The Brass Project brings together two old allies of British jazz, saxophonist John Surman and composer and conductor John Warren. The album was recorded for ECM in 1992 and released in 1993. The first idea was to set Surman's improvising trio at the centre of a brass choir of trumpets and trombones. With Warren writing and conducting, it grew into a real large ensemble, with melodic writing that leaves wide room for the soloists.
Warren, a Canadian baritone saxophonist born in Montreal in 1938, had played on Surman's 1970 album How Many Clouds Can You See?, and their joint record Tales of the Algonquin followed in 1971. Here the trio has Chris Laurence on bass and John Marshall on drums and percussion, with Surman on soprano and baritone saxophones, alto and bass clarinets and piano. Around them are three trumpets, among them Henry Lowther, two trombones and two bass trombones. The music was recorded at Angel Studios in London in April 1992 and mixed at Rainbow Studio in Oslo that November, with Surman and Steve Lake producing.
The writing is shared: Surman wrote three pieces, Warren four (counting both parts of The New One Two), and two are joint compositions. Surman's The Returning Exile opens the set with pensive brass and bass clarinet. Warren's The New One Two swings, with Surman's soprano to the fore in the second part. Warren's Silent Lake is a straight ballad featuring Lowther's trumpet. The longest track, the eleven-minute Mellstock Quire / Tantrum Clangley, sounds calm on the surface but holds some of the liveliest playing on the record.
Writing for ECM Reviews in 2012, Tyran Grillo called it "an album of many moods" and "an indelible statement". The project outlived the record: Warren later led the Brass Project in concert, documented on the live album The Traveller's Tale, released in 2017.
This CD is the 2019 reissue in ECM's Touchstones series, which returns key albums of the catalogue to print in card sleeves with their original artwork. The Brass Project was first released in 1993 as ECM 1478, with liner notes by Surman.
