Tony Banks: Five Tony Banks, Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Choir & Nick Ingman

• Tony Banks (b. 1950):
• 1 Five (Arr. N. Ingman): I. Prelude to a Million Years 15:32
• 2 Five (Arr. N. Ingman): II. Reveille 08:57
• 3 Five (Arr. N. Ingman): III. Ebb and Flow 12:48
• 4 Five (Arr. N. Ingman): IV. Autumn Sonata 10:14
• 5 Five (Arr. N. Ingman): V. Renaissance 10:14
• Total Runtime 57:45

Info for Tony Banks: Five

Tony Banks, the renowned founder member and keyboard maven of the rock band Genesis, continues his acclaimed series of orchestral compositions with Five. The suite opens with Prelude to a Million Years, originally commissioned for and performed at the Cheltenham Music Festival. Banks’ signature melodic gifts and feel for cinematic scale are all in evidence in Five, just as they were in Six (NX 2986) and Seven.

Tony Banks, the renowned founder member and keyboard maven of the rock band Genesis, continues his acclaimed series of orchestral compositions with Five. The suite opens with Prelude to a Million Years, originally commissioned for and performed at the Cheltenham Music Festival. Banks' signature melodic gifts and feel for cinematic scale are all in evidence in Five, just as they were in Six (8.572986) and Seven (8.557466), 'a work of stirring beauty' (ProgSheet). First released by BMG Records in February 2018, Naxos is proud to present this recording which is described by Stage and Cinema as 'gorgeous, transporting music sounds exactly like a soaring soundtrack'. CrypticRock gave this recording 5 out of 5 stars: 'Five is therefore no different from what one would expect from this artist: stunning, evocative, beautifully-orchestrated, and timeless. With five marvelous pieces of brilliance, Five is a shining gem of sonic beauty that is truly deserving of your attention and a round of emphatic applause.'

Tony Banks, piano
John Barclay, cornet, trumpet
Frank Ricotti, percussion
Skaila Kanga, harp
Martin Robertson, duduk, saxophone
The Czech National Symphony Choir
Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Nick Ingman, conductor

Tony Banks
is a founding member of Genesis along with Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel and Anthony Phillips and, after a few incarnations, the band evolved further with the introduction of Phil Collins, and with Steve Hackett who replaced Phillips. Genesis became one of the major exponents of progressive rock music in the early seventies. In 1975 Peter Gabriel left the band to pursue a solo career and Phil Collins replaced Gabriel as lead vocalist. Genesis went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1980s and 1990s with albums such as Duke and We Can’t Dance.

Tony Banks has pioneered many unique keyboard and synthesiser sounds throughout his career. Music historian Wayne Studer referred to him as ‘the most tasteful keyboardist of prog rock’. In addition to his five solo albums A Curious Feeling (1979), The Fugitive (1983), Bankstatement (1989), Still (1992) and Strictly Inc (1995), Tony Banks composed the soundtrack for The Shout (1978) (with Mike Rutherford), starring Alan Bates, Lorca and the Outlaws (1984), and Quicksilver (1986), starring Kevin Bacon. The music from these two latter films ended up on an album entitled Soundtracks (1986), with Toyah Wilcox, Fish from Marillion and Jim Diamond.

When Michael Winner invited Tony Banks to write the score for his film The Wicked Lady (1983), starring Faye Dunaway, it gave him the opportunity to work with an orchestra, which he had not experienced before. The arranger Christopher Palmer was brought in to orchestrate his piano scored music. In 2004, as a result of that experience, Tony Banks was inspired to record his first orchestral album Seven: A Suite for Orchestra with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, for Naxos. Ivan March in his Gramophone review said of Seven, ‘A rock musician goes ‘classical’ – with pleasing and often effective results… for Banks has a genuine melodic gift… The recording is good, … acceptably spacious …’

Booklet for Tony Banks: Five