Electric Contact: A Jazz tribute to Tom McGrath

Edinburgh International Film Festival presents Electric Contact, a Jazz Tribute to Tom McGrath featuring  Tommy Smith, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and  actor Tam Dean Burn.  

Beauty and the Beast: A Fabulous new CD Review

Beauty and the Beast: The SNJO with special guest Bill Evans

“The whole orchestra plays brilliantly,…….well worth the wait.”

From the opening drum salvo and funky bass/ piano, this piece hits you and carries you along in a wave of euphoria. For those who remember Tommy Smith as a lyrical hard-bop sax player, the music here might not come as a surprise. What is, perhaps, surprising is the depth and complexity with which he uses the whole palette available in this jazz orchestra to colour and build the pieces in this suite.The pieces are not named but numbered 1-7. The motivation for the seven pieces here was a meditation on the duality of the human psyche – hence, Beauty and the Beast (although, continuing the Scottish theme, it could as easily have been Jekyll and Hyde).

Beauty and the Beast: A CD Review

SNJO Beauty And The Beast with Bill Evans

“…a magnificent achievement by all concerned.” Part 1: After a Kentonesque intro (had Kenton still been around) Bill Evans, who isn’t a reincarnated pianist nor an aka Yusef Lateef, erupts on soprano. This is definitely the Beast. Part 2: A change from major to minor mood suggests that the beast is eying up a young […]

Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain

Miles Davis and Gil Evans gifted Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain to jazz as vibrant, sultry and enormously satisfying pieces of modern music including such tracks as Summertime and It Ain’t Necessarily So.

The Legend of Charlie Parker: Herald Review

The Legend of Charlie Parker

Preservation and renewal were at the heart of this excellent celebration of one of jazz’s major pioneering figures. In the sixty-one years since his death, many have sought to capture Charlie Parker’s spirit. His tunes are still rites of passage for jazz players, and not just for those who take up his chosen instrument, the […]

The Legend of Charlie Parker: Scotsman Review

Charlie Parker

The past few years have seen the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra consolidate their international status and eclectically adventurous repertoire, having their sweet way with a Mozart piano, deconstructing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, collaborating fruitfully with American singers and Scandinavian bassists and, just this month, releasing yet another live concert album, this time recorded with US […]

Scottish National Youth Orchestra logo

Register to receive our updates