PREVIEW GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL : HOMEGROWN l
Various venues, Glasgow, Fri ; 27-Sun 29 Jun
The annual Homegrown showcase at the Glasgow Jazz Festival has expanded considerably since the inaugural event in 2005. which featured a single concert with four bands at the Ramshorn Theatre. This year the event stretches to 12 gigs over three days, with a couple of high- profile support slots thrown in for good measure.
The festival has always found space for native talent. but Homegrown was devised as a more structured platform for emerging musicians to impress . both the public and — more crucially — ? an invited group of promoters and agents. Singer Cathie Rae has administered the event from the outset, and explains the thinking behind the expansion. .
‘We decided that the audition-style concerts with everyone having their 20-minute slot wasn‘t the best way to present the artists. or the best way for the delegates to hear them. We have had some additional funding from the Scottish Arts Council this time. and taken the Showcase Scotland event at Celtic Connections as our model.’
The Homegrown concerts are , labelled in the festival programme. and offer an attractive and varied line-up. with newer names like Joe Wright ranged alongside the likes of Kevin MacKenzie. David Milligan, Ryan Ouigley and Paul Towndrow (pictured).
‘We have a wider range of promoters coming this year, and we
PREVIEW GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL SNJO PLAYS STEELY DAN Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jun
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra have always
‘l’m a huge fan of Fred Sturm - whatever this guy arranges turns to gold, and if it was gold before it’s now chocolate. He is fantastic. Whether it’s Steely Dan or Astor Piazzolla, Fred Sturm truly understands how to
are making it clear that we expect them to come up with bookings! As well as the official Homegrown concerts they will also be able to hear other Fringe gigs and so on that weekend.‘ (Kenny Mathieson)
covered a wide-ranging repertoire, from swing era staples such as Ellington, Basie and Goodman through to newly commissioned arrangements and compositions from cutting-edge contemporary jazz writers. Their latest outing, Do It Again: Three Decades of Steely Dan, will take them into new territory even by their omnivorous standards.
Mind you, if any of the great rock bands of the 705 offered themselves as prime contenders for jazz treatment, Steely Dan would probably be top of the list. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s compositions lend themselves to sophisticated arrangements, and the band’s music often had a distinct hint of jazz running through it anyway.
Saxophonist Tommy Smith, the director of the SNJO, explained that the arrangements that will be played in the concert are by American composer Fred Sturm. The music has a major role for a guitar soloist that will be filled by Graeme Scott.
make a jazz orchestra expressive and sing.’
The eleven chronologicalIy-presented arrangements
they will play were originally commissioned by the Hessischer Rundfunk Big Band in Frankfurt, and
recorded in 2003. They stretch from ‘Do It Again’ from 1972 through to ‘Two Against Nature’ from 2000, and include material from Can’t Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic,
Katy Lied, Aja, Gaucho, Two Against Nature and
Fagen’s The Nightfly. Sturm has approached the music
in the spirit of creative re-composition rather than
straightforward orchestration of the existing material.
‘Fred claims that his voice as a pop composer
evolved a step behind each new Becker and Fagen recording,’ said Smith. ‘He admits to taking liberties with the tunes, but cites the fact that when the Woody Herman band did some Steely Dan material in the 805, Fagen and Becker preferred the ones that took the
most creative approach to their tunes.’ (Kenny Mathieson)
PREVIEW GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL BOBBY WATSON Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Sat 28 Jun
There was a time when Bobby Watson was a regular visitor to these parts. both in his own right and with the great 29th Street Saxophone Quartet. but it has been a while now since we had the pleasure of hearing him live.
The hard-hitting post—bop alto saxophonist is a distinguished bandleader and educator. He will be joined in his Live & Learn Sextet by long-standing associate Curtis Lundy on bass. alongside some newer names on the jazz scene. a combination he sees as maintaining a key jazz tradition.
‘The interaction between old and young jazz musicians have been vital to the development of jazz. and has produced both innovative and profound music over the past century.’ says Watson. ‘Today. we stand on the shoulders of that system of mentoring and apprenticeship.’
68 ‘I’HE LIST 19 Jun—3 Jul 2008
Watson is from Florida. where he graduated from the University of Miami's jazz course. then served his own apprenticeship in New York with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in a four-year stint in which he also acted as the legendary drummer‘s musical director.
‘I moved to New York in August. 1977, and Art asked me to join the band in October. That was very fast for New York. but I realised that a lot of the cats there weren't really serious. I had practised more than most of them, so when I got there pepple thought I had already been in a band. It was a high level in New York. but not everybody was at that level.‘
Watson heads what is something of a mini-fest on alto saxophone in the final weekend of the festival. with appearances also scheduled for fellow Americans Lee Konitz and Herb Geller, Dutch saxist Tineke Postma and our own Laura MacDonald. all primarily alto players and all well worth catching. (Kenny Mathieson)