Music: Broadway Boogie

Composer Paul McGhee reviews Dave Collins' Broadway Boogie

Broadway Boogie was commissioned by Leigh Baker and premièred by the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Brass Band as part of its 2014 Brass in Concert programme at The Sage, Gateshead. The work is inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie, a piece of contemporary art completed in 1943 following the artist’s move to New York. With a nod to other great artists, the music cleverly utilises thematic material from Mussorgsky’s Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition.

Dave Collins continues to enhance his reputation as an innovative writer and, with this composition, has created a hard-hitting, exciting, dynamic work - a curtain-raiser with attitude! The relentless high tempo walking bass line, combined with stuttering chromatic lines, varying tonal colours and driving rhythm captures the bustling city to great effect, making this a perfect choice to capture the imagination of both performer and audience member.

Broadway Boogie is available to order online from World of Brass.

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