SNJO Nu-Age Sounds: Planet World
Following the resounding success of the inaugural Nu•Age Sounds tour in 2024, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra continues to broaden its musical horizons tonight with specially commissioned music from eight of Scottish jazz’s exciting young stars.
The artists in tonight’s lineup are all distinguished, award-winning composers whose work displays superbly individual excellence in their craft. Their compositions will take you on a thrilling musical journey that celebrates innovation and harnesses the transformative power of a live big band.
“What makes this second Nu-Age Sounds tour particularly exciting is the way our composers have responded to a specific brief,” says SNJO founder and artistic director, Tommy Smith. “The narrative of Planet World calls for each composer to convey the character of a planet and its inhabitants as the universe becomes in danger of imploding.”
Jazz musicians are renowned for applying their imaginations in spontaneous situations, Tommy adds: “Planet World allows them to be super-creative as composers and to trigger their own creativity and that of the orchestra’s players in the heat of a live performance.”
The first intention in commissioning this suite’s music was to reflect the solar system’s awe-inspiring beauty and majesty. We also need to consider a situation where, in the distant past, all our neighbouring planets had abundant life and civilizations. In 2025, however, Earth is the sole survivor.
Each planet, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, has had its downfall and will be portrayed by a unique musical voice created by one of our eight composers. The suite ends with Earth and its own fight for survival as it now hosts citizens and creatures from all the other planets, who thrive in specific areas of Earth whose habitats suit their needs.
Mercurians are living near the equator and burying themselves deep down towards the Earth’s core but also visiting the Arctic. Venusians are living around the gases and volcanic topography of Nicaragua. Neptunians are in Antarctica where they are whipped by ice cold winds and smoking methane pipes.
Martians, meanwhile, are chilling in the plains of Mongolia. Saturn’s inhabitants have migrated towards the gases of Iceland’s fiercest volcanoes. Uranians are living under the ice of Greenland in their underground gassy cities, and sometimes visit the depths of our oceans, and Jupiterites swirl around in every hurricane, tornado, and storm on Earth.
Amid this science-fiction fantasy, the aim is to highlight the environmental issues that face us all. From greenhouse gas emissions and global warming to population growth, increased urbanization and beyond, we are – to quote a fifty-year-old song that remains as relevant today – “messin’ up the land, messin’ up the sea, messin’ up the air and messin’ up on you and me”.
There’s lots to think about as you leave the concert but while the SNJO and its composer-guests spread the message, they want the music, along with the video projections and their atmospheric imagery, to touch you emotionally and create a sense of connection. Welcome to the journey.
