Nat Adderley
American jazz cornet & trumpet player (1931–2000)
Nathaniel Carlyle Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was the younger brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, with whom he played for many years.
Adderley's composition "Work Song" (1960) is a jazz standard, and also became a success on the pop charts after singer Oscar Brown Jr. wrote lyrics for it.
Early life.
Nat Adderley was born in Tampa, Florida, but moved to Tallahassee when his parents were hired to teach at Florida A&M University. His father played trumpet professionally in his younger years, and he passed down his trumpet to Cannonball. When Cannonball picked up the alto saxophone, he passed the trumpet to Nat, who began playing in 1946. He and Cannonball played with Ray Charles in the early 1940s in Tallahassee and in amateur gigs around the area.
Adderley attended Florida A&M University, majoring in sociology with a minor in music. He switched to cornet in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, he served in the army and played in the army band under his brother, taking at least one tour of Korea before returning to a station in the United States. After returning home, he attended Florida A&M intending to become a teacher.
Shortly before Adderley was expected to begin student teaching, Lionel Hampton played a concert at Florida A&M. Confident in his abilities, he played for Hampton, and Hampton invited him to join the band. Putting school on hold, he played under Hampton from 1954 to 1955 and visited Europe on tour. After returning, he intended to go back to school to become a teacher.
Career.
1950s.
The turning point in the Adderley brothers' careers occurred on a trip to New York in 1955. The brothers stopped by the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village when bassist Oscar Pettiford was playing. Both of them showed up ready to play. Cannonball was asked to sit in because the regular saxophonist, Jerome Richardson was out, and he overwhelmed the musicians. Then Nat was pulled on stage, and everyone was equally impressed. This appearance was enough to renew their careers. Job offers began pouring in, and Nat recorded for the first time that year.
The brothers moved to New York City, founding the bop group Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1956. Due to a lack of popular interest, they disbanded the group in 1957. Nat played for trombonist J. J. Johnson for a couple of years and ended up in the Woody Herman sextet. Cannonball gained a higher profile and joined the Miles Davis sextet alongside John Coltrane in time to record the album "Kind of Blue".
In 1959, the Cannonball Adderley Quintet reunited. This time around the group was more successful and had its first hit, "This Here", written by pianist Bobby Timmons. The group sound became known as soul jazz, starting the genre. The quintet also played hard bop, as everyone in the group had been influenced by bebop and wanted to continue a virtuosic tradition. Soul jazz kept the group popular, while hard bop gave the musicians a chance to challenge themselves and demonstrate their abilities.
1960s.
During the 1960s, Adderley acted as cornetist, composer, and manager for the quintet. While he kept the band in order, he also composed some of the group's most successful songs. His most successful song was "Work Song" (January 1960), a hard bop tune. Adderley called it his "Social Security song" due to the steady flow of income over the years from royalty payments when others recorded the song. "Work Song" is now considered a jazz standard. His other popular songs include "Jive Samba", "Hummin'", "Sermonette", and "The Old Country".
While he was an integral part of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, this was not the only project occupying his time in his career as a professional jazz musician. Since moving to New York, he had been recording outside the Adderley group. He worked with Kenny Clarke, Wes Montgomery, and Walter Booker.
Other projects included the film "A Man Called Adam" (1966). In the film, Sammy Davis Jr.'s character plays the trumpet. Since Davis could not himself play the trumpet, Adderley was hired to ghost everything that the character played. His other significant project during this time was a musical. He and his brother wrote "Shout Up a Morning" based on the folk hero John Henry. While this project started as a collaboration, work was interrupted when Cannonball died from a stroke.
1970s.
After Cannonball's death in 1975, the quintet broke up. Nat Adderley toured Europe as a headliner. He toured Japan, then returned to the U.S. and taught courses at Harvard while performing and recording with his quintet, which included Walter Booker, Jimmy Cobb, and Vincent Herring. Adderley established himself in his own right. He also worked with Ron Carter, Sonny Fortune, Johnny Griffin, and Antonio Hart.
