A work scored for brass band with narrator (optional), composed by Andy Scott. Commissioned & funded by Foden’s Brass Band.

 

Premiered at the Festival of Brass, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK, 27th January 2012, by Foden’s Band conducted by Mike Fowles, and Rex Richardson (narrator and jazz trumpet). Recorded on the CD 'Spirit of Foden's', the music of Foden's Band Composer in Residence, Andy Scott.

 

“This piece took over twenty years of learning about the music of the extraordinary  American bass player and composer Charles Mingus. Learning on the bandstand, as a saxophonist, playing his charts with different bands. Transcribing and arranging his charts for different groups, and finally, composing a work that attempts to capture the spirit of Mingus’ music within my own musical identity.”

 

The widow of Charles Mingus (1922-1979), Sue, continues to champion the huge legacy that her husband left, and after sharing the video that Andy & Foden’s Band made about Spirit of Mingus with the 250,000 Mingus facebook followers, offered the following words, “The music is great! You captured the spirit of Mingus!