Scotland’s new wave of jazz talent blasted its way to the fore in this energetic and stylish evening of new music, great arrangements and committed performances.
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) has been delighting audiences for nearly thirty years, often with visiting international guest stars. This time, the orchestra’s artistic director Tommy Smith was showcasing the players emerging in Scotland over the past decade. Seven young musicians (and Smith himself with his young group KARMA) were each given a 12-minute slot to create, arrange, stretch themselves and present their music in a big band setting.
The result was a blast; exuberance and joy combined with high level musicianship, plus video projections specially created by Niki Cardoso Zaupa, made a packed and noisy Queen’s Hall feel very special.
The show opened with Paisley-born vocalist kitti diving into full-throttle soul and blues with her own song I Walked Away. Hearing this material with a conventional guitar band would be pleasure enough, but a full big band horn section, arranged by Fabia Mantwill, took it to another level. Graeme Stephen joined in the fun with a guitar solo as Wonderland led into Must Be Somethin’ with kitti adding vocalisations in a high-octane blues inferno.
BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022, left-handed double bassist Ewan Hastie next presented On Reflection and Down South, arranged by Florian Ross. This was indeed a more reflective section with Hastie taking the lead with a strong bassline and soloing with a wonderful tone. Christos Stylianides came forward for a fine trumpet solo before a 6/8 section with drum breaks from Alyn Cosker, who was at the heart of the action throughout.
Pianist Fergus McCreadie’s As The Mist Clears followed. McCreadie had played the previous two nights on this tour but was unavailable, his place being taken by another young Turk, Peter Johnstone. Rippling piano and sax harmonies led into muted trumpet. Konrad Wiszniewski finished the piece on soprano sax, forgoing his usual freebooting style for lyrical, melodic playing.
Tommy Smith then introduced KARMA, with Kevin Glasgow on electric bass joining Johnstone, Cosker and Smith for some virtuosic Breckerish high-energy fusion. The lilting Celtic feel of Land Of Heroes changed the mood, while a tenor sax cadenza with multiphonics saw Smith signalling the end, whirling-armed, Pete Townsend-style.
Helena Kay opened the second half with her own Turning Tides and Towards The Sun, sinuous tunes with careful lines that embody Kay’s own style. Kieran McLeod added a powerful trombone solo to Kay’s tenor saxophone, which had its own solo section of great gravitas. Noushy (aka Anoushka Nanguy) bossed the stage with red beret, big beats and searing trombone. Ryan Quigley produced top-note trumpet soloing that had the crowd whooping on Clock Don’t Stop, before Martin Kershaw added alto sax.
Matt Carmichael has been making waves with his Celtic-influenced tenor saxophone playing. He presented two new tunes, Mangata and Kite, opening with a sax chorale before bringing in brass. Carmichael has a reflective style and knows how to build a melody and create and release tension. Great power does not need a fast tempo!
Closing the show, multi-instrumentalist-producer Liam Shortall (aka corto.alto) presented specially orchestrated selections from his recent Bad With Names album. Playing both trombone and electric guitar, Shortall showed why his flair for complex written sections and dramatic improvising is proving a hit around Europe as the three trumpets (Stylianides, Quigley and Brinley Heywood-Snell) traded lines. What might be the longest last note in the history of the Queen’s Hall closed the set before everyone returned to the stage for a grooving C# minor jam.
Tommy Smith and the SNJO have been presenting the best of world jazz to Scotland over the past thirty years. This show, featuring musician-composers in their twenties, deserves to be seen around the UK and around the world as a landmark display of innovation, class and downright star quality.
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