1980s and later years.
Adderley created the Adderley Brotherhood, a sextet which included several members of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. This group toured Europe in 1980. "Shout Up a Morning", after having a concert performance in Carnegie Hall shortly after Cannonball's death, was staged in several locations around the United States in 1986. Adderley became involved in several other ensembles over the next decade, including the Paris Reunion Band and a group called the Riverside Reunion Band (after the Riverside label), a bop group that formed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1993 and then toured Europe in 1994.
Adderley spent half the year touring and the other half at home in Lakeland, Florida, writing and recording. He thought many of his greatest fans were in Japan, but Europeans were also enthusiastic about the music.
In 1997, he joined the faculty of Florida Southern College as an artist-in-residence. He also helped in the founding and development of the annual Child of the Sun Jazz Festival held annually at the university which he headlined for over a decade. During the same year, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
He lived on 112th Street in Harlem in the 1960s and in Teaneck, New Jersey, in the 1970s, before moving to Lakeland. He also lived near his brother in Corona, Queens.
Death and legacy.
Nat Adderley died as a result of complications from diabetes at the age of 68 in Lakeland, Florida. He was interred near his brother in the Southside Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. He was survived by his wife, Ann; a son, Nat Adderley Jr. of West Orange, N.J.; a daughter, Alison Adderley-Pittman of Palm Bay, Florida; and five grandchildren.
He was an innovator in the popularization of soul jazz and was one of the most prolific jazz artists of his time, recording nearly 100 albums. He proved that cornet could be a modern jazz instrument.
Style.
Although Adderley started playing trumpet, he switched to the less common cornet. He preferred the darker tone of the conical cornet to the brighter sound of the cylindrical trumpet. He could produce a rich, earthy tone that became his signature sound, one that could only come from the cornet. He also enjoyed the cornet's historic quality, reinvigorating the instrument played by early jazz musicians.
Adderley is widely attributed with the development and establishment of the 1960s style of soul jazz along with the rest of the members Cannonball Adderley Quintet. This style is characterized by simple harmonies, a heavy blues feel, catchy riffs, and a presence of the church. The point of soul jazz was to bring back a simpler type of jazz that had direct influence from blues and church music.
However, this is not the only style that Adderley wrote and played. The quintet was also widely known for their hard bop, which comprised roughly half of their recorded work. This is a rougher, edgier style descended from bebop, and virtuosic abilities are required to be able to play it.
As a soloist and composer, Adderley had a wide range of abilities. He could improvise simpler, more soulful solos for soul jazz numbers, but he could experiment and show off all of his abilities for hard bop. Especially in playing hard bop, he was not afraid to use the range of the instrument, often playing below the typical cornet range for short bursts before returning to the normal range. Although his range was starting to fade by the late 1960s, this did not keep him from continuing to play for the rest of his life.
Discography.
As leader.
Compilation:
As sideman.
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References.
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Much Brass
Much Brass is an album by jazz cornetist Nat Adderley released on the Riverside label featuring performances by Adderley's Sextet with Slide Hampton, Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones, Laymon Jackson, and Albert Heath.
Reception.
The Allmusic review awarded the album 4 stars.
"The Penguin Guide to Jazz" awarded the album 3 stars, stating: "Some interesting arrangements here, presumably largely the work of Hampton, and some delicately interwoven playing which largely belies the bluster implied in the title... Not immediately identifiable as a 'typical' Nat Adderley record, but a beautiful statement all the same."
"All compositions by Nat Adderley except as indicated"
*Recorded in New York City on March 23 & 27, 1959
References.
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Music of New Orleans
Jazz music
The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of the genre. The earliest form was dixieland, which has sometimes been called traditional jazz, 'New Orleans', or 'New Orleans jazz'. However, the tradition of jazz in New Orleans has taken on various forms that have either branched out from original dixieland or taken entirely different paths altogether. New Orleans has also been a prominent center of funk, home to some of the earliest funk bands such as the Meters.
