Mini to Monster!, Stafford Festival, 19th May 2006

The warm acoustic in the nave of St Mary's, Stafford and an appreciative audience provided an encouraging send-off for the NSC's globe-trotting concert on the 19th May, when it presented a colourful and energetic programme of world dance.

Starting in 18th century England with a Handel Hornpipe and finishing in Spain with Ravel's Bolero, this whistle-stop tour visited north and south America with a rag and a tango, central Europe (Bartok's Rumanian Dances), the mystic orient (Nigel Wood's Under the Veil) and an African township (Nigel's mellow Safaria), dipping its toes into the underworld (Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre and Nigel's Where Spirits and Demons Dance) a couple of times on the way.

Stafford's resident sax supremo Chris Gumbley soloed in his own quite inimitable style through Veil, Viladesau's Sa Roncadora and Richard Ingham's Mrs Malcolm, while Keiron Anderson's unstinting attention to baton and presentation freed up Nigel to tootle on his tiny soprillo – Philip Buttall's showpiece for this piccolo sax, Waltzing Soprillda, looks as if it is already a "signature" item.

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