The title track of Damon Brown's European FAM recording and featured again on Good Cop, Bad Cop, Harold's Souk' is a tribute to the great Harold Land.   It is a superb, small-group original composition by Damon that reflects the quality and originality of his prolific output.   Opening with a wailing, soulful call from the horns accompanied by some free drumming, the piece relaxes into a latin groove for the theme and solos.   The arrangement is scored for Trumpet, Tenor, Alto and Rhythm and there is a full 'control score'.

Damon suggests that the piece is graded 'moderately easy' because the range and rhythm should not extend a reasonably competent group.   He has extended the arrangement to include an alto part, if you want to increase the instrumentation, although the trumpet-tenor quintet, played on the recording, perfectly covers the unison and harmonies.   Each part has some suggested scales for solos and Damon has written a solo line for the Trumpet chorus.   Because the 'A' sections are underpinned by one minor chord using just the triad accompaniment, there is a great deal of freedom in you solo development to use all the minor scale variations.   For this piece, Damon particularly liked mixing Dorian, Aeolian, Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales, which is reflected in his suggested solo.   The piece has a 'free' feel to it - so go ahead and enjoy!

Photo courtesy Bob Meyrick

• Downloads
• Only 3 sample pages of the piece (from the trumpet, tenor and piano parts) are displayed on your monitor and you can get a full pdf download of all the parts and a 'conductor score' by clicking [this link]
• A download of the full MP3 audio version of the composition, played by the Damon's Quintet, is also available by clicking [this link]

© Damon Brown 2007.   After leaving the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Damon Brown's unique trumpet sound and approach to music earned him the admiration of both musicians and audiences in a surprisingly wide variety of musical settings.   This is reflected, perhaps, in his sideman activities where he has toured internationally and recorded with Benny Golson, Steve Grossman, Maxi Priest, Paul Weller, the 'Pasadenas' and acid jazz group 'Push', together with Ska scene artists, Prince Buster, Desmond Decker, the 'Specials' and, most notably, the Jamaican trombonist, Rico Rodriguez.   More recently he has contributed to funk/drums and bass/hip hop genre, working with AdamF.   This crossover with dance and pop culture has been an important factor in Damon's development as a composer and his style, although firmly rooted in the 'blue-note' tradition, incorporates all those diverse influences.   The composition 'Harold's Souk' is a fine example of Damon's composing and arranging talent.

You can access Damon's 'Killer Shrimp' recording 'Sincerely, Whatever' by clicking on the image and you can download the full track of 'On A Misty Night' via the download tab on jazzorg's main menu.   Click [this link] to get to a commercial source of Damon's recorded output.     Tell me more about Damon Brown

Downloading of copies of the music manuscript are subject to the Jazzorg Licence 2, described under the 'Copyright' menu tab.       You can discuss or comment on this piece in the forums.