Background.
The African influence on New Orleans music can trace its roots at least back to Congo Square in New Orleans in 1835, when enslaved people would congregate there to play music and dance on Sundays. African music was primarily played as well as local music from varying sources such as adapted work songs, African American spirituals, and field hollers. African, Indigenous American, Cuban, and European musical forms that were popular in the city, including the evolving brass band tradition, provided the cultural mix which laid the groundwork for the New Orleans musical art forms to come.
By 1838, the local paper—the daily "Picayune"—ran a scathing article complaining about the emergence of brass bands in the city, which it stated could be found on every corner.
Jazz.
The term "jazz" (early on often spelled "jass") did not become popular until the mid and late 1910s, when New Orleans musicians first rose to prominence in other parts of the US and the New Orleans style needed a new name to differentiate it from the nationally popular ragtime. Before then, the New Orleans style was frequently simply called "ragtime" (Sidney Bechet continued to call his music "ragtime" throughout his life), along with such local terms as "hot music" and "ratty music".
The local New Orleans dance music style was already distinctive in the 19th century. When this style became what was later known as "jazz" remains a matter of debate and definition, although most New Orleans music historians believe what became known as New Orleans style jazz was the product of a series of developments, probably reaching its famous form no earlier than the 1890s and no later than the mid 1910s.
By the 1890s a man by the name of Poree hired a band led by cornetist Buddy Bolden, many of whose contemporaries as well as many jazz historians consider to be the first prominent jazz musician. The music was not called jazz at this time, consisting of marching band music with brass instruments and dancing. Many claim Bolden was the first player to play The Blues on a brass instrument. The actual term "jazz" was first "jass", the etymology of which is still not entirely clear. The connotation is sexual in nature, as many of the early performers played in rough working class venues. Despite colorful stories of mid-20th century writers, the prostitution district known as Storyville was no more important in the development of the music than the city's other neighborhoods, but did play a role in exposing some out of town visitors to the style. Many instruments used were often acquired second-hand at pawn shops, including used military band instruments.
The Creole people of New Orleans also contributed greatly to the evolution of the artform, though their own music became heavily influenced by the pioneering work of Bolden. New Orleans-born musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton all recalled the influence Bolden had on the direction of the music of New Orleans (Armstrong himself had no memory of Bolden, but was told about him by his mentor King Oliver) and jazz itself.
Sicilian influence.
New Orleans had experienced a large wave of migration from the Italian region of Sicily between the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Sicilian capital of Palermo had long held cotton and citrus fruit trade with New Orleans. This resulted in the establishment of a direct shipping line between the two port cities which enabled a vast number of Sicilians to migrate to New Orleans, as well as other American cities. As a result of this migration, music of Sicily had some influence upon the development of New Orleans Jazz. This was shown in the New Orleans group the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Bandleader Nick LaRocca and drummer Tony Sbarbaro were both born to parents who were Sicilian migrants. The band's "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued.
Cuban influence.
<score sound="1" override_midi="Tresillo divisive.mid">
\new RhythmicStaff {
 \clef percussion
 \time 2/4
</score>
Tresillo rhythm
<score sound="1" override_midi="Habañera.mid">
\new RhythmicStaff {
 \clef percussion
 \time 2/4
</score>
Habanera rhythm
African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the nineteenth century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. From the perspective of African American music, the "habanera rhythm" (also known as "congo", "tango-congo", or "tango") can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat.
 Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform and unsurprisingly, the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera, "reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published" (1999: 12). The symphonic work "La nuit des tropiques" (lit. "Night of the Tropics") by New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk, was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba. Gottschalk used the tresillo variant cinquillo extensively. With Gottschalk, we see the beginning of serious treatment of Afro-Caribbean rhythmic elements in New World art music. For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime, and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African American popular music.
