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Scotland's Finest Improvisers
 Scotia's Ain Jazzy Bairns -
The McJazz Mafia
-
Up an gae's a
wee blaw!
Bobby Orr
  Bobby
Orr was born on 15 August 1928 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland..His
childhood was spent surrounded by, and immersed in, the rich drumming traditions
for which the Scots are world renowned. Bobby's father was a drum major, and it
was probably written in the stars that he would become a drummer The fact that
he began at the tender age of three gives you some idea of the talent we' are
dealing with here.
- Art Blakey says, Hey man, you gonna
get up and play? I say no, but he grabs me by the scruff of the
neck, and I go up and play"
-
^ Swinging New York In 1956
Bobby regularly played at Ronnie
Scott's Club, backing top American jazz stars like Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Milt
Jackson, and Dizzy Gillespie Bobby Orr is one of the true talents of
British drumming - a simple summing up for a man who has spent the best part of
70 years playing the instrument we love. His drumming credentials are exemplary
and to talk of the past is to see a drummer of an ilk and style that are all too
rare these days. But the thing that most impresses is the inspirational way
Bobby Orr still plays at 78 years old and recently appeared with Tommy McQuater
the veteran Scots trumpeter at Ealing Jazz Festival before his demise.
 Jazz Eddie - while erecting
posters for Gig 17 in Princes Risborough I was approached from behind by a curious
senior citizen - mmm Jazz Eh - have you heard of Bobby Orr the world famous
Jazz Drummer? the gentleman said - "I have as it happens" was
my terse and forward gazing reply - "Well that's me!" said Bobby - a
enthusiastic conversation then ensued about jazz and lapsed well into the
Scottish dialect. "Tell 'em I am still alive and drumming" he added.
Walters Ash is Rich beyond compare and Scotland is Fair Scunnert. Bobby had a spell
as trumpeter with Basil Kirchin's band before giving up to concentrate on
Drums after embouchure problems. Bobby's Trio + Guests appear at a
fortnightly Sunday Jam Sessions at the Red Lion - Bradenham, Bucks. Sundays
fortnightly 7 - 9.30pm
Bobby Orr is available for Drum
Tuition and Drum Clinics for all aspiring drummers in Bucks Berks or Oxon - there is no finer local
Tutor. If you wish to register your interest and gather like minded
students together he would be delighted to impart his insight and skills to all
such enthusiasts. - Contact
Bobby Orr Drum Tuition
 Sebastian Rochford,
Aberdonian whose massive hair looks as if someone has plugged him into the mains, has a
musical background that explains much of the group Polar Bear's eclectic sound.
"I first started playing drums along to Prince and Grace Jones records," he
says. "Then I got into Iron Maiden, Metallica and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin."
Only later did he discover jazz, and subsequently shared a teacher with
orchestral percussionist Evelyn Glennie. "A lot of heavy metal drumming is
highly technical and fast," he says. "But what I love is music that doesn't
compromise, whether that's Tom Jobim or Pig Destroyer." Roachford has
little time for jazz purists: "From the start jazz was a mixture of musics - New
Orleans was a giant melting pot. I tend to like bands who are vague as to what
their genre is." Plenty of critics have felt this new wave of jazz so
distinctive that it ought to have its own label, (candidates include post-jazz
and "skronk"), but Roachford is wary of pigeonholing. "I admire artists like
Radiohead or Miles Davies, who have made very different records. In the end it's
just their music, which they have stamped their identity on, and which people
tell each other about. There's a precious freedom to manoeuvre that we'd hate to
lose."
 John Burgess -
Zeus!............of Saxophone
Former
Berklee College student Scotland's
John Burgess
has toured extensively throughout Europe,
Scandinavia
and the Middle East, performing with many of the UK's finest
jazz players. He has made several recordings as a sideman and in 1989 was the
winner of the prestigious NFMS. Concert Artist Award.
During a lengthy sojourn in
San Francisco, Burgess immersed
himself in the highly competitive Bay Area scene and he has appeared at jazz
clubs all along the West Coast of America.
In addition to
contemporary jazz, Burgess has performed recitals of both
baroque and 19th century French saxophone music and
his tenor saxophone has been featured in several highly regarded
blues
and jump-jive groups.
