[ad_1]
Scottish Nationwide Jazz Orchestra – Nu Age Sounds
(Queens Corridor, Edinburgh, 3 March 2024 – dwell evaluate by Mark McKergow)
Picture credit score Patrick Hadfield
Scotland’s new wave of jazz expertise blasted its technique to the fore on this energetic and trendy night of latest music, nice preparations and dedicated performances.
The Scottish Nationwide Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) has been delighting audiences for almost thirty years, usually with visiting worldwide visitor stars. This time, the orchestra’s creative director Tommy Smith was showcasing the gamers rising in Scotland over the previous decade. Seven younger musicians (and Smith himself together with his younger group KARMA) had been every given a 12-minute slot to create, prepare, stretch themselves and current their music in a giant band setting.
The consequence was a blast; exuberance and pleasure mixed with excessive stage musicianship, plus video projections specifically created by Niki Cardoso Zaupa, made a packed and noisy Queen’s Corridor really feel very particular.
The present opened with Paisley-born vocalist kitti diving into full-throttle soul and blues together with her personal tune I Walked Away. Listening to this materials with a traditional guitar band could be pleasure sufficient, however a full large band horn part, organized by Fabia Mantwill, took it to a different stage. Graeme Stephen joined within the enjoyable with a guitar solo as Wonderland led into Should Be Somethin’ with kitti including vocalisations in a high-octane blues inferno.
Not but a subscriber of our Wednesday Breakfast Headlines?
Be part of the mailing record for a weekly roundup of Jazz Information.
BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022, left-handed double bassist Ewan Hastie subsequent introduced On Reflection and Down South, organized by Florian Ross. This was certainly a extra reflective part with Hastie taking the lead with a robust bassline and soloing with a beautiful tone. Christos Stylianides got here ahead for a high-quality trumpet solo earlier than a 6/8 part with drum breaks from Alyn Cosker, who was on the coronary heart of the motion all through.
Pianist Fergus McCreadie’s As The Mist Clears adopted. McCreadie had performed the earlier two nights on this tour however was unavailable, his place being taken by one other younger Turk, Peter Johnstone. Rippling piano and sax harmonies led into muted trumpet. Konrad Wiszniewski completed the piece on soprano sax, forgoing his typical freebooting model for lyrical, melodic taking part in.
Tommy Smith then launched KARMA, with Kevin Glasgow on electrical bass becoming a member of Johnstone, Cosker and Smith for some virtuosic Breckerish high-energy fusion. The lilting Celtic really feel of Land Of Heroes modified the temper, whereas a tenor sax cadenza with multiphonics noticed Smith signalling the tip, whirling-armed, Pete Townsend-style.
Helena Kay opened the second half together with her personal Turning Tides and In direction of The Solar, sinuous tunes with cautious traces that embody Kay’s personal model. Kieran McLeod added a strong trombone solo to Kay’s tenor saxophone, which had its personal solo part of nice gravitas. Noushy (aka Anoushka Nanguy) bossed the stage with crimson beret, large beats and searing trombone. Ryan Quigley produced top-note trumpet soloing that had the gang whooping on Clock Don’t Cease, earlier than Martin Kershaw added alto sax.
Matt Carmichael has been making waves together with his Celtic-influenced tenor saxophone taking part in. He introduced two new tunes, Mangata and Kite, opening with a sax chorale earlier than bringing in brass. Carmichael has a reflective model and is aware of learn how to construct a melody and create and launch stress. Nice energy doesn’t want a quick tempo!
Closing the present, multi-instrumentalist-producer Liam Shortall (aka corto.alto) introduced specifically orchestrated picks from his current Dangerous With Names album. Enjoying each trombone and electrical guitar, Shortall confirmed why his aptitude for advanced written sections and dramatic improvising is proving successful round Europe because the three trumpets (Stylianides, Quigley and Brinley Heywood-Snell) traded traces. What is likely to be the longest final observe within the historical past of the Queen’s Corridor closed the set earlier than everybody returned to the stage for a grooving C# minor jam.
Tommy Smith and the SNJO have been presenting one of the best of world jazz to Scotland over the previous thirty years. This present, that includes musician-composers of their twenties, deserves to be seen across the UK and around the globe as a landmark show of innovation, class and downright star high quality.
[ad_2]