Thinking of Ray on the anniversary of his passing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Premru

Raymond Eugene Premru (June 6, 1934 – May 8, 1998) was an American trombonist, composer, and teacher who spent most of his career in London, England.

Life and career

The son of a Methodist minister, Premru was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in the Finger Lakes region south of Rochester. As a teenager he started playing the trombone and studied with Dale Clark at the Eastman School of Music's preparatory department. After high school he enrolled at Eastman to study trombone with Emory Remington and composition with Louis Mennini and Bernard Rogers.

Soon after graduating in 1956, he travelled to England for composition study with Peter Racine Fricker, intending to stay a few months. He began freelancing on trombone and bass trumpet, becoming a regular in the London jazz scene with groups like the Kenny Baker Dozen. In 1958, he won the bass trombone position in the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he performed for the next 30 years. In 1958 he married Susan Talbot, with whom he had two daughters.

As a session musician, he worked with Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles (on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). In 1964 he joined the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, for which he wrote several pieces; he remained a member until Jones's retirement in 1987. He co-directed and composed for the Bobby Lamb/Ray Premru Big Band.

After a term as a sabbatical replacement at Eastman, he decided in 1988 to retire from the Philharmonia and return to the U.S. to accept a professorship at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. He continued to perform occasionally and to compose.

In 1990 he married Janet Jacobs. In 1997 he was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music. During the same year he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he died at the Cleveland Clinic the following May at the age of 63.

Music

Premru’s compositional output runs from jazz arrangements to choral works, and includes pieces commissioned by numerous leading orchestras, festivals and organizations.

In 1962, he did work on the feature film Reach for Glory in the capacity as music conductor.[1]

In a 1981 interview with Capital Radio, he cited as influences the music of Berg, Prokofiev, Bartók and Ives, in addition to jazz and early Bach studies. Throughout his career his language remained one of relatively conservative mid-century modernism, with a bent toward gentle lyricism; though he wrote some works in a lighter vein, and jazz idioms and techniques pop up in even his most “serious” scores.[1] [2]

His large-scale works include concertos for Trombone (1956), Trumpet (1983), and Tuba (1992); Music for Three Trombones, Tuba and Orchestra (1985); a Concerto for Orchestra (1976); and two symphonies (1981 and 1988). Most were commissioned and premiered by major ensembles (the symphonies by the Philharmonia and Cleveland orchestras, with conductors Lorin Maazel and Vladimir Ashkenazy, respectively); however none have been commercially recorded as of 2007 and only the Trumpet and Tuba concertos remain in print (also as of 2007).

Perhaps his most lasting legacy is in his chamber works for brass, several of which remain available in print and on recordings, including: the Concertino for trombone and woodwind quartet (1954); Music from Harter Fell (1973) and the nine-movement Divertimento (1976), both for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble; the Brass Quartet of 1960; Two Pieces for three trombones (1951); and In Memoriam (1956) and the Tissington Variations (1970), both for trombone quartet.

Thanks Gabe! <EMOJI seq="2665" tseq="2665">♥️</EMOJI><EMOJI seq="1f44d" tseq="1f44d">👍</EMOJI>

One of my greatest moment was to handshake with Ray Premru and say hello. :good: I think it was 1984. And I listen him live with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. Amazing!!

I didn't know about his jazz carrier and not much about his composing life. He did compose a bass trombone solo piece. "Prelude and Dance". And a trombone quartet "In Memoriam" Both of them are worth to take a closer look.

Didn't he play the low notes on the James Bond soundtrack? And he played with Paul McCartney?

I listen a lot to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble where he played for many years. If I should compare their style of playing it would in fact be with the Chicago Symphony brass.

Anyway this was great reading and thank you for the post Gabe! :good:

Leif

One of my all-time idols. I grew up with the sound of Ray in the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, as well as Frank Mathison in the London Symphony Orchestra and later Bob Hughes following Ray into the Philharmonia and then the LSO after Frank left.

Not a single day goes by when I don't think of and imitate his playing.

Always great to hear from the British trombone scene.

I really enjoy listening to British brass and trombone recordings, e.g. Philip Jones, London Brass, Bones Apart or Septura, but of course also symphonic stuff and soundtracks. In my view there is some "culture" in the sound that differentiates clearly from others.

What are your favorite recordings with Ray Premru playing?

I grew up on Philip Jones recordings. Love that ringing sound. My quartet has also played In Memoriam several times. He really helped form the role of the bass bone in brass ensembles.

I had the privilege of attending the last "Philip Jones Brass Ensemble International Summer School" way back in 1981. The trombone tutor was Denis Wick but in the middle of the week, the PJ quintet was joined by the extras to form the 10 piece group and Ray Premru was on bass trombone. We had a fascinating discussion about bass trombones as we were both playing Holton TR 169s at the time. He was a very informative and helpful gentleman.

The whole week was a wonderful experience and I came away with wealth of information about playing the trombone and memories of performances and wonderful asides during the masterclasses. You try explaining a joke that was hilarious in English, to a South Korean bass trombone player, especially when the joke was slightly risque!

