The highly anticipated release of Pinot Noir Brass Christmas, a spiritedly arranged, soulfully and powerfully performed holiday themed recording that follows in the tradition of and puts a contemporary holiday twist on the traditional five horn brass dynamic, inspires a whimsical deep dive into the history of North American brass quintets.

Decades before Nick Lane (trombone), Rick Braun (trumpet/flugelhorn), Jeff Bunnell (trumpet), John Dickson (French Horn) and Douglas Tornquist (tuba) – five of Los Angeles’ most prolific and acclaimed horn players - serendipitously joined forces on this current project, the first commercial contemporary brass quintet appeared in the early 1950s with the New York Brass Quintet, followed in the 1960s by the American Brass Quintet, Chicago Brass Quintet and Eastman Brass Quintet. With the 1970 founding of Canadian Brass, the brass quintet became a popular entertainment attraction in the chamber music world. The ensemble established both the style and popularity of the format throughout the world, performing more than 500 concerts and creating a library of 600+ compositions. Canadian Brass’ The Christmas Album (1990) is an all-time favorite of Braun’s.

The group began talking vaguely about possibly committing to a recording at some point, and Lane realized that tuba would be a necessary component to make a brass quintet album viable, should it ever happen. When Tornquist came on board, a more robust sound for Lane’s charts took shape and those chill conversations about a project became more serious discussions about potential repertoire. A Christmas collection made sense for purely creative reasons as well as commercial viability and the opportunity to generate perennial fan interest. At one point, Braun engaged the quintet (including himself) to play at a home holiday party he was hosting. The plan solidified further when Braun invited the quintet to join him in playing a live Christmas show at Rick’s Café, the popular weekly YouTube series the trumpeter hosted during the pandemic.
“Pinot Noir Brass Christmas was the culmination of the work the quintet had been doing to create a sound we all truly loved,” says Lane. “Because the magic of these kinds of endeavors often comes and goes, it felt right to capture these moments as best we could. We contemplated recording tracks at my house, or a church or auditorium, but the tall ceilings in Jeff’s living room lent themselves to the best possible acoustics. We called ourselves the Pinot Noir Brass because, at some point, we felt like every get-together was also a great excuse to bring and try out different wines while we rehearsed and recorded, making every gathering a wonderful and inspiring wine-tasting event.”

Performed, recorded and mixed by The Pinot Noir Brass, Pinot Noir Brass Christmas features the core unit of Rick Braun (trumpet/flugelhorn), Jeff Bunnell (trumpet/piccolo trumpet), John Dickson (French Horn), Nick Lane (trombone) and Doug Tornquist (tuba), with drums by Greg Bissonette on “Joy to the World” and “Frosty the Snowman” and Grammy-nominated keyboardist Philippe Saisse adding piano to “Silent Night.”

For Braun, the opportunity to play with Pinot Noir Brass harkens back to the classical horn ensembles he played with as a student at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY in the mid-70s – long before he toured with Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Sade and became a multiple #1 Billboard charting icon as a contemporary jazz artist over the past 30 years. “For a brass player,” he says, “the brass quintet format offers some of the tightest structures and most demanding playing possible, where all vulnerabilities are exposed and everything has to be accomplished with five unique voices. Pinot Noir Christmas is a chance to go back to my roots and explore this style playing a classic repertoire while recalling fond memories of my early days. More than simply fun, playing with this quintet has helped me improve my playing as a trumpeter, which will certainly impact my solo career in the coming years.”