Back in January, fans of Manchester’s Beats & Pieces Big Band were invited to make suggestions via the Serious blog for a pop song they’d like to hear scored for big band. The song choice was made in early Feb and then band leader Ben Cottrell and his 14-piece outfit undertook the ultimate challenge: to score it, rehearse it and premiere it in just over a fortnight, for their album launch on 20th Feb 2012 at London’s Ronnie Scott’s and perform it for the rest of the tour.
Out of all the entries that came in, David Bowie’s Let’s Dance! was picked as the winning song to be scored for big band. Concert promoters Serious filmed the winning track in its entirety at Ronnie Scott’s. Listen to the funky results below.
Before their album launch, Chris Corbishley – a former member of Young and Serious – also interviewed band leader Ben Cottrell about the genesis of the band, their relationship with Ronnie Scott’s and the new album Big Ideas and caught up with some of the audience afterwards to find out what they thought.
“Beats & Pieces is to the big band tradition what Polar Bear is to the saxophone led quartet” (London Jazz Festival)
Out on Monday 12th March, pre-order a copy of their new album Big Ideas right here:
If you haven’t heard them live yet, here are some more opportunities:
No shows booked at the moment.