Memories of low brass heroes who are no longer with us; Denis Wick, Ray Premru and John Fletcher (Tuba extraordinaire)

Cheers

Stewbones43

[quote="MStarke"]What are your favorite recordings with Ray Premru playing?[/quote]

All of the PJBE catalog is the best start. You can hear the richness of his sound and the way he supported the ensemble with full, juicy overtones particularly well on John Locke's Music for His Majesty's Sackbuts and Cornetts, which appears on various collections. Sometimes I listen to the Earl of Oxford's March 10 or 12 times in a row. Chris Hazell's Three Brass Cats...

A great example of the sheer power he was capable of in the orchestra is a recording of the Vaughan Williams Symphony #4 with Sir Adrian Boult and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

I'm sure others have more recommendations.

For a master class in how to play orchestral bass trombone, look no further than the EMI release of the complete Tchaikovsky symphonies with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti. For me, there is no better recording. It is still my go-to Tchaikovsky set to this day and I've been listening to it since I was in school in the early 1980s.

Never met the man but I'm a Fan!!!

[quote="GabrielRice"]<QUOTE author="MStarke" post_id="275370" time="1746790190" user_id="4208">
What are your favorite recordings with Ray Premru playing?[/quote]

All of the PJBE catalog is the best start. You can hear the richness of his sound and the way he supported the ensemble with full, juicy overtones particularly well on John Locke's Music for His Majesty's Sackbuts and Cornetts, which appears on various collections. Sometimes I listen to the Earl of Oxford's March 10 or 12 times in a row. Chris Hazell's Three Brass Cats...

A great example of the sheer power he was capable of in the orchestra is a recording of the Vaughan Williams Symphony #4 with Sir Adrian Boult and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

I'm sure others have more recommendations.
</QUOTE>

Gabe -

Do you know if it's Premru on the Slatkin/Philharmonia Vaughn-Williams Symphonies as well? The 4th Symphony in that collection is another "must listen" recording as .well!

Jim Scott

[quote="CalgaryTbone"]Do you know if it's Premru on the Slatkin/Philharmonia Vaughn-Williams Symphonies as well? The 4th Symphony in that collection is another "must listen" recording as .well![/quote]

As far as I can tell that set was initially released in 1993, 5 years after Ray retired from the Philharmonia. It was probably Bob Hughes playing bass trombone.

Thanks - another great recording! Those Philip Jones Brass recordings were such an influence on a couple of generations of brass students- especially Ray and John Fletcher.

Jim Scott

[quote="Savio"]One of my greatest moment was to handshake with Ray Premru and say hello. :good: I think it was 1984. And I listen him live with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. Amazing!!

I didn't know about his jazz carrier and not much about his composing life. He did compose a bass trombone solo piece. "Prelude and Dance". And a trombone quartet "In Memoriam" Both of them are worth to take a closer look.

Didn't he play the low notes on the James Bond soundtrack? And he played with Paul McCartney?

I listen a lot to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble where he played for many years. If I should compare their style of playing it would in fact be with the Chicago Symphony brass.

Anyway this was great reading and thank you for the post Gabe! :good:

Leif[/quote]

The music of Premru really helped me love music even more when I was a student and had the opportunity to rehearse and perform them.

Playing his quartets were more than satisfying....they were and are life-affirming.

When I was around 6 years old, my Dad bought an old Phillips 4 track Reel to Reel stereo recorder from our local market and started to listen to the many hours of recording already on this machine. Then one day I heard this music

belt out and immediately ran into our Living room to listen to it as I loved the sound I was hearing, I played this piece over and over again being in ore of the sounds I was hearing, at this age, I didn't even know what a Trombone was let alone who I was listening to but knew from that moment I wanted to be able to play like this, something happened.

At the age of 12, I started senior school, me and my friend were asked by the head if we wanted to learn to play a musical instrument and to be the first ever music students of the school. We agreed and selected our instruments, I instantly ran over to the Trombone and blew into it, I loved it and started my music lessons. Within a few weeks of starting, I managed to convince my Dad to let me take his Recording into School so I could play the music I listened to years before to my teacher, Ah yes he said, this is a brass group called the Phil Jones Brass ensemble, that piece is called the Blues March, and that Man playing there on Bass Trombone is the great Ray Premru .....

So thanks to my Dad, my teacher and Ray Premru, I fulfilled my dream of becoming a Bass Trombone player, playing that very same part in lots of great semi-pro brass ensembles.

I do believe in Fate..... Thanks Mr. Premru

Is anyone aware of a solo recording or performance of Ray Premru ? From a live recital maybe ?

[quote="RustBeltBass"]Is anyone aware of a solo recording or performance of Ray Premru ? From a live recital maybe ?[/quote]

You can catch a little here and there, but he never did a solo recording and I don't know of any solo recital that was recorded.

The most obvious solo on record is from High Anxiety Bones, and Ray is featured on the Grieg Elegy. https://www.albanyrecords.com/catalog/troy0346/