John also plays with widely renowned Henry Franklin Trio.
The members of the L.A. based group have performed either collectively or
individually with Sonny Rollins, Pharaoh Sanders, Zoot Sims, Dexter Gordon and
Freddie Hubbard.
Burgess has appeared on several notable recent recordings including "COMPARED TO
WHAT" with the Harry Beckett Quintet, "DIAMONDS IN THE NIGHT"
by the highly acclaimed folk duo Andy Shanks & Jim
Russell and "PENDULUM" by London's ground-breaking drum'n'bass/jazz
outfit "Blowpipe".
John is
touring the UK in March & Sept 2007 - Concert Jazz is fortunate to be within the frame.
www.urge2burge.wordpress.com
John
Burgess Video
 In Johns Own Words-
I
lived in London from 1987 till 1994 and worked all kinds of gigs with lots of
great players like Alan Skidmore, Harry Becket, Jim Mullen, Chris Biscoe, Stan
Sultzmann, Claude Deppa, Tony Marsh, Mario Castronari, Ed Jones and Mark
Sanders. Mark and I along with Pete Townsend (no, not THAT Pete Townsend) won
the NFMS Special Concert Artists Award in 1989 which seemed a big deal at the
time. It got us a gig in Sellafield anyway. I left in '94 to study with
George Garzone at Berklee and then moved to San Francisco to study with Joe
Henderson. I played alot of jazz and blues gigs both in Boston and in the Bay
Area and recorded my first CD as a leader in '97 in Hollywood with Henry
Franklin, Willie Jones III and Theo Sanders but it was when when I went north to
Seattle in '98 that I began working steadily. I studied there with Don Lamphere
and played everything from duos to big bands. I came back to the UK in '98 and
began travelling all over playing gigs all over Europe and in North Africa,
Canada, the west coast of the States and the Middle East. I've also been able to
work with Evan Parker, Maggie Nichols, Gunter Baby Sommer and Barry Guy as a
member of GIO (Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra) since coming back. In 2000 I
played a festival in beautiful British Columbia and I've been hooked ever since.
I go ever year and as well as playing a bunch of jazz gigs I 've recorded there
as a leader with the wonderful Canadian guitarist Bill Coon as as a side man
with great BC bassist Scott Watson. I played one of my favourite gigs of the
last 20 years at the Commodore Ballroom in groovy downtown Vancouver in 2005
when I was hired to play 'Kasmir' with The White, a Led Zep tribute band out of
Toronto.
 Alyn
Cosker
Alyn Cosker has emerged as the top young drummer on
the Scottish jazz scene, handsomely fulfilling the promise he showed
as a teenager in the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra.
He has gone on to work in a variety of other contexts, from the
Tommy Smith Quartet and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra to
Celtic-rock outfit Wolfstone.
His work as a composer is less familiar. ‘There are a lot of styles
going on within his trio, and he wanted to challenge himself’
The trio first came to notice in a sensational set at the Glasgow
Jazz Festival’s Homecoming concert last year, introducing electric
guitarist David Dunsmuir to a hitherto unsuspecting jazz audience,
the better-known Ross Hamilton completing the trio on bass.
 Mark
began his musical training by earning a degree in music performance at the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music. He moved to London to study on the postgraduate jazz
course at the Guildhall School of Music after winning the Young Jazz Player of
the Year Competition in 1991. Since leaving college Mark has worked in a
wide range of musical settings including classical work and shows but is most at
home in the jazz world. He has played in all of London’s top jazz venues and at
jazz festivals up and down the country. A recent highlight was a week’s
engagement at Ronnie Scott’s with the John Critchinson Quartet opposite the
Mingus Big Band. Mark’s own group features his clarinet and tenor with the
brilliant guitar playing of Colin Oxley and is featured on his highly-rated CDs
“I Won’t Dance” and the brand new “How My Heart Sings”. Mark is a member
of the Back To Basie Orchestra and the John Wilson Orchestra. He also enjoys
appearing in a two-tenor “Al and Zoot” group with Jim Tomlinson and a
two-clarinet “Benny” quintet with Julian Stringle. Mark was the featured
soloist in a gala “Tribute to Artie Shaw” concert in Dublin’s National Concert
Hall in January 2006. A hand-picked 26 piece orchestra accompanied Mark in
scintillating performances of original Shaw arrangements including the infamous
Interlude in Bb for clarinet and string quartet and Shaw’s virtuoso Concerto for
Clarinet .The concert was such a great success that Mark was immediately invited
back to perform a Benny Goodman programme in April 2007 and to reprise the Artie
Shaw with Strings Concert in October 2007.
