11 August 2009

Rhapsody In Blue

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s Rhapsody in Blue takes George Gershwin’s classic jazz age concerto on an unprecedented adventure.

Re-orchestrated by SNJO director, saxophonist Tommy Smith, this Rhapsody in Blue of the twenty-first century was written to feature Scotland’s world-class jazz pianist Brian Kellock, who played the original Rhapsody as a music student in Edinburgh in 1981.

Familiar themes, including the iconic clarinet glissando and Gershwin’s heartbreaking nostalgic refrain, have been used – respectfully – as source material and reworked into a fifty-two minute epic that flows through exciting up-tempo movements, rhapsodic blues passages, a sensational Cuban fantasia and hard swinging jazz choruses, showcasing SNJO’s magnificent ensemble playing and top class, creative soloing.

SNJO album - Rhapsody In Blue
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