Review

Jim Hopson
Meat Salad:
Unaccompanied bass trombone

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score

Primary Genre: Solo Bass/Contrabass Trombone - unaccompanied

Meat Salad is a showstopping crowd-pleaser oozing funk and flash. Jim Hopson has nailed the boisterous ‘slap-bass stylings’ and funk included in the work’s description. The energy created will please any audience and have them craving more. Meat Salad is every bit as animated as the urban legends and Epic Meal Time episodes suggest.  This is music wrapped in bacon, dipped in sauce, and deep fried!

Meat Salad isn’t your mother's normal summer potluck recipe; the piece requires an advanced performer. The register, pedal FF to c2, quick-wide leaps, and fast turns require attention. However, the key and constant groove are accessible and can serve as a challenging work for a degree recital. Hopson, a trombonist himself, uses idiosyncratic settings of technical passages that lay easily on the horn. The extended techniques, trills, growls, and glisses lighten up the work. Meat Salad contains more flare than your standard steak and potatoes.

Written for Ilan Morgenstern, the composer and Mr. Morgenstern have released a highly popular video that includes an accompanying cow-bell. The performance is dripping with style and gives a great indication of what is involved with Meat Salad. Whether you enjoy overstuffed meat within meat or you are a vegetarian, Meat Salad will leave your audience salivating.