 Tommy Smith's
special talent was obvious as soon as he appeared on the Edinburgh jazz scene in
his early teens. He recorded his first album, Giant Strides, at the age of
sixteen in 1983 with drummer John Rae, and that same year he won a scholarship,
assisted by an extensive fund-raising programme organised by his music teacher,
Jean Allison, to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Born in Edinburgh on April 27, 1967, to a Scottish mother, Brenda Ann Urquhart,
and a Polish father whom he has never met, Smith was brought up in the Wester
Hailes area of the city. Here he was encouraged by his late stepfather, George
Smith, an avid jazz fan and drummer in the Gene Krupa style, to take up the
tenor saxophone at the age of twelve.
Under the skilful direction of Jim O'Malley and Jean Allison of the music
department at Wester Hailes Education Centre, Smith made swift progress and was
soon gigging around Edinburgh and Scotland with his quartet with John Rae.
Within four years he had recorded Giant Strides (GFM Records) and was on his way
to Berklee, where he formed the co-operative group Forward Motion with Norwegian
bassist Terje Gewelt, Canadian drummer Ian Froman and Hungarian pianist Laszlo
Gardonyi. This group remained active with varying personnel until 1994 and
recorded two albums, Progressions and The Berklee Tapes.
At eighteen, Smith joined Berklee vice president Gary Burton's group, alongside
bassist Steve Swallow, pianist Makoto Ozone and drummer Adam Nussbaum, recording
the Whiz Kids album for ECM Records and catching the attention of critics
including Larry Kart of the Chicago Tribune who opined: "The key addition is
Tommy Smith, who, if memory serves, is only the second saxophonist Gary Burton
has employed in his twenty-odd years as a leader. Smith's angular, bristling
lines suggest he has his own story to tell.
Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra
Experience the glory of a big band with twenty
one young musicians of prowess and promise. They play a repertoire that includes
Stan Kenton, Maria Schneider, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Oliver Nelson, Dizzy
Gillespie and Charles Mingus.
Orchestra features Philip Cardwell, Liam Heath, Alan Blair, Linsey McDonald,
Hendon Musk (tp), Billy Fleming, Dionne Copeland, Theo Forrest, Michelle Melvin,
Leah Gough Cooper, Rachel Cohen, Louise McDonald, Ben Bryden (s), Scott Annison,
Hannah Cohen, Michael Owers, Michael Campbell (tb), Chris Lyons (p), Ross Whyte
(d), Calum Gourlay (b) and Mike Nisbet (g).
The above were performing at the Aberdeen Jazz Festival 2006 and
proved to be one of the most rewarding events and certainly the most swinging
Big Band featured at the whole Festival. A great pool of young talent
motivated by the Maestro of the Saxophone who donates all his time for Charity.
Support them when and where you can as this promising unit gets no funding
whatsoever.
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
The great saxophonist Joe Henderson used to say that a jazz
orchestra should have all the colour and power of a big band and yet be as
mobile as a quartet. While regularly paying heed to Henderson’s wishes since
playing its first concerts in 1995, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra has
added another quality by being as malleable as Plasticine. Under the sure
direction of Tommy Smith, SNJO has moulded and remoulded itself into the shape
and character of the classic big bands of Ellington, Basie, Kenton and now
Herman, and moved forward to interpret Monk, Mingus and Coltrane in the spirit
of these idiosyncratic giants. It has taken further leaps into the latin and
rock infused compositions of Chick Corea and Pat Metheny and proved its
astonishing versatility by commissioning
and performing brave new works by the
English maverick Keith Tippett, the Gil Evans of
our times, Maria Schneider, and members of the
orchestra themselves.
