The band’s latest CD, Let Everything Praise! has 65 minutes of fresh music, some written for the 2006 U.S. and Canada tour, by a range of composers from the well-known internationals, like Steadman-Allen and Redhead, to younger local men Roger Trigg and Richard Squibb.

Every piece contains, de rigueur, a hymn, but the advent of the ‘Praise and Worship’ songs has widened the scope for Army composers so while Squibb selects the old Founder’s Song, O Boundless Salvation, as the basis for Touching the Wave (which features the composer himself on piano), Trigg uses the contemporary hymn Worthy is the Lamb. Both arrangements work well.

Robert Redhead has written great music for the M.S.B. before – in 1978, Quintessence was a crowd-pleaser on a U.K. tour – and his Christ-Hymn is the major work on Let Everything Praise! It moves from a sad and solemn opening, tenderly played by the mellow end of the band, through to a magnificent setting of the inspiring modern Easter chorus, He is Lord.

Martin Cordner, a U.K. Salvation Army officer, provides three pieces, the opener Let Everything Praise! an urgent, driving arrangement of All Creatures of our God and King, a concert march in non-traditional form called Temple Visions, and Lord of Sea and Sky – all pieces of substance for band and listener. Cordner’s name will undoubtedly become increasingly well-known to the wider brass fraternity.

The CD is rounded out with Kevin Norbury’s imaginative cornet solo Flourish for the New-born Babe, effectively played by young principal, Neil Roper, Len Ballantine’s medley Heartbeat, a trombone ensemble with the self-explanatory title Ever-lasting Swingin’ Arms (Bill Broughton), Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing and a helter skelter Dance of the Tumblers (Rimsky-Korsakov arr. Bowen) – titbits for all tastes.

The innovation of a vocal track, His Eye is on the Sparrow, by the band’s resident non-playing singer, Rachel Peterson, is occasionally marred when the band overpowers the soloist, which is a pity since, for the rest of the CD, the band’s attention to detail, balance and musicality is irreproachable. It displays ample technique, dynamics from subdued to huge and a mastery of musical styles.

Ken Waterworth hoped the CD would have ‘something for everybody’ – a ‘Gee, I like that!’ moment – while being true to the Army’s mission of bringing the word, and music, of Christianity to the world.