The Herald: A 5* Review for SNJO’s Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain

There will be jazz orchestra concerts that create much bigger musical storms and specifically Scottish National Jazz Orchestra concerts that feature more familiar instrumentation. This one, though, has to go down as particularly special. It was the sort of occasion that illustrates how there’s no substitute for being in the room where and when the […]

Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain: a 5* Review

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra stopped off at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh tonight as part of an all too short performance schedule performing “Sketches of Spain” and “Porgy & Bess”.  These two visionary collaborations between Miles Davis and Gil Evans marked a watershed point in the critics’ and public’s perception of Jazz as a […]

SNJO prepare to take on Miles Davis’ interpretations of jazz classics

Porgy and Bess / Sketches of Spain: A concert preview. The SNJO covered both albums with Gerard Presencer early in its history. This time around, the now internationally celebrated orchestra features another guest trumpeter, plus a stalwart of their own, with Sketches being fronted by the acclaimed young player Laura Jurd, currently a BBC New […]

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.