 David
Newton Growing up in Renfrewshire,
Scotland, Newton had a musical upbringing with the piano trio sound of Peterson,
Tatum or Garner an ever-present feature in the Newton household. After
graduating from Leeds College of Music in 1979 David Newton freelanced around
Yorkshire and eventually became a resident musician at the Stephen Joseph
Theatre in Scarborough for two and a half years. A move to Edinburgh followed
where theatre work using local musicians quickly led to an established position
on the Scottish jazz scene but after some four years there, his old roommate
from college, Alan Barnes, persuaded him to move to London where he rapidly
became a much sought after pianist teaming up with Barnes, guitarist Martin
Taylor and saxophonist Don Weller.
Newton's recording career had begun in 1985 with Buddy De Franco and Martin
Taylor and his first solo album was released in '88 in association with producer
Elliot Meadow who oversaw the next nine years of recording for Linn Records
followed by Candid Records. Once again, in 1997, David Newton and Alan Barnes
teamed up and together with Concorde Label agent Barry Hatcher, made four CDs
for that label. By 2003, Newton had learned a great deal of the ways a record
company operated and he set up a business partnership with former pupil Mike
Daymond and they established "Brightnewday Records" initially as a vehicle for
Newton's own music but with an eye to opening up the catalogue to other artists
later on.
In the first five years of the nineties, Newton's reputation as an exquisite
accompanist for a singer, spread rather rapidly and by '95 he was regularly
working with Carol Kidd, Marion Montgomery, Tina May, Annie Ross, Claire Martin
and of course Stacey Kent, with whom he spent the next ten years recording and
travelling all over the world. While all this was going on, Newton was composing
music which he would record on his own CDs as well as writing specifically for
Martin Taylor, Alan Barnes, Tina May or Claire Martin and Newton's music can now
be heard on many television productions, especially in the United States where
over twenty TV movies benefit from Newton's haunting themes. In 2003, after a
twenty year gap, David Newton was reunited with playwright Alan Aykbourn having
been involved with eight world premiers in Scarborough and London back in the
early eighties, and he was asked to write the music for two new productions,
'Sugar Daddies' and 'Drowning on Dry Land'. Currently, with the release of a new
CD called "Inspired", on the 'Brightnewday' label, David Newton is relishing the
musical freedom of his Trio and the special sound it makes whilst working on two
other new recording projects, as an arranger and a composer.
David Newton has been voted best Jazz Pianist in the British Jazz awards six
times and was made a Fellow of Leeds College of Music in 2003.
 Eileen
Hunter is most
well known as a Flautist, Pianist and Vocalist. Eileen has a wealth of musical
talent from theatre and concert performances to intimate jazz gigs.
She is a versatile performer and can be seen in various venues in and around
London. Among her recording credits are: “Falling” for Jive Records on
their compilation album “Sugar Valone” ; Fender Rhodes, flute and backing vocals
for Steve Brookstein’s no.1 selling album “Heart and Soul” ; flute on a track
for up and coming artist, Susy Thomas.
- Orchestra and The
Thilo Wolf Trio.
- Chichester
Festivities; The Eileen Hunter Quintet.
- Guest Soloist with
Her Majesty’s Band of the Royal Marines.
- Royal National
Theatre; Jazz in the Foyer/ Cabaret Attic space.
/StephenDuffy.jpg) Stephen
Duffy - VocalistStephen
Duffy is a genuine improvising jazz singer who has built a
significant Glasgow following due to consecutive sell-out
performances at the Tron theatre and the Glasgow International Jazz
festival.
He was one of the first students to
participate in the Fionna Duncan Vocal Jazz Workshops and is the
only vocalist to have studied at the National Jazz Institute of
Scotland, where he studied under sax star, Tommy Smith. His
debut album 'I Wish I'd Met You', was released in November 2004 to
much acclaim. Stephen has also appeared with some of the great
names in international jazz including saxophonist Scot Hamilton,
singer Madeline Eastman and he counts British jazz stars Claire
Martin and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett amongst his ardent supporters.
