In charting some eighty years of jazz progress – and admittedly indulging in the not quite so environmentally friendly use of an awful lot of manuscript paper – SNJO has also flown the flag for Scotland at home and further afield at a time of tremendous growth in the quality and quantity of the country’s young jazz musicians. Scotland has produced world class jazz musicians throughout jazz’s history. Trombonist George Chisholm recorded with Fats Waller in the 1930s. Trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar’s playing, composing and arranging abilities were appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic from the 1950s onwards. Bobby Wellins, a genuinely original jazz voice on tenor saxophone, recorded one of the landmark jazz albums of the 1960s and continues to be an inspiration. And his fellow Glaswegian Jim Mullen often used to bemuse New Yorkers who praised his guitar playing with the groovy, downtown Manhattan version of Morrissey-Mullen by thanking them in an accent far removed from the Bronx, Chicago or Memphis inflections they were expecting.

Since the mid 1980s and his teenage years with Gary Burton’s band Tommy Smith has been a prominent Scot on the world jazz stage, although he’d be the first to mention that he hasn’t been alone in a generation that also produced Brian Kellock, Colin Steele, John Rae, Kevin Mackenzie and the Bancroft twins - all of whom have made an international impact. Smith’s vision, energy, musical knowledge and an appetite for unseen hard work that borders on the heroic have, in SNJO and its feeder band, the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra, given the musicians who followed his generation a platform on which to demonstrate their abilities and in many cases provided a launching pad for their careers. Some have already moved on – the now successfully London-based bassist Aidan O’Donnell and drummer John Blease spring readily to mind. Yet the high standard of performance has been consistently maintained. The many top line musicians and composers with whom SNJO has worked will attest to this. Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, top American saxophonists Joe Lovano, David Liebman and Bobby Watson, and guest directors including German composer Florian Ross and American pianist Geoffrey Keezer as well as the aforementioned Tippett and Schneider have all been unstinting in their praise of the orchestra.

Anyone who has followed SNJO’s progress, as it has metamorphosed from being the vehicle for Oliver Nelson’s sophisticated creations to playing a robust Ray Charles Orchestra to Tam White’s Brother Ray to sparking mischief and mayhem in celebrating Scottish locations and football managers, will not be short of highlights. Among some of the most memorable are surely the trumpet section doing a terrific job as ferociously mewling alley cats during a tribute to Charles Mingus that captured all the brawling, bawling magnificence and gospel-fired blues of this twentieth century genius. There was also the sheer spectacle of Alyn Cosker, who was two months old when Stan Kenton died, steering the band with total awareness of the music’s every fine detail as if he’d been the master’s last drummer. Or more recently, there was an eloquent illustration of Tommy Smith’s point that commissioning arrangements of familiar music can be tantamount to creating new compositions as SNJO marked the fortieth anniversary of John Coltrane’s death.

The one disappointment in SNJO’s story is the fact that, due to the financial considerations of recording a band of this size, so few of its triumphs have been made available on CD. 2008 will see the release of Smith’s adaptation of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for Brian Kellock, which was premiered by the orchestra at Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2006. But for the moment Miles Ahead, the orchestra’s interpretations of Gil Evans’s classic arrangements for Miles Davis, Miles Ahead, featuring Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, is SNJO’s only CD release.

As Smith is almost certain to point out before tonight’s concert is over, however, there are fine recordings available by the individual musicians with their own groups. Saxophonists Paul Towndrow, Martin Kershaw and Konrad Wiszniewski and trumpeter Tom McNiven all have CD releases. Trombonist Chris Greive’s group, NeWt, and trumpeter Ryan Quigley have releases in the pipeline and pianist Brian Kellock has the follow-up to his BBC Jazz Award-winning Live at Henry’s imminent, as well as having recorded two others with the prodigiously documented Smith.