Whether tresillo was directly transplanted from Cuba, or if the habanera merely reinforced tresillo-like "rhythmic tendencies" already present in New Orleans music is probably impossible to determine. It is reasonable to assume that tresillo-based rhythms were performed in Congo Square by Caribbean slaves. There are examples of tresillo-like rhythms in a few African American folk musics such as the foot stomping patterns in ring shout and the post-Civil War drum and fife music. Tresillo is also heard prominently in New Orleans second line music.Early New Orleans jazz bands had habaneras in their repertoire and the tresillo/habanera figure was a rhythmic staple of jazz at the turn of the 20th century. Comparing the music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clave". Although technically, the pattern is only half a clave, Marsalis makes the important point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. The New Orleans musician Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. The habanera rhythm and tresillo can be heard in his left hand on songs like "The Crave" (1910, recorded 1938). Morton stated, "Now in one of my earliest tunes, "New Orleans Blues", you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz."
Although the exact origins of jazz syncopation may never be known, there's evidence that the habanera/tresillo rhythm was there at its conception. Buddy Bolden, the first "known" jazz musician, is credited with creating the "big four", the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.
 <score sound="1" override_midi="Big four Buddy Bolden.mid">
 \new Staff «
 \relative c' {
 \clef percussion
 \time 4/4
 »
</score>
In "Early Jazz; Its Roots and Musical Development", Gunther Schuller states:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />It is probably safe to say that by and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions. Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed. It may also account for the fact that patterns such as [tresillo have] ... remained one of the most useful and common syncopated patterns in jazz/
Second line.
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In the very early days of brass bands, in the 'nineties and even before, the music was mostly written–I mean in the kind of band my father played in. As time went on, there was more improvising.
 — Edmond Hall
The use of brass marching bands came long before jazz music through their use in the military, though in New Orleans many of the best-known musicians had their start in brass marching bands performing dirges as well as celebratory and upbeat tunes for New Orleans jazz funeral processions from the 1890s onward. The tradition drove onward with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Henry "Red" Allen and King Oliver. The presence of marching bands lives on today in New Orleans, with musicians such as the Marsalis family doing some of their earliest work in such bands.
Much of New Orleans music today owes its debt to the early marching bands, even those marching bands which predate the birth of jazz music. In the late 19th century marching bands would often march through the streets of the city in second line parades. Some of the earliest bands originated from the Treme and Algiers neighborhoods, and the city gave birth to such bands as the Excelsior,Algiers Brass Band, Onward and Olympia brass bands. The Onward and Olympia bands each have sustained incarnations that continue performing to this day. Modern examples of the brass band tradition can be heard in the playing of groups like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, or the Rebirth Brass Band founded by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, Keith Frazier, and Kermit Ruffins.
The history of the marching band in New Orleans is a rich one, with the various bands performing at virtually every major social event the city has to offer. They perform at funerals, picnics, carnivals and parades. The relationship between jazz bands and brass bands is one of co-influence. Jazz bands of this era began to go beyond the confines of the 6/8 time signature the marching bands utilized. Instead, New Orleans jazz bands began incorporating a style known as "ragging"; this technique implemented the influence of ragtime 2/4 meter and eventually led to improvisation. In turn, the early jazz bands of New Orleans influenced the playing of the marching bands, who in turn began to improvise themselves more often. Again, yet another indication that jazz music is symbolic of freedom.
Dixieland.
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You must understand that there was always a bad feeling between the northern part of the country and the southern part. After the Civil War they still battle against each other, and to those boys everything was Dixie and Dixieland as far as they were concerned. But to tell the facts, as far as we blacks were concerned it was New Orleans music — New Orleans, not Dixieland Jazz. Those boys, they made that up.
 — Paul Barnes referring to the Original Dixieland Band.