Also an accomplished pianist and arranger, he has sung with most of
the major Scottish big bands and with the National Youth Jazz
Orchestra. A frequent contributor to BBC Radio Scotland,
he has presented features on vocal jazz for BBC Radio 3 and is the
Marketing Manager to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
/FreddieKing.jpg) Vocalist
Freddie King
Since becoming a jazz singer, Freddie has attended Jamey
Aebersold’s jazz summer camp where his vocal tutor was jazz
singer Louise Gibbs, originally from New Zealand. Freddie
has also attended the Fionna Duncan Vocal Jazz Workshops, and
studied under both American jazz singer Madeline Eastman and
Scottish diva Fionna Duncan herself. In addition, he has
studied in New York with Mark Soskin (pianist), who has played
with Sonny Rollins. When in New York, Freddie met saxophonist
Frank Perowsky at a jam session on 8th avenue in NYC. Frank
appears on the album "Diggin' Deep": see below. Freddie
has appeared as a jazz singer at most of London’s top jazz clubs
e.g. Ronnie Scott’s, Vortex, 606 club. Freddie was also
invited by Paul Flush (Hammond organ/pianist), who is part of
the leading Belgian Trio Demagogue Reacts, to appear as a guest
vocalist in Brussels and Munich. He has appeared at
Edinburgh, Nairn, Dundee and Brecon Jazz Festivals and has
become one of the artists in the forefront of jazz vocals in
Scotland with his originality and approach to singing. Although
self-taught, Freddie’s influences range from Jon Hendricks, Mark
Murphy, and Eddie Jefferson to Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams, and
Nat King Cole. He has toured with Brian Kellock, the
world-renowned pianist, who has been BBC Jazz Musician of the
Year. Brian asked Freddie to sing in his band “A handful of
keys”, playing the music of Fats Waller, and they played
sell-out concerts finishing at the Brecon Jazz Festival. Freddie
has become one of Scotland’s premier jazz singers. Although
often described as unpredictable, he can sing anything from
Bebop and Swing/Latin to beautiful ballads. After his
appearance in Scarborough he headlined in London at the famous
Vortex jazz club. He also headlined in 2004 at the Edinburgh
Jazz Festival with his band. 2005/6 sees Freddie with his
own project and his own new band playing the music of Johnny
Hartman and Billy Eckstine, and singing some of the great
classic standards and ballads. It shows another side of
Freddie’s voice.
Fionna Duncan
Vocal Workshops
 Ryan
Quigley is one of the most versatile
musicians on the Scottish Jazz scene today. Ryan has recorded and/or
toured with the likes of: TIM GARLAND, ALLAN BERGMAN, SHARLEEN
SPITERI, BOB GELDOF, RONAN KEATING, DEL AMITRI, EDDI READER, ISOBEL
CAMPBELL, THE BAD PLUS, SALSA CELTICA, CURTIS STIGERS, THE
SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA, The BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, THE RSNO, THE RTE CONCERT
ORCHESTRA, THE IRISH NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, and many others.
Ryan Plays exclusively on Yamaha trumpets and uses a Marcinkiewicz
mouthpiece. Becoming more active as a composer and orchestrator,
Ryan will be recording his debut album of original material early in
2008 and is also planning a big band with strings project for later
that year
http://www.lornamcdonald.co.uk/ - Trombone
  Alto
Sax player and composer, Leah Gough-Cooper is one of the rising
young stars of Scottish Jazz, and returns from her studies at the
prestigious Berklee College in Boston, USA. She plays some of her
own distinctive compositions, which combine catchy melody with
surprising twists and loads of rhythmic excitement, with Ant Law
(guitar), Kevin Glasgow (bass guitar), Calum McIntyre (d)
The Scottish Jazz Festivals
Fife Jazz Festival - New
8-10 Feb 08
4th Aberdeen Jazz Festival
March 08
Dundee Jazz Festival
June 08 - cancelled due to lack of funds - sad day for
Dundonians
Glasgow Jazz Festival
22 June - 1 July 07
Edinburgh
Jazz Festival
27th July to 5th August 07
Nairn Jazz Festival
4-12
August
Islay Jazz Festival - Scotland
14-16 September 07
Lockerbie
Jazz Festival (3rd)
October 08
Hamilton Jazz Festival
5-7 Sept 08
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