Music Glasgow Jazz Festival

PREVIEW EXPERIMENTAL/ FREE-JAZZ GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA WITH GEORGE BURT AND SUSAN ALCORN Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 26 & Sun 27 Jun

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, led by saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, can always be relied upon to add some experimental intrigue to the largely classicist Jazz Festival, and this year sees them develop their relationship with Baltimore pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn (pictured). Taking the instrument far beyond its country and western roots, Alcorn brings elements of free- jazz, modern classical and Indian ragas to her playing. In addition to performing with GIO, Alcorn will be reprising her duo with guitarist George Burt. ‘I remember thinking it was quite loud, dense and busy,’ says Burt of last year’s GIO Fest set, ‘but listening back to it now there are substantial passages of very delicate, almost oriental atmospheres, with a lot of contrast between the sustain of the pedal steel and the decay of the electric guitar. Susan is a composer also, and her work is suffused with a very delicate concern with melody and sustained and reflective moods. So the plan at the moment is to play some of her stuff, maybe some other pre-composed things as well some improvised pieces’. The duo hope to have a collaborative CD ready for the gig.

The concert will also feature the premier of a new piece by GIO’s German double bassist Armin Sturm, inspired by the life cycle of insects. ‘It takes GIO’s approach to large ensemble improvisation into new areas,’ adds MacDonald.

The following evening sees the Burt- MacDonald Quintet team up with the great avant-garde English pianist Keith Tippetts, to perform new material and spontaneous compositions. (Stewart Smith)

PREVIEW JAZZ LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Sun 27 Jun

Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra have performed in Edinburgh a couple of times, but this closing night concert will be the Glasgow debut for the celebrated New York-based big band.

They take their name from their base of operations, the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Columbus Circle, an adjunct of the Lincoln Center built specifically for the jazz orchestra in 2004. As Marsalis (pictured) regularly points out, it is the first formal concert hall in the world tailored for the acoustic demands of jazz rather than classical music.

Marsalis is arguably the best-known name in contemporary jazz, and has long been associated with what his detractors see as a conservative, overly tradition-rooted approach to jazz that is at odds with the experimental dimensions that historically fuelled the music’s march through the 20th century.

It is a claim he refutes vigorously, pointing in the case

of the LCJO to a roster of music that runs from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and the music of Ornette Coleman as proof of breadth, and insists that their mission is not defined by preserving old music in stasis on the bedrock of swing and blues. ‘We play a lot of different music and a lot of new

music, and when we do play something from the jazz repertory, we play our own solos and come up with our own thing. And yet for some reason, although we are doing all this new music all the time, we are perceived as a repertory orchestra.’

While the trumpeter acknowledges that they are very proud of the tradition of jazz to which they happily belong (and they run a strong education programme in schools), he is equally adamant that it is not a yoke around their necks.

‘The fact is I love jazz, I love to swing, I love jazz musicians, and I believe that jazz has to be portrayed and celebrated for what it is. This music helps our children to understand who they are.’ (Kenny Mathieson)

PREVIEW JAZZ STAN TRACEY Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jun

Back in 1997, the Glasgow Jazz Festival staged a special concert celebrating Stan Tracey’s 70th birthday. We wondered then how much longer the pianist would continue to perform. The answer is that he is beginning to look indestructible.

Regularly dubbed the Godfather of British Jazz, Tracey now has a more formal title to his name. He was made a CBE in 2007 in recognition of his services to the music, but perhaps a more telling honour came much earlier in his career, when he was the house pianist at the then new Ronnie Scott club in Soho in the mid-60s, and had saxophone giant Sonny Rollins asking all and sundry if people here realised just how good he was.

Tracey’s stylistic debt to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk is often cited, but the truth is that he

developed an individual style that long ago went beyond any such indebtedness. His deadpan demeanour and dry wit cloaks a razor-sharp musical intelligence.

In an era when artists routinely have their own record label, the pianist was a pioneer of that trend

back in the days of vinyl with his Steam Records, now re-vitalised as ReSteamed, dedicated to issuing and reissuing his recordings (the latest offering is a 2-CD set featuring his Hong Kong Suite and Amandla Suite for an eight-piece band). As well as his jazz festival date with his quartet (with guest appearances from Ryan Quigley and

Martin Kershaw), Tracey will also play in Haddington the following night. (Kenny Mathieson)

70 THE LIST 10-24 Jun 2010