As they continue to play their parts with dedication and improvise with passion, heart and imagination, the members of SNJO, individually and collectively, can stand proudly as Scotland’s leading jazz ambassadors.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"The new Scottish Composer's Jazz Ensemble, directed by Tommy Smith, made their debut performance with special guest Kenny Wheeler. If the SCJE can encourage indigenous work at the this level, it may well revolutionise Scottish jazz."
KENNY MATHIESON - THE SCOTSMAN - 30 June 1997
© Kenny Mathieson

"Performances of a special suite by the great trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, who collaboration with the other larger scale outfit that Smith oversees, The Scottish Jazz Composer's Ensemble, was such a hit at this year's Glasgow Jazz Festival."
ROB ADAMS - THE HERALD - 26th November 1997
© Rob Adams

"It carries a rather cumbersome name, but the Scottish Composer's Jazz Ensemble has the potential to be the most important development in jazz in these parts in a long time.
KENNY MATHIESON - THE LIST - January 1997
© Kenny Mathieson

"Of the many collaborations in poet Edwin Morgan's long career, there can have been few as friutful as his partenership with saxophonist and composer Tommy Smith. Suceeding the breathtaking 'Beasts of Scotland' 'Planet Wave received its Scottish premiere last night as the start of a tour by the Scottish Composer's Jazz Emble and confirmed a wonderful synergy of talents."
KEITH BRUCE - THE HERALD - 7th March 1998
© Keith Bruce

“The eagerly anticipated meeting of American saxophone giant Joe Lovano with Tommy Smith and the SNJO delivered a memorable concert in two contrasting segments.”
KENNY MATHIESON - SCOTSMAN
© Kenny Mathieson

“I’m really excited about working this new piece out with Tommy and the band”
JOE LOVANO - THE HERALD
© Joe Lovano

“Great Heavens, this was what foodies might call a belt tightener. Not so much because of the amount of music it contained, which took up no more than the average concert length, but because of the richness and variety on offer.”
ROB ADAMS - HERALD
© Rob Adams

“The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, with guest performer Lovano, pulled out all the stops, produced note-perfect renditions and wowed them in the aisles. All of which was a credit to music director Tommy Smith. There is no question, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra gets better and better with every outing. It’s an institution we should support and cherish”
PAT QUINN - Edinburgh Evening News
© Pat Quinn

“The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra has produced some exhilarating repertory projects during its half-decade in existence, as well as some scintillating new music, but this concert with American clarinettist Ken Peplowski took them into unexplored territory. This is the first time it has been performed in the UK, and the SNJO rose to the challenge in fine style. It was precisely that balance of classic nostalgia with fresh creativity which made this concert - and Goodman’s trademark sound - come alive.
KENNY MATHIESON - THE SCOTSMAN
© Kenny Mathieson

“The SNJO isn’t new to the task of resurrecting some of Davis’ best known pieces. They gave Sketches of Spain the full treatment a couple of years ago and have also performed pieces by Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. This is an extraordinary event for Edinburgh. When Tommy did this with Sketches of Spain, Miles Davis fans all over the World were checking it out”.
PAT QUINN - Edinburgh Evening News.
© Pat Quinn

“The SNJO is a highly professional outfit that deserves success. Under the directorship of Tommy Smith, it is bound to find exactly that.”
PAT QUINN - Edinburgh Evening News
© Pat Quinn

“The SNJO tackled their second programme of the classic music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans of Friday, in a triumph of imaginative programming and incisive playing.”
KENNY MATHIESON - THE Scotsman
© Kenny Mathieson

“The first half’s reading of Miles Ahead further enhances SNJO’s credentials for recreation, including some sumptuous ensemble work and marvellous attention to detail.”
ROB ADAMS - THE HERALD
© Rob Adams

The Herald - 24 February 2003 - Rob Adams
Even if judged purely on his contribution to the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s cannon, Billy Strayhorn would have to be considered a prolific composer. But, as continues to be revealed, there were reams - and reams - more where Take the A Train, Isfahan, and their noble like came from, and SNJO’s latest incarnation presented a couple of albums worth of them on Friday. As well as introducing new blood, this was, inevitably, a different sounding SNJO from the one that so successfully brought the music of Charles Mingus to rip-roaring life not so long ago. However, it’s a mark of Tommy Smith’s directional abilities that the qualities required - collective discipline and sensitivity not least among them - should be so clearly illustrated.

