Written by Hugh Seenan

Introduction, by Hugh Seenan

After the success of The London Horn Sound, many people who had bought the album particularly liked the last track, Caravan, with its big band style.

In 2005 Geoffrey Simon conducted a performance of that arrangement with many of the guys who played on the album, at a concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of the British Horn Society. I was Chairman of the BHS at the time and the packed audience loved it. Geoffrey and I concluded that we really should explore a new recording project. I had always been reluctant to make a London Horn Sound II, as I had thought the original CD was kind of a one-off occasion. And anyway, it was now being copied by others. So if we were to make another album I was determined to do something completely new. Entering the jazz world would certainly fit that bill, although as the horn is a “Cinderella” instrument in the jazz genre it was a bit of a tall order. I started looking for ideas. We have our very own fine jazz horn player in London, Jim Rattigan, whom I consulted. I also happened to listen to a 70’s recording featuring the jazz trumpet player Maynard Ferguson blasting out the track Give It One.

I made up my mind there and then to get that number arranged for the album if it ever happened at all. Over the next couple of years I tried to formulate how the album would work but it was rather a struggle at first. I had played in a horn big band in Oslo with the wonderful Norwegian jazz horn player Fred Johansson, so I knew a horn big band could work well in concert, at least. However my recordings of French horn jazz greats Julius Watkins (unfortunately deceased), John Clarke, Tom Varner and Adam Unsworth—all Americans—made me think that if this album was going to be made then apart from Jim Rattigan the key players would have to come from across the pond. So it would hardly be a London Horn Sound.

A good album has a certain amount of luck involved. For instance, with The London Horn Sound back then, getting 32 London horn players free over three consecutive days should by rights have been virtually impossible. But almost by chance certain things started to fall into place which made me start to believe that an all-London based jazz horn record might just be possible. The incredibly talented horn player Pip Eastop became heavily involved in playing jazz—but on a trumpet. My great mate Richard Bissill, the LPO principal horn, had recently played with jazz trumpet legend Winton Marsalis on one of his rare visits to London. I spoke to Pip about my ideas for a jazz horn album and he asked me to give him a few months to transfer his trumpet jazz prowess onto the horn. So now I had Jim and Pip, and of course Richard was up for it!

A jazz album stands or falls on its rhythm section. In 2007 I read an amazing review from the London Jazz Festival about a sensational young British jazz pianist called Gwilym Simcock. I remembered meeting Gwilym when he was a teenager and I was taking a horn class at Chetham’s Music School in Manchester. At the time he was a horn player, along with his best friend Chris Parkes who is now Principal Horn of the RPO. I knew that Gwilym had composed for Chris a rather fine jazzy piece for horn and piano. Also, that I had offered Gwilym a horn place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where I am a professor—but he decided instead to take first study jazz piano at the Royal Academy of Music.

I wondered if he would consider playing piano on this evolving CD and writing some numbers for it. I called him from Basingstoke Station were I had a few minutes while waiting to catch the train to London and I asked him with fingers crossed if he would be interested in joining the team. I felt a mixture of relief and excitement when, without hesitation, he said yes! Knowing that Gwilym was on board, with his inspirational jazz piano playing and sheer genius in this genre, was probably the key element in the final decision to go ahead with the project.

I also contacted another incredibly talented horn player and composer, Timothy Jackson of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He too said yes and amazingly, he told me that he also played jazz horn and would like to write for us. We all eventually met over lunch at Blackfriars Wine Bar to exchange ideas. Geoffrey Simon’s label, Cala Records, backed the project completely.

We recorded Give It One at Air Studios in Hamstead, north London, over three cold, dark days just after Christmas 2007. Inside the venue the atmosphere was anything but cold, and the sessions were in fact a revelation to everyone who took part. All the musicians involved, including Martin France on drums and Sam Burgess on bass, surpassed themselves. Gwilym’s contributions at the piano left us speechless and he even took a jazz horn solo himself. The arrangements and new compositions were, without exception, stunning. Geoffrey conducted with his usual aplomb and good humour.

Special thanks to Tim Handley, who produced, and Curtis Schwartz and Gwilym, who mixed the album.

I know that the horn world is somewhat conservative, and this new album may take many people by surprise. However one thing is certain, the horn has escaped out of the closet and I hope you love the result as much as I do.

Hugh Seenan