scores. The fanfare and march from ‘Star Wars’ was followed by ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ from ‘Harry Potter’, transitioning to the fanfare and march from ‘Superman’. A harp link segued into the main theme from ‘Jurassic Park. The violin solo theme from ‘Schindler’s List’ was surprisingly moving on tuba. Another harp solo bridged to the ‘Indiana Jones’ march. A cheeky quote from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ led to the coda, a fusion of other elements with the ‘Star Wars’ theme that had opened the Suite.
A planned encore brought the Brass Pack Cubs, young brass players from Perth & Kinross who had taken part in a masterclass with Mike and his team earlier in the day and performed a brief pre-concert spot, back to the stage to play with the professionals in ‘The Sound of Pixar’, an arrangement of ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ from ‘Toy Story’, followed by ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’ from ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ with Anna singing.
All in all, ‘Brass Hits Hollywood’ was a great night’s entertainment and a great way to wrap up another successful Festival. Kudos to all the organisers and especially Festival Director, Helen Band.