20 April 2024It's a first as orchestras combine in Rhapsodic concerts
Scotland’s two national orchestras, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra combine for the first time in a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for concerts at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and Glasgow Royal Concert on 3rd and 4th May.
Under the baton of conductor Bertie Baigent and with Japanese piano virtuoso Makoto Ozone as featured soloist, the combined orchestras will play a new, extended orchestration of the Gershwin classic by SNJO artistic director, saxophonist Tommy Smith.
“This is a milestone in the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s near thirty-year career,” says Smith, who also re-orchestrated the SNJO’s successful 2009 recording of Rhapsody in Blue. “To be invited to perform in collaboration with the internationally respected RSNO is an honour and a thrill. We’re very excited at the prospect of working with such an esteemed ensemble.”
A former child prodigy, Kobe-born Makoto Ozone had already played a piano recital at Carnegie Hall, New York when he was invited to join vibes virtuoso Gary Burton’s world touring quintet, in which he and Smith formed a lasting relationship.
“We’re delighted to be welcoming back Makoto, a real master and an old friend of the SNJO, to play on these concerts,” says Smith. “We’ve worked with him on several projects, including his jazz orchestration of Mozart’s Jeunehomme piano concerto and a tour of Japan when we performed Peter and the Wolf with Japanese screen actor Isao Hashizume in 2000-seat concert halls. We’re sure Makoto’s fantastic musicianship and pianistic skills will excite everyone who comes to hear him.”
The SNJO, with the outstanding Scottish pianist, Peter Johnstone, will also perform Duke Ellington’s Black & Tan Fantasy, Billy Strayhorn’s jazz arrangement of Morning Mood from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and German composer Florian Ross’s arrangement of the West Side Story Suite in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“In the second half of these concerts, the RSNO will be playing the suite from Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema classic Vertigo and their own version of West Side Story, which will feature SNJO musicians, drummer Alyn Cosker, trumpeter Ryan Quigley and saxophonist Helena Kay,” says Smith. “The two versions of West Side Story will allow the audience to contrast the different approaches and will make the programme all the more interesting, I’m sure.”
After the Edinburgh and Glasgow concerts, the SNJO and Makoto Ozone will perform Rhapsody in Blue in Aberdeen Music Hall on 5th May in a programme also including big band arrangements of music by Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Duke Ellington and Robert Burns.
19 March 2024New Focus appear at Perth Festival of the Arts
New Focus, featuring leading jazz musicians, pianist Euan Stevenson and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski, are among the artists lined up to appear at Perth Festival of the Arts, which runs from May 22 to June 1.
Stevenson and Wiszniewski will be presenting The Classical Connection, in which they highlight traits shared by classical composers and jazz musicians, at St John’s Church on Monday May 27. It’s an entertaining and informative show that includes plenty of illustrations of the duo’s superb jazz chops.
The festival’s music programme also features the internationally acclaimed Czech National Symphony Orchestra and top European ensembles II Giardino d'Amore, Tenebrae and the Hebrides Ensemble, as well as DJ Craig Charles and the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, and there’s a live brass band accompanied screening of Wallace and Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers and an appearance by comedian Rory Bremner.
08 March 2024National treasure Jock Duncan to be celebrated in new book
Jock Duncan, the revered singer of songs from the North-East of Scotland, is the subject of a new book to be published on March 17th.
Recognised as a cultural icon and one of Scotland’s greatest traditional singers, Jock Duncan grew up in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire and was part of the last generation of tradition bearers to inherit his songs from a living oral tradition.
He later moved to Pitlochry, where his sons, Ian and Gordon became leading figures on the piping scene. Father and sons had the distinction of all being recipients of the Herald Angel award, which the Scottish newspaper presented for exceptional performances in Edinburgh during the festival season.
The book, called Jock Duncan: The Man and his Songs and published by Rymour Books of Perth, includes the words and tunes of the songs Duncan sang together with detailed notes and a biography of the singer, who died aged ninety-six in 2021.
A new CD, containing many previously unavailable recordings, is being released by Springthyme Records to coincide with the book's publication.
A book launch and concert are being held at the Cowdray Hall in Aberdeen on Sunday, March 17 from 1:30pm to 3:30pm.
01 March 2024Classic albums by saxophone great Bobby Wellins re-issued
Jazz in Britain have released the two albums that the great tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins recorded for the Vortex label in the late 1970s.
Packaged as What Was Happening in a 2-CD set with previously unreleased live tracks, Jubilation and Dreams Are Free capture the classic Bobby Wellins Quartet at its imperious best.
Joined by Peter Jacobsen (piano, electric piano and organ), Adrian Kendon (bass) and Spike Wells (drums), Wellins was announcing that one of the most distinctive saxophonists anywhere was back after a period of inactivity, playing with his trademark sound and magisterial eloquence and fronting a great band.
Long unavailable, Jubilation and particularly Dreams Are Free will be welcome additions to any serious observer of the British jazz scene’s collection. Although not exactly over-recorded, Wellins made a number of albums in the wake of the Vortex releases, notably Making Light Work, which was produced in 1983 exclusively for staff at the Ercol Lighting Company in Germany and was finally made generally available by the Scottish label Hep Records.
Wellins also recorded with trombonist Jimmy Knepper and baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley, as well as – most famously – with pianist Stan Tracey, whose Under Milk Wood includes Wellins’ best known solo, on Starless & Bible Black. His Culloden Moor Suite, which lay almost forgotten for many years, was reactivated, toured and recorded by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, with Wellins as featured soloist, two years before the saxophonist died, aged eighty, in 2016.
What Was Happening is available from Jazz in Britain's Bandcamp page
15 February 2024Mavis Staples' Have a Little Faith gets Record Store Day vinyl reissue
Trailblazing blues label Alligator Records is releasing a deluxe 20th Anniversary 2-LP vinyl version of soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples' landmark 2004 release, Have a Little Faith, on Record Store Day, April 20th.
Have a Little Faith is the album that sparked Mavis Stapes' solo career and launched her into the musical mainstream.
An inspirational force in modern popular culture and music, Mavis Staples faced an uncertain future when her father – family patriarch and leader of the Staple Singers, Pops Staples – died.
She self-financed and recorded her own solo album, and after being turned down by major labels unable to see the commercial appeal of this legend's fresh, genre-busting approach to spiritual music, it was picked up by Alligator Records. The label's enthusiasm in working the album to press, radio and the public helped Mavis Staples fulfil her dream of a successful solo career.
"I was a Staple Singer," she remembers in the album's new liner notes. "I wasn't no Mavis Staples, the solo artist. But all of a sudden, I was so busy with interviews and television shows and radio stations and concerts. That was a shock to me, because I started asking myself, 'Now how long can this last?' Because they were playing that record everywhere, and the record sounded pretty good!"
Since the release of Have a Little Faith, Mavis Staples has been embraced by new generations of fans through her collaborations with artists including Ry Cooder, Levon Helm, Jeff Tweedy, and Neko Case. Her 85th Birthday Concert in Los Angeles on April 18 will endorse this with appearances by a cast including Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Norah Jones, Michael McDonald, and Keb' Mo'.