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 […]
Effervescence: Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra
The Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra (TSYJO) pops all the corks in a magnum-sized case of fizzing jazz with Effervescence; a brand new CD out now on Spartacus Records.
Beauty and the Beast: A great CD Review from Dan McClenaghan for All About jazz
A great CD Review from Dan McClenaghan for All About jazz The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, SNJO, under the leadership of saxophonist Tommy Smith, has proven itself to be one of the premier large ensemble outfits out there.
Modest Man of Modern Jazz Singing. Concert preview
Kenny Washington used to see Wynton Marsalis around New Orleans and be so awestruck that he didn’t dare go up to the trumpeter and say hello. He wasn’t to know back then that thirty years and more later, the awe would be reciprocal and that when Marsalis restaged his Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio, Blood On the Fields in 2013 […]
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
“…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 […]
A Christmas Festival of Jazz: A Review
A Christmas Festival of Jazz with the SNJO and TSYJO They better watch out, better not cry, better not pout because, as the song doesn’t go on to say, the next generation might be after their jobs. There was no sense of anti-climax in the “feeder team” – the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra – […]
The Songs of Mancini and Mandel
Award-winning master vibraphonist Joe Locke and singer extraordinaire, Kenny Washington join the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra to weave their unique spell around the timeless songbooks of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mandel.
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
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 […]
