Neville Young, reporter

This interesting concert started spectacularly, with the 2006 ITG Composition Commission, Way of Light by Alison LeBaron. This intriguing and involving work is written for solo trumpet, electronics and video and was an amazing way to start the day - performer Daniel Rosenboom standing motionless beneath the massive video screen on which a huge eye appeared … the electronics then started up and were eventually joined by the trumpet, cup muted, playing a long, quiet melody as the video and the electronic sounds slowly changed, bringing in new shapes and colours. The eye merges and mutates, becoming surf, a figure dancing. The trumpet part and the electronics increase in vigour as strange little sprites follow curved paths which turn out to be shaped along the dips and rises of power lines as a new image comes in, and so it goes on. I can't emphasize too strongly how impressive is the effect of the trumpet part's interaction with the video and the electronic sound track. Rosenboom's virtuosic performance added great excitement to the piece as we flew through fantastic landscapes or saw flashes of other images: a flutter-tongued passage gave way to a reflective, beautiful melody in the trumpet part. Both the electronic soundtrack and the video move in and out of naturalistic and more clearly artificial sounds and images; the tape offers sonorous, huge, resonant sounds alongside moments of more clearly obvious trumpet samples, so that at times Rosenboom is accompanying himself. This is a fine and fascinating work, which I would very much like to hear and see again.

Brian Shaw

The next section of the concert was a performance by Brian Shaw, the Silver Medallist in the 2004 Ellsworth Smith Competition. Shaw began with Joseph Turrin's unaccompanied piece Two Images, giving us a soft lyrical first movement on flugelhorn and pleasing the crowd with his warm, slightly veiled sound. In the second section, for trumpet, we heard a bold, exciting opening of big statements answered by flowing phrases and growing into some more expansive melodic moments. Even when the music is busy Shaw never sounds rushed: all is calm and precisely placed. He also has a great low register, warm and full of life.

The next piece was Three Microcosms for trumpet and percussion, by Dave Rivello. Shaw collaborated most effectively with the two excellent tuned percussion players, all three artists using a variety of techniques to provide a wealth of interest in these short but delightful pieces. Shaw's own work Only Space was the only piece on the programme with piano accompaniment, here ably provided by Leslie Spotz. Shaw explained that this was because his regular pianist David Hobbs is ill; he dedicated this performance of Only Space to Hobbs. This work shows its origins as a piece for soprano and piano; it has big, beautiful slow melodies and makes its presence as a song very effectively felt. Finally Shaw was joined by three colleagues for Kenny Wheeler's Trumpet Quartet, which was written specially for the Eastman Trumpet Ensemble, including Shaw, and which was heard at the 2002 ITG Conference, opening for Wheeler himself. It's a finely constructed piece offering great contrasts and a really interesting feel, and it received the performance it deserved from this excellent group.

Philip Dizack

The final part of the concert was a great set of three tunes from Caruso winner Philip Dizack, accompanied by the Rowan Faculty Jazz Combo. Dizack's technical security and improvisational imagination showed how he carried off the Caruso as he launched into the first number, his own fast swinging arrangement of the Jimmy van Heusen classic Polka Dots and Moonbeams. Next up was Walk Through Daydreams, Sleep Through Nightmares, a Dizack original which offered us, after a big, slow, luscious introduction, a nice relaxed open texture for the solos. This built to a monster climax as Dizack really wailed, exploring the extremes of the register, before the music calmed down to a beautiful chorale-like moment and eventually built to another stronger section before the end. The last and final tune, Beyond a Dream, is the title track from Dizack's current CD - indeed the other works heard this morning are on there too. Dizack explained that this is a love song and the warm, intimate piano introduction reinforced this. A great bass solo from Douglas Mapp, and nicely restrained piano work from George Genna led to extended soloing from Dizack in a relaxed but highly virtuosic section leading to a loud climax before a calm and beautiful ending: Dizack's last number was thus a fitting end to an enjoyable and interesting concert of the highest quality.