The term dixieland was first coined by Dan Emmett in his song "Dixie's Land" in 1859. It was not a positive term for African-Americans, as its usage defined any area of the south where slaves had not yet received emancipation. Dixieland music can be defined in a number of ways, though its origin is to be found in New Orleans, present first in the music of King Oliver. It quickly spread north and became popularized along with the migration of southern blacks to areas like Chicago. Today the term is used in reference to the music, which provides a general description of any form of jazz that is derived from early New Orleans jazz.
The term dixieland is generally not used very much by New Orleans–based musicians, for there is good evidence that the term was imposed on them. For instance, the first band to actually use the term in reference to the music in their name was the all-white Original Dixieland Band. This band played no small role in the coinage of the term dixieland in reference to jazz in New Orleans, though they were not the innovators of the music. The only true barrier this band broke was being the first to record New Orleans music, which happened in New York City of all places in 1917. Despite the criticism Paul Barnes made about them, he also said that they had a "first class band".
An early student of Dixieland was the young Louis Prima, as well as his older brother Leon, both of whom lived outside the French Quarter in a working-class neighborhood populated by Italian-American and African-American musicians. Into his early 20s, Louis Prima performed on trumpet and cornet throughout New Orleans before following in the path of his idol Armstrong, and moving North for career reasons, where he appeared at the Famous Door in New York City, eventually relocating to Las Vegas where, beginning in the mid-1950s, he regularly appeared with another New Orleans musician, saxophonist Sam Butera.
Rhythm & blues and rock & roll.
A new style came out of New Orleans after World War II. Prominent musicians such as Fats Domino helped shape what was first widely known as "Rhythm and Blues", which was an important ancestor of rock and roll, if not the first form of the music. In addition to the local talent, early rockers from elsewhere recorded many of their early hits in New Orleans using bands of New Orleans musicians.
In 1949, New Orleans jazz musician, and Fats Domino producer Dave Bartholomew brought the tresillo directly from Cuban music into early R&B.
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />New Orleans producer-bandleader Dave Bartholomew first employed this figure (as a saxophone-section riff) on his own 1949 disc "Country Boy" and subsequently helped make it the most over-used rhythmic pattern in 1950s rock 'n' roll. On numerous recordings by Fats Domino, Little Richard and others, Bartholomew assigned this repeating three-note pattern not just to the string bass, but also to electric guitars and even baritone sax, making for a very heavy bottom. He recalls first hearing the figure – as a bass pattern on a Cuban disc
In a 1988 interview with Robert Palmer, Bartholomew revealed how he initially superimposed tresillo over swing rhythm.
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I heard the bass playing that part on a 'rumba' record. On "Country Boy" I had my bass and drums playing a straight swing rhythm and wrote out that rumba bass part for the saxes to play on top of the swing rhythm. Later, especially after rock 'n' roll came along, I made the 'rumba' bass part heavier and heavier. I'd have the string bass, an electric guitar and a baritone all in unison
Bartholomew referred to the Cuban son by the misnomer "rumba", a common practice of that time. On Bartholomew's 1949 tresillo-based "Oh Cubanas" we clearly hear an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music.
Hip-hop.
Pivotal in the emergence of New Orleans into the mainstream hip hop community was the establishment of No Limit Records (now New No Limit Records) and Cash Money Records. These labels produced dozens of albums by young New Orleans rappers beginning in the mid-1990s. Some seminal New Orleans artists from No Limit included Mia X, Mystikal, Master P, Soulja Slim, C-Murder, and Silkk the Shocker. Cash Money likewise signed and released albums by several New Orleans artists including BG, Juvenile, Turk, Big Tymers, and Lil' Wayne. The city is also the birthplace of bounce music which is gaining popularity. Former Cash Money in-house producer Mannie Fresh is often credited for much of the popularity for Bounce outside of New Orleans. Drake, also signed to Cash Money recently collaborated with New Orleans Bounce producer Blaqnmild on his international hits "Nice For What" and "In My Feelings". Jay Electronica, signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label, has projected into the hip-hop scene.
