Bringing big brass and feelgood music to Harrogate
Mike Lovatt has performed with everyone from Shirley Bassey and Robbie Williams to Tony Bennett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, during an impressive career stretching back nearly 40 years.
However, the virtuoso trumpeter reckons this will all be topped when he brings his new music supergroup – Mike Lovatt’s Brass Pack – to play its live premiere at the Harrogate Music Festival this summer.
“There’s 25 of us which is pretty big for an ensemble,” says Lovatt. “We’ve got some of the best players in the world who I’ve handpicked to play in this ensemble. It’s going to be an amazing sound and I’m really excited about it. I’ve been a professional musician for a long time and I’ve done some fantastic things, but I know this will probably top the lot when I stand up there with my own group.”
Brass Pack was inspired by the iconic 1958 album, Big Fat Brass, featuring music arranged and composed by Billy May, the acclaimed American trumpeter and composer who wrote arrangements for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.
“It’s a big band record I’ve loved since I was a teenager,” says Lovatt. “It was swing and jazz and it had some standards I knew like The Continental and Moonlight Becomes You. But what I really loved was the sound and the fact it didn’t have saxophones and had French horns in their place, which you wouldn’t normally have in a big band.”
What started out as a lockdown video project involving a number of Lovatt’s musician friends and contacts has evolved into a big band featuring exciting new arrangements by Colin Skinner. The band itself features French horns along with piano, guitar, bass, drums, tuned percussion, harp, and tubas.
“The idea was to create something for 21st century audiences but with a nod back to 1958. For me, the musicians from that period, especially in Hollywood, were the best there’s ever been for that genre of music. As a brass sound what we’re doing is unique. There’s plenty of brass ensembles but this is something new.”
Over the years Lovatt has worked with some of the world’s best orchestras and performed at the Royal Variety Show and the BBC Proms. He’s also been a session musician on five of the James Bond films, including playing principal trumpet on the last Daniel Craig film, No Time To Die, and toured with the late Jessye Norman, regarded as one of the world’s great opera singers.
Now, though, he’s excited about bringing Brass Pack to Harrogate, where they will be joined by vocalist Matt Forde.
“We’re doing reimaginings of classic songs like You Make Me Feel So Young, My Way, or I’ve Got You Under My Skin, that people know and love. The audience is going to hear those but they’re going to be treated in a completely new and original way, but still with a flavour of those 50s’ arrangements.
“It’s not going to be all vocals, there’s going to be a lot of instrumentals. We’re going to start the concert with a big overture which will give a little taste of what’s to come, and at the end of the concert we’ll do tunes associated with Frank Sinatra at the movies, a kind of symphonic picture with brass.”
Lovatt, who will also be hosting free workshops to brass players of all ages in Harrogate on July 13, is delighted to be coming to the festival.
“Festivals like this bring communities together and it’s not just about people reminiscing. Most of our players are under 40 and we want young people to hear this music, so this is a great way of spreading the word about brass music,” he says.
It’s a style of music that Lovatt feels is still hugely popular. “It’s uplifting. It makes people smile and tap their feet, and it can evoke a happy memory. And that’s the appeal of Brass Pack – it’s upbeat.”
Mike Lovatt’s Brass Pack, Friday July 14, Harrogate Theatre, 8pm. Tickets £30. Box office: 01423 562 303 or book online here.