Global - I don’t know how smart a move it was to request a review of The Bradley Years CD by someone who, in the “Brados” composition a couple of years ago wrote lines like, “Major force/You really was de boss” and “Gifted for days/So deserving of praise”. Not much doubt, for sure, about where this reviewer’s head is with respect to Clive Bradley’s abilities.
Be that as it may, I was constrained to recall, in listening to this recording of Pantonic Steel Orchestra executing Bradley’s arrangements, something he reportedly said some years ago regarding a competing band’s Panorama piece: ”They’re putting too much music in the music.” While it probably would have been seen as a derisive comment, especially by the targeted arranger and his minions, Bradley’s pithy summation at once spoke to what on the one hand has plagued many a Panorama arrangement, and his own very lucid understanding of what such an effort should entail. Bradley studiously resisted putting too much music in the music. click for more
