‘Music to celebrate the lighter nights’ is the tag line on the poster for Charnwood Concert Band’s next outing at St Mary’s, East Leake on Saturday 27th April (tickets available online or on the door). It will probably be dark by the time we come out but certainly light as we (and the audience) arrive.

It’s our first outing this year although several more are lined up over the summer and we’ve got an exciting programme lined up, with a fair amount of jazz pieces but plenty of other styles too. On the jazz side, I’m particularly looking forward to an arrangement of Joe Zawinul’s Birdland. I don’t quite have to live up to the standards of Jaco Pastorius (who played the original version of the track on Weather Report’s 1977 Heavy Weather album) as a bigger band has a lot more people to share the load but it is fast and energetic. Among the non-jazz pieces, we’ve got one that is new to us over the last term called Doctor Who: Through Time and Space (Murray Gold, arranged by Robert Buckley). For those who like tapping their feet as they listen, the last page has the challenge of lots of alternating bars of 4/4 and 3/4 at high tempo, but there are also some splendidly lyrical moments earlier in the medley and one of the classic theme tunes from the series.

All three of the related bands in the CCB cluster have been rehearsing hard since we got back in the New Year but this Saturday is the start of our 2024 concert season and I am looking forward to it.