Eastside New Orleans Rapper Currensy resides in New Orleans. Rappers Corner Boy P, Young Roddy, Trademark da Skydiver, and Fiend are from New Orleans. Most of the Jet Life collective is from New Orleans or surrounding areas.
New Orleans is also known for a hip hop duo known as the $UICIDEBOY$, who are known for their blend of Memphis Hip-Hop beats with guttural, heavy lyrics dealing with drug usage and depression, similar to sludge metal, another prominent genre of the city.
Heavy metal.
New Orleans has an active metal scene which began to take real form in the late 1980s. Bands such as Eyehategod, Down, Exhorder, Crowbar, Acid Bath, Soilent Green, Goatwhore, Kingdom of Sorrow, Graveyard Rodeo and Superjoint Ritual are either based in the city, or have a majority of their members hailing from the area. Artists such as Mike Williams, Jimmy Bower, Brian Patton, Phil Anselmo, Kirk Windstein, Pepper Keenan, Pat Bruders, Stanton Moore and Kyle Thomas are New Orleans residents.
The city is known for the "Louisiana sound", which was pioneered by Exhorder, who was the first band to combine doom metal and up-tempo thrash metal. Several of these metal groups share a style which draws inspiration from Black Sabbath, Melvins, hardcore punk as well as Southern rock. There is still variance within the sounds of the scene, however. Eyehategod features very harsh vocals and guitar distortion; Down has a style closer to classic rock; Crowbar's music has mostly slow tempos and a downtuned guitar sound; and Soilent Green has a sound which is closer to grindcore.
It's quite usual for a member of one of these bands to be part of another band from New Orleans or Louisiana. Collaborations by members of a band on another are also fairly common. In addition to being one of the founding members of Eyehategod, Jimmy Bower is also a member of Down, a member of Superjoint Ritual and has worked several times with Crowbar. Pepper Keenan, member of Corrosion of Conformity (who originate from North Carolina), is a member of Down and also worked on Eyehategod's album "Dopesick". Kirk Windstein is a founding member of Crowbar, a member of Kingdom of Sorrow, and a member of Down. Phil Anselmo is a member of Down, a member of Superjoint Ritual as well as various metal acts based in New Orleans; he also has a hardcore punk side project along with Mike Williams of Eyehategod and Hank Williams III named Arson Anthem. Brian Patton is former member of Eyehategod and current member of Soilent Green. L. Ben Falgoust II is the singer of Goatwhore and Soilent Green.
References.
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British brass band
Type of musical ensemble
In Britain, a brass band (known regionally as a silver band or colliery band) is a musical ensemble comprising a standardized range of brass and percussion instruments. The modern form of the brass band in the United Kingdom dates back to the 19th century, with a vibrant tradition of competition based around communities and local industry, with colliery bands being particularly notable. The Stalybridge Old Band, for example, first performed in 1815 and is still in existence, although it did not become a brass band until the 1840s.
Bands using the British instrumentation are the most common form of brass band in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and are also widespread in continental Europe, Japan and North America. The tradition for brass bands in the UK is continuing, and local communities and schools have brass bands. British band contests are highly competitive, with bands organized into five sections much like a football league. Competitions are held throughout the year at local, regional, and national levels, and at the end of each year there are promotions and relegations. The 2019 holder of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain was the Cory Band from South Wales.
A selection of brass bands can be experienced at the annual Durham Miners' Gala. There are also hotly-contested annual events held on Whit Friday in the Saddleworth area of Greater Manchester in which hundreds of bands compete.
Etymology.
