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John Brennan 'Just in Time' BBJ FAB 0101 The Song is You The Best is Yet to Come Thou Swell Just in Time Brazil Sunday in New York Alright OK You Win The Girl from Ipanema Call me Irresponsible If I Ruled the World Witchcraft Young at Heart You'd Be So Nice to Come home To A Foggy day You Make Me Feel so Young I've Got You Under my Skin Lover

John Brennan - Vocals
Howard McGill, Colin Skinner, Martin Williams, Pete Long
Jay Craig - Saxes
Tony Fisher, Pat White, Simon Gardner, Paul Eshelby - Trumpets
Mark Nightingale, Gordon Campbell, Andy Wood, Pete North - Trombones
Andy Vinter - Piano
Dave Green - Bass
Tom Gordon - Drums

As a novice musician in 1955, I was mad about jazz and bought as many albums of the jazz 'greats' as I could afford. A friend gave me 'Songs for Swinging Lovers', the Sinatra classic LP for a present and to my surprise, the music was fascinating. The Big Band backings and arrangements by Nelson Riddle featured many of the same musicians whose records I had bought. Those arrangements have stood the test of time, they sound just as good today, but the effect on me was to make me a fan of the 'Quality Vocalist with Big Band' album. For some reason that no-one of my age can understand, this kind of music is never heard on TV and only rarely on radio. When you consider that 30% of the population like it, this seems odd!

Lets all feel delighted then, that here is a new CD featuring a quality singer John Brennan with a top class Big band directed by Martin Williams. John is very well known in Midland music circles and he is worthy of much wider recognition. I have had the pleasure to work with him on a number of occasions and he is the definitive professional, he has a great voice, good looks and personality and someone who enjoys his work immensely. Whilst I was listening to the album my wife commented on the excellence of the programme John has selected for this album, she said that if she could have chosen the tunes she would have picked the same ones.

Martin Williams from the BBC Big Band produced the album and he certainly chose an 'All Star' cast for the Orchestra, a glance at the personnel line up above confirms the quality in that department. The recording quality is also excellent and recording engineer Bob Mallett and the Battery Studio in London deserve great praise for their work here. As well as being record producer Martin Williams also wrote the arrangements for tracks 4,10 and 17, Colin Skinner , Barry Forgie, Roger Parsons and Bryan Pendleton contributed the remainder.

This is a classic 'Vocalist with Big Band Album', I know that John has put a lot of time, effort and a great deal of money into making it. If you like this type of music, this album will delight you. You can get a copy price £12.00 plus £1.50 postage and packing from John Brennan at PO Box 6183, Leicester, LE9 5ZR, he deserves your support!

Don Mather

Don Mather is a Saxophone Player and Bandleader based in Coventry

 

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