This is an absolutely beautiful piece by Ives. From a live show in New York.

Four Songs, #3,  Slow March, Ives

brass quintet recordings from when i lived in new york

Naima

This song, "Silverpeak," is written by Danny Levin and performed by The Ventriloquists - a great band I play in with my friends. I played trumpet on this track and helped produce it. I love the words.

Silverpeak

I adore this group. I formed it when I lived in New York, around 2005, or so, with Mike Gorham (tpt 1), Alexis Regazzi (on trombone), Steve Nugget (bass trombone) & Rachel Drehmann on french horn. This brass quintet was sporadic but so much fun. Everyone was incredibly musical; I felt honored to play with them all. 

To make this group work, I had to find a venue. Basically, I called churches in New York until someone agreed let us rehearse and throw shows if we played for them a couple of times a year. St Luke in the Fields, in the west village, came through for us; they are true patrons of music. It is the second-oldest church in the city, and is an absolutely beautiful place to play. 

I wanted to try a bass trombone instead of a tuba in a quintet. I always have felt a separation between the quartet of two trumpets, a trombone & a french horn vs. the tuba, and wanted to see how it worked with an instrument that "slotted" better with that quartet. I found that I much prefer the bass trombone it on some tunes; other tunes, it just doesn't work. Baroque, however (where the voices are more even) I find that the separation of the tuba distracts from the interaction within the voices (at times). Bach, in particular, suffers from this (unless the tuba part is only playing whatever the organist plays with their feet (I often think that Bach brass quintets, when playing Bach's music, should really be sextets, with the tuba only playing when the foot pedals are engaged)). This song, in particular, I feel works very well with bass trombone. 

I know Bach more for his counterpoint, but this song proves that he understood the beauty of melody more than most know (including myself, until I got to play this tune).

I think this was recorded during a rehearsal.

J.S. Bach, Bist Du Bei Mir (If Thou Be Near)

Personnel:
Trumpet: Mike Gorham, David Hart, Ian Souter
Trombone: Danny Levin, Bryant Vo
Sax: Carl Theobold (lead alto), Corey Hogan (tenor), Nick McBride (tenor), David Moyer (bari)
Piano: Billy White
Guitar: Richie Kohan
Bass: Miles Mosely
Drums: Kevin Kanner

Cottontail

i'm a multi-instrumentalist from l.a. . my primary instrument is the trumpet

Ian Souter Music