Album review: Louis Dowdeswell Big Band - High Score

Louis Dowdeswell is a phenomenon. Playing high Cs and above is one thing, sustaining a succession of ear-splitting notes with laser-like accuracy is altogether something else. The trumpet ace has several things in his favour - youth (he's still in his twenties), the lung power afforded to youth, and that short supply commodity called 'talent'. High Score brings together an array of top drawer musicians (Pete Long and Wayne Bergeron are on board), the arranging skills of Callum Au, and a clear focus on, for want of a better term, the 'project'.

Ten tracks, fifty plus minutes, bravura blowing - Dowdeswell, the trumpet section (Ryan Quigley!) and the entire band, this pre-pandemic album opens with Sing, Sing, Sing! (a drum feature for Ed Richardson, naturally), Nadim Teimoori blows tenor on Bridge Over Troubled Water and from there on in it's pretty much film music and show tunes. The selections span the decades - When You Wish Upon a Star to Game of Thrones - and they're all given the same treatment, ie superb ensemble work and stonking solos. 

If Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson and Gordon Goodwin feature in your CD collection, the Louis Dowdeswell Big Band's self-released High Score should be well worth checking out HERE. Russell           

Louis Dowdeswell Big Band: Louis Dowdeswell, Ryan Quigley, Tom Walsh, Andy Greenwood, James Copus, Tom Rees-Roberts, James Davison (trumpets); Callum Au, Tom Dunnett, Maddie Dowdeswell, Andy Wood, Simon Minshall, Robbie Harvey (trombones); Simon Marsh, Sammy Mayne, Martin Williams, Graeme Blevins, Dave Bishop, Jay Craig (reeds); Dan Beer, Mike Kidd, Alex Hamilton, Mark Wood, Laetitia Stott, John Davy, Dewi Jones (French horns); Tommy Emmerton (guitar); Chris Eldred (keyboards, synth); Rob Barron (keyboards); Laurence Ungless (bass); Ed Richardson, Dave Elliott (drums); James Turner, James Larter, Max Mills (percussion) + Pete Long (clarinet on Sing, Sing, Sing!); Nadim Teimoori (tenor sax on Bridge Over Troubled Water); Wayne Bergeron (trumpet on When You Wish Upon a Star & The Incredibles Suite); Gareth Lockrane (flute on Game of Thrones)

Track listing: Sing, Sing, Sing!; Bridge Over Troubled Water; Zero to Hero; When You Wish Upon a Star; Let it Go; Game of Thrones; Go the Distance; Circle of Life; Gonna Fly Now; The Incredibles Suite.