The terms "brass band" and "silver band" are synonymous in that the vast majority of bands termed either "brass" or "silver" incorporate musicians playing a mix of lacquered brass and silver-plated instruments. However, in the days when plain or lacquered brass instruments were not as costly as silver-plated ones, the term "silver band" implied an ensemble that could afford the latter and were thus perceived to be more successful. With the cost of each type now being similar, the distinction between brass and silver bands is generally not made. There are, however, some brass bands which carried the name "silver prize band" as a result of their successes in contests and competitions. As time went on, some kept the name "silver" but not necessarily the instruments. Nowadays, the only real difference is that silver bands are located mainly in the south of England and brass bands in the north, although some silver bands do still exist in the North and many brass bands exist in the South.
Instrumentation.
British brass bands are limited to specific instruments, excluding, for instance, trumpets and French horns, which are found in orchestras and concert bands.
The standard instrumentation is as follows:
The above totals 27–29 players, although in practice a band often has fewer than this. Spare seats may be filled for concerts and contests by players brought in from other bands, commonly known as "deputising players" or "deps".
Notation.
With the exception of percussion, bass trombone and some older tenor trombone music, all parts are transposing and written in the treble clef with the instrument's lowest open note (B♭ or E♭) notated as middle C. This means that for every valved instrument, from the basses to the soprano cornet, a given note on the stave corresponds to the same valve fingering, enabling players to move more easily between parts. This system is unique to UK-style brass bands, though historically the North American drum and bugle corps activity followed the brass band convention of all-treble-clef writing.
Tenor trombone music is usually in treble clef like the other instruments in the band, though older scores or marches sometimes use tenor clef.
Bass trombone music is written at concert pitch in bass clef. This was historically due to this part being taken by a G bass trombone, rather than the modern B♭ bass trombone. As instrument technology modernized, the need for a bass trombone in G diminished, with the introduction of the B♭ bass trombone with F rotary valve. The larger bore and open wrap of the F valve gave the B♭ bass trombone a lower available playing register than the straight G bass trombone.
Tuned percussion is written in concert pitch (with the appropriate octave transpositions) with the appropriate clef for the instrument – e.g. bass clef for timpani, treble clef for glockenspiel (sounding two octaves higher). Unpitched percussion parts (including drum kit) are written in neutral clef on a 1- to 5-line stave using standard percussion notation, though some older scores may use bass and/or treble clefs.
United Kingdom.
History.
The rise of brass bands in nineteenth-century Britain owed much to industrialisation, armed conflict, and improvements to instrument designs. Village and church ensembles had existed in the eighteenth century, while military bands, which featured a mix of woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, proliferated during the Napoleonic Wars. The British Army began experimenting with all-brass bands from the late 1810s; the first civilian brass bands, featuring instruments such as keyed bugles, trumpets and trombones, emerged by the end of the 1820s. These early brass ensembles were often organised by former regimental musicians: the Waterloo veteran James Sanderson led a 'military brass band' in Leamington Spa and Warwick in 1829.
Wind and brass bands enjoyed the support of industrial employers who sponsored bands to promote discipline, community spirit, and temperance among their workers. The advent of Adolphe Sax's valved brass designs, which were easier to play and produced a more accurate, consistent sound, also helped fuel the growth of the brass band movement from the 1840s. Arguably brass bands were an expression of the local solidarity and aspirations of newly formed or rapidly growing communities. This was seen, for instance, in the creation of large-scale brass band competitions by the late 1850s. In 1853 John Jennison, owner of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester, agreed to stage the first British open brass band championships. The event was attended by a crowd of over 16,000 and continued annually until 1981. Brass bands reached their peak in the 1890s, when there were around 5,000 brass bands in the country. Today, there are 1,200 brass bands in Britain with around 30,000 players.
Many British bands were originally either works bands or sponsored by various industrial concerns. This was particularly evident in coal mining areas, for example, bands such as the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band in Yorkshire. Bands sponsored by factories include The Black Dyke Mills Band, Yorkshire Imperial Band (originally the Yorkshire Copperworks Band), Foden's sponsored by the truck manufacturer, Fairey sponsored by the aircraft manufacturer, and Leyland Band sponsored by the vehicle manufacturer. One of the reasons for this was to keep the