Review

Mark Nightingale
Lucky Dip:

Coventry, , United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Publishers
Date of Publication: 2005
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano
Secondary Genre: Elementary Material - solo

If all work and no play make Jack a dull boy, Mark Nightingale’s Lucky Dip will serve as an effective antidote to dullness. In this set of fourteen character pieces, the composer surveys popular idioms of the last hundred years—a sort of “Young Person’s Guide” to popular music. The work contains a waltz, a rag, a samba, several ballads, several types of swing, a boogie-woogie, a shuffle, and a “half-feel funk” piece. The programmatic movement titles serve to pique interest—titles like “Bound to Gallop,” “The Witch’s Caldron,” or “Sneak and Scare.”

Nightingale writes fluently for the trombone, and his colorful piano part provides an effective backdrop. As one might expect, the work contains rhythmic challenges. The performer will face other challenges unique to the varied idioms, especially differentiating styles of articulation. Tessitura falls well within the reach of an advanced-intermediate student—F to a1. Although the movements are usually less than two minutes long, a complete performance of the work might be too long for a younger student.  One could easily pick and choose favorites to perform. Nightingale’s compositional approach to the many styles proffered in Lucky Dip is intentionally stereotypical, but at times is quite clever. This work is guaranteed to help lift personal practice time out of the doldrums. 

-Paul Overly
Bob Jones University