I was up in Glasgow for the Jazz Festival, and what they call the Homegrown Showcase, a platform for up-and-coming Scottish musicians. As last year, I was impressed with the strength of the scene and by the maturity of the fusions between Scottish traditional music and jazz. John Goldie Quartet with traditional accordionist Angus Lyon did this very successfully as did Fraser Fifield, who played bagpipes, whistle and saxophone. Fraser began and ended his set very impressively with a strong bagpipe sound over a jazz groove and is definitely one that I am interested in and seeing what emerges in his playing. I do think, however, that he needs a gentler, less overpowering drummer.
Other highlights were more straightforwardly jazz as with the Ryan Quigley Big Band playing music inspired by Ryan’s hero, trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, and a totally improvised set with steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and straightforward guitarist George Burt.
And I watched the England Germany debacle in a Glaswegian pub where everyone was ecstatic at England’s humiliation!
Tags: Glasgow Jazz Festival, guitar jazz, Homegrown Showcase, improvised music, Scottish traditional music fusions with jazz
One Response to “Glasgow Jazz Festival”
Tony,
I know its a very, very long shot, but is Susan Alcorn in any way related to Alvin Alcorn, (who used to play trumpet with Kid Ory’s band (amongst others both before and after) back in the ’50s!).
I met Alvin in 1980 and still believe that he fitted the Ory band perfectly and was perhaps Ory’s greatest trumpet lead – except for Louis!
B.
July 16th, 2010 at 6:23 pm