Album

Summit Records' two-CD set, Eastman Brass Quintet 1975 Archive, features the work of a composer, arranger, and horn player whose name will be well known to anyone having formal training in brass instruments at the academic level, Verne Reynolds. Reynolds' Centones—suites of older pieces arranged for standard brass groups—horn method and several of his original compositions are used, and played, by university-based student groups and brass players all the time, even if they are not necessarily well known outside of teaching. Some of the pieces on Eastman Brass Quintet 1975 Archive have been recorded and released before, but never by the group for which they were written, the Eastman Brass Quintet. Founded by Reynolds in 1962, by the 1970s the Eastman Brass Quintet was one of the most highly acclaimed collegiate chamber brass groups in the world, and it still exsited in 2009 as Eastman Brass, as it is no longer exclusively a quintet, per se. These recordings appear to be studio-made efforts that were made in the mid-'70s, and released on the collegiate-only Mark Custom label; they have surprising fidelity even at release.

In addition to Reynolds, who naturally played horn in the ensemble, another brass legend, Allen Vizzuti, was one of the two trumpets in the Eastman Brass Quintet of this era. Three of Reynolds' Centone are played, along with Suite for Brass Quintet (1963), the Concertare I for brass and percussion (1971), and the Concertare IV for brass and piano (also 1971). The last of those works are twelve-tone-derived compositions typical of the kinds of pieces one heard at American universities throughout the 1970s; they have held up the least well of the compositions represented here, though they do sound a little like the music of Gunther Schuller and utilize some elements of improvisation. The Suite, however, is a solid, pandiatonic and typically "American" brass piece; Reynolds seems a bit dismissive of this phase of his worklist when referring to it as "Hindemithian," but on the contrary this Suite is very original in approach and sounds great on the brass. The Centone, based on compositions ranging from Guillaume Dufay to Johann Joseph Fux, are clearly designed with modern brass instruments in mind and do not sound like arrangements of "old" music. The Centone I (1969) is particularly engaging with its bright rhythmic profile and use of canon and antiphonal voices.

The Eastman Brass Quintet were at least as proficient as the brass groups that were assembled for recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1960s; the sound here isn't in the least dated, and anyone with an interest in quality brass music should be ready to welcome Summit's Eastman Brass Quintet 1975 Archive with open arms.

© Uncle Dave Lewis , All Music Guide

CD 1 of 2
Verne Reynolds Composer Centone No.1, for brass ensemble Work 7:43 Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble
1	1.Gloria Deo	1:17			$0.99
2	2.I Love and Have My Love Regarded	1:59			$0.99
3	3.Come Holy Ghost	2:09			$0.99
4	4.Revecy Venir du Printans	2:18			$0.99
Verne Reynolds Composer Centone No.8, for brass ensemble Work 15:50 Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble
5	1.Paduana	4:10			$0.99
6	2.Galliard	1:28			$0.99
7	3.Paduana	4:02			$0.99
8	4.Galliard	1:38			$0.99
9	5.Paduana	2:53			$0.99
10	6.Galliard	1:39			$0.99
Verne Reynolds Composer Concertare No.1, for brass quintet and percussion Work Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble, John Beck Percussion
11	Concertare No.1, for brass quintet and percussion	13:01			Album Only
Verne Reynolds Composer Centone No.2, for brass ensemble Work 12:22 Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble
12	1.Overture	3:47			$0.99
13	2.Aria	2:29			$0.99
14	3.Menuet	3:13			$0.99
15	4.Air La Volage	1:14			$0.99
16	5.Gigue	1:39			$0.99
CD 2 of 2
Verne Reynolds Composer Concertare No.4, for brass quintet and piano Work Barry Snyder Piano, Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble
1	Concertare No.4, for brass quintet and piano	21:51			Album Only
Verne Reynolds Composer Suite, for brass quintet Work 21:47 Eastern Brass Quintet Ensemble
2	1.Toccata	3:14			$0.99
3	2.Chorale	4:51			$0.99
4	3.Scherzo	4:50			$0.99
5	4.Arioso	5:28			$0.99
6	5.March	3:24			$0.99