‘March to the Scaffold’ from Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
Or CHASE.
Oingo Boingo
Well Chicago has already been mentioned, so my next idea would be Ska music…in general…well some of it crosses over into a more punk or reggae feel, but most of it has a good strong brass section.
This has brass, and probably just about every other material every made,
Brass can be very naughty, probably NSFW, admit it, you don’t think of anything except for one thing only when you hear this,
Miles Davis has so much great stuff I wouldn’t even know where to begin, though this may be a start. From the Gil Evans albums I always loved both Summertime and his version of the Concierto de Aranjuez.
Just a warmup for the following two BS&T albums. While David Clayton-Thomas added a lot, the horns got even better and the mixes less muddy.
How about Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes?
Pretty much anything by Herb Alpert or Louis Prima.
But here’s an obscure one: there’s a song called “Come Follow the Band” from the musical Barnum. I once heard an instrumental version played mostly by brass. In the beginning it was just a tuba, joined I think by a clarinet. Then others came in. Would love to find that again.
I used to own a pair of cufflinks that Sousa had given to an old friend of my family. He gave them to me in return for some work I did for him. They were beautifiul, made of ivory and silver. Being a teenager I wore them out one drunken night and lost them.
The brass band traditions from the Balkans are amazing - full of energy. Wonderful music to get drunk to. Examples:
Believe it or not, it was just this year – this year – that I learned that my favorite “Sousa march” wasn’t a Sousa march after all. And the way the low brass comes in at 1:44 in “National Emblem March” (Vermonter E.E. Bagley) is thrilling to me. (Read the YouTube comments in the “more” section.)
And I must add a favorite Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration Blues For Pablo and others from Miles Ahead.
Hah! I get to be the one to mention one of the greatest brass-driven songs of the 70s: “My Old School” from Countdown to Ecstasy by Steely Dan.
There are a number of songs by Van Morrison with great brass charts, such as “Domino”.
Sinfonietta by Janacek. This is the finale, which largely repeats the opening. At 6:42 I believe I see a couple of Wagner tubas (see below). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjz8VzyzPqc#t=6m30s
Any Wagner excerpt CD will have lots of good brass parts. And he invented the Wagner tuba specifically for the Ring cycle.
Ride of the Valkyries http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92OBNsQgxU
prelude to act 3 of Lohengrin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CumBIiOdpV8
In the overture to Tannhauser, the horns carry most of the pilgrims’ chorus. Just listen to the whole masterpiece.
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDwiYOCnuao
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVnZZekYMrY
The Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale by Berlioz.
Almost any Stan Kenton tune will have good brass but one of my all time favorites doesn’t seem to be linkable to anywhere I would care to put a link to.
Artistry in Boogie I found some state college jazz band butchering it on youtube.
Cuban Fire is an great Kenton Album
After seeing the commercial for that car with toys I went and looked “How you like me now”. The band is called The Heavy and the album is called The House that Dirt Built. Nice horn stuff there.
If jazz/funk fusion from the early 70’s is your thing, it will be hard but seek out Bill Chase.
Bill Chase