REVIEW: MALCOLM MCNAB/EXQUISITE
posted by James Reel
If you’re not a trumpeter, you’ve never heard the name Malcolm McNab. But you’ve heard him play; since 1970, this Hollywood studio musician has contributed to some 1,500 movie soundtracks, including prominent solo work in Dances with Wolves and L.A. Confidential. When John Williams guest-conducted the Tucson Symphony once in the 1990s, with no disrespect to the local trumpet section he wanted to be sure he had a trumpeter who could handle the Hollywood style, so he brought McNab with him. In Los Angeles, this fellow commands the respect of a Wynton Marsalis.
Hollywood is no refuge for musicians who can’t cut it in the classical world. Studio musicians must be able to sight-read anything, from simple melodies to wild excursions, and they have to put it all across with style and confidence, knowing that their work will be heard again and again, if sometimes only subliminally, by millions of people over the course of decades. (The next time you slip Jaws or E.T. into your DVD player, you’re hearing Malcolm McNab—for the umpteenth time—in the trumpet section.)
Now McNab comes to the forefront with a classical CD, Exquisite, revolving around, of all things, Billy May’s trumpet transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The music is challenging enough for the instrument for which it was written, and the trumpet version is even tougher. But McNab has worked on the score for more than 25 years, and in this recording he plays it as if it were the most idiomatic trumpet concerto in the world.
Well, almost. Tchaikovsky’s double and triple stops are impossible on the trumpet, and the brass instrument can’t match the violin’s variety of tone colors. (Part of the problem here is that McNab’s microphone is too close to allow his instrument’s sound to bloom.) Aside from the double stops, though, McNab plays the music pretty much as written, violinistic as it is. Something as straightforward on the violin as playing little ornamental notes while crossing the bow quickly from one string to the next translates into a wide and awkward leap on the trumpet, but even here McNab manages to sound more like a musician than a Hollywood stunt man.
Most of his runs are pristine, with an even tone across the wide range. His flashy first-movement cadenza ventures into upper and lower extremes I didn’t know were possible on the trumpet (in truth, the bottom note sounds more like gastric distress than music). The second movement showcases McNab’s lyrical abilities, and throughout the three-movement work the soloist seems to have mastered the technique of circular breathing; you never hear him pause for a gulp of breath.
Through overdubbing, McNab also plays both solo parts in a transcription of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins. There’s a long tradition of reworking Baroque concertos for trumpet, although the source material was usually for oboe rather than violin. Even so, this concerto lends itself more naturally to the trumpet than does the flashy Tchaikovsky. McNab’s playing is crisp in spirit, although in practice it’s more legato than Baroque specialists might wish.
The disc continues with a little suite called Saloon Music by the accomplished film composer Bruce Broughton (Silverado, Tombstone). Scored for cornet and pit orchestra, the suite has much in common with Jacques Ibert’s Divertissement, although Broughton’s music is more syncopated and American-sounding.
The disc concludes with Frank Zappa’s brash and tricky Be-Bop Tango. McNab toured with Zappa during the latter’s Grand Wazoo days, and it’s amazing that McNab ever managed to play this difficult piece live. He certainly pulls it off in this studio recording.
Throughout, McNab receives excellent support from a small pickup orchestra, no conductor credited as far as I can tell. If the idea of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto played on the trumpet is not just too freakish for you to wrap your mind around, this disc is well worth your attention. It’s apparently available only through McNab’s own Web site.
