The East London Community Band (ELCB) is a volunteer-run charity that gives musicians of any age, ability or instrument the chance to play music: from jazz, to early music, to classical. To celebrate their 50th anniversary they performed a multi-media event in screen 1 of the Genesis Cinema, an art-house cinema in a 19th century building.
The space between the screen and front rows was deep enough to accommodate a full orchestra. Impressively, the audience filled nearly all of the 566 seats. The ELCB exploited this combination of big space and big screen by laying on a programme that included various jazz combos, a percussion group, an early-music group, a documentary film, a big band, and an orchestra comprising woodwinds, brass, double bass, percussion, piano/celeste, and harp.
The repertoire played by these groups was equally diverse: from “Amazing Grace” and the tango “La Cumparsita” performed by the premier band (multi-generational beginner musicians) to excerpts from Handel’s Messiah performed by the early-music group, to jazz standards (such as “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Doxy”) performed by the jazz combos and big band, to Alexander Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto in Ab Major (1950).
Given the range of abilities, the level of performance across the whole programme was impressive. Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto in particular is a challenging score and was performed to a high standard, with Zoë Miara (a former ELCB member) a dazzling soloist. Also impressive was the fact that the band had different generations of composers writing material for them: classical composers Howard Jones from the NMC label (born 1948) and Lucy Armstrong (1991), and jazz saxophone sensation Emma Rawicz (still only in her early twenties), who conducted the big band for her compositions “Saudade” and “Time, and other Thieves”. The latter, written for the band and receiving its premiere, was enhanced by a dazzling tenor saxophone solo from Rawicz.
The big band’s director is jazz trombonist Rory Ingham, who has won the British Jazz Awards 2017’s Rising Star award amongst other nominations and awards, and who has played with many top names in jazz, including Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Evan Parker and Dave Liebman. The fact that musicians of his and Emma Rawicz’s calibre are prepared to work with the ELCB is a testament to the value of this great community service.
Happy birthday, ELCB, and long may you prosper.
