Reviews

The members of True North Brass produce our finest fivesome since The Canadian Brass. This CD ["Strong and Free"] is infectious music-making.

One group making a big name for itself in Canada and around the world is the brass quintet True North Brass. This quintet is a great quintet with a versatility that takes them just about anywhere musically – from jazz and blues, to serious brass compositions, to arrangements of traditional Chinese melodies. Any brass quintet from Canada will be compared to The Canadian Brass and True North Brass can cut it. Their versatility in all kinds of material, tight ensemble work, the arranging and composing skills of the members; clear, bright recordings all add up to success here in Canada and now around the globe. The full five stars.

Take five of the country’s most eclectic, virtuoso brass players – proud to shake a few maple leaves from the tree – add in some electrifying playing and some witty commentary, and you have a concert by Toronto’s True North Brass. [Music Around Us (MAU)] showcases the Brass in concert from the Guelph Spring Festival, as the Festival Season on MAU continues. They include tuba player Scott Irvine’s original compositions, trombone player Alastair Kay’s arrangements of jazz standards and the world premiere of Toronto composer Jim McGrath’s Trois Hommages.

Canada, as many Canadians know, has a successful brass quintet, but there is room for another, especially one that plays with the homespun spirit of the True North Brass… The playing is distinguished by light tone and crisp attack, qualities that sometimes elude the True Northerners’ most obvious competitiors.

A splendid new brass quintet has arrived in our midst. May its debut album have many successors.

In terms of sheer technical prowess, True North Brass proves to be a spiffy group, eager to show off individual skills and fully able to achieve superb accuracy of pitch and blend of tone; their tightness of ensemble can be really exciting…There can be little doubt that True North Brass has cut an impressive debut disc.