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I hope you’ll find something here to enjoy reading and if you want to get in touch and say hello, that's fine by me. Please don’t contact me for advice on buying skis or hostage negotiation, though, as you need different, vastly more qualified Rob Adamses for those services. And for goodness sake hire the correct Rob Adams regarding wedding photography because I’ve beheaded more people than Henry Vlll with a camera in my hand.

Album of the week:

Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra (Spartacus)

An end of term report on saxophonist Tommy Smith’s dedication to nurturing young Scottish jazz talent through this orchestra would reflect on the progression of various members through to the award-winning (and shortly to be ECM recording artists) Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and TSYJO producing all five so far Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year winners. Of perhaps greater interest to potential listeners, however, is the news that this second release, following 2007’s Exploration, illustrates the startling maturity and genuinely high grade creativity that Smith draws from his charges. These are front rank arrangements of a diverse range of material, including Ellington standards, Steely Dan’s roaring Black Friday, Astor Piazzolla’s Michelangelo and the no doubt fun but no less demanding Flintstones theme, all played with professionalism and enthusiastic ensemble zing and featuring superb individual contributions. Smith doesn’t like singling out musicians, preferring understandably to focus on team effort, but Joe Wright’s tenor saxophone feature on Smith’s own Numbers really is worth the entry price alone.

From The Sunday Herald, February 5, 2012.

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