Pinot Noir Brass ChristmasPinot Noir Brass featuring Rick Braun Jeff Bunnell John Dickson Nick Lane and Doug TornquistGenre: Holiday & WeddingDescription: The highly anticipated release of Pinot Noir Brass Christmas a spiritedly arranged soulfully and powerfully performed holiday themed recording that follows in the tradition of and puts a contemporary holiday twist on the traditional five horn brass dynamic inspires a whimsical deep dive into the history of North American brass quintets. Decades before Nick Lane (trombone) Rick Braun (trumpet/flugelhorn) Jeff Bunnell (trumpet) John Dickson (French Horn) and Douglas Tornquist (tuba) – five of Los Angeles’ most prolific and acclaimed horn players - serendipitously joined forces on this current project the first commercial contemporary brass quintet appeared in the early 1950s with the New York Brass Quintet followed in the 1960s by the American Brass Quintet Chicago Brass Quintet and Eastman Brass Quintet. With the 1970 founding of Canadian Brass the brass quintet became a popular entertainment attraction in the chamber music world. The ensemble established both the style and popularity of the format throughout the world performing more than 500 concerts and creating a library of 600+ compositions. Canadian Brass’ The Christmas Album (1990) is an all-time favorite of Braun’s. The group began talking vaguely about possibly committing to a recording at some point and Lane realized that tuba would be a necessary component to make a brass quintet album viable should it ever happen. When Tornquist came on board a more robust sound for Lane’s charts took shape and those chill conversations about a project became more serious discussions about potential repertoire. A Christmas collection made sense for purely creative reasons as well as commercial viability and the opportunity to generate perennial fan interest. At one point Braun engaged the quintet (including himself) to play at a home holiday party he was hosting. The plan solidified further when Braun invited the quintet to join him in playing a live Christmas show at Rick’s Café the popular weekly YouTube series the trumpeter hosted during the pandemic. “Pinot Noir Brass Christmas was the culmination of the work the quintet had been doing to create a sound we all truly loved says Lane. “Because the magic of these kinds of endeavors often comes and goes it felt right to capture these moments as best we could. We contemplated recording tracks at my house or a church or auditorium but the tall ceilings in Jeff’s living room lent themselves to the best possible acoustics. We called ourselves the Pinot Noir Brass because at some point we felt like every get-together was also a great excuse to bring and try out different wines while we rehearsed and recorded making every gathering a wonderful and inspiring wine-tasting event.