Smith had a rare night as, essentially, a section player, standing to take finely articulated solos along side clarinettist and tenor saxophonist John Ruocco and having done the introductions, deferring to conductor and Strayhorn expert, Walter van de Leur, whose informed comments added context and often sobering reminders that a lot of this music was 60 years, or more, old.

Some of it did sound of its time, admittedly, but there were also many shades of things to co me - later big-band voicings and on Cashmere Cutie’s Kasmiri phrasing, world music, for example. Most importantly, though, at heart Strayhorn’s music is sophisticated, warm, and elegant, and to hear SNJO, young enough to warrant a “youth” tag, playing with such a level of maturity and concise personal creativity (take particular bows, alto saxophonist Martin Kershaw and trumpeter Ryan Quigley) was a further endorsement of the orchestra’s adaptability and readiness for, it seems, any challenge.
© Rob Adams


The Herald - 14 December 2002 - Rob Adams
**** (4 stars)
SNJO’s long awaited first commercial release catalogues the orchestra's year 2000 concerts with Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, featuring the music Gil Evans arranged for Miles Davis’s 1957 orchestral masterpiece, and, finally, gives us recorded evidence of the outstanding quality of work Tommy Smith has achieved since assuming his role as director. Although Jensen neither tries to, nor actually does sound like Davis, on the, the Edinburgh concert, she shows the same human qualities, such as vulnerability, playfulness, strength, and lonely torment. The orchestra plays Evan’s charts with such care, precision, and assured composure, you almost expect Miles to arrive and rasp “who’s been sleeping in my bed?” at the end.
© Rob Adams

The Scotsman - 9 December 2002 - Kenny Mathieson
**** (4 stars)
This excellent long-awaited debut recording from the SNJO features Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen as soloist in a programme of the arrangements Gil Evans wrote for Miles Davis’s Miles Ahead album in 1957, performed as a suite. It was recorded live at the Queen’s Hall in December, 2000, and contains the first half of the concert (the second featured material from Birth of the Cool). Jensen created her own expressive approach to the music rather than trying to recreate Davis’s distinctive sound in the soloist’s role, and the expanded band play Evan’s classic arrangements with real style and precision.
© Kenny Mathieson

The Herald - 18 November 2002 - Rob Adams
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s backlog of live recordings must beginning to resemble that boxed set of unreleased works that used to multiply every time Frank Zappa threatened to release it. Just as the orchestra’s first CD is released this week, documenting its Miles Ahead concerts with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, here’s another SNJO project that begs to be heard again ASAP.

German composer Florian Ross proved to be yet another astute choice as a collaborator by SNJO director Tommy Smith in a concert that also introduced the orchestra’s youth wing, acquitting themselves admirably on a typically spirited, probing piece by previous guest, Maria Schneider.

Ross’s Lilacs and Laughter, scored for brass ensemble and rhythm section, quickly justified Smith’s “my favourite composer in Europe” description with some of the most finely drawn and beautiful realised writing I’ve heard in yonks. His use of colour and harmony somehow manages to be simultaneously rich and light, and pieces such as Vamp 1, with it haunting simple, almost minimalist piano figure, stay in the mind long after completion.

The full orchestra, augmented by French Horns, was unloosed for Ross’s new piece, A Day in the Life of...which managed to survive journalistic interference that changed its Ramblin’ section to Reckoning (nae sense of decorum, these journalists) and brought out an altogether more full blooded side of his writing while still retaining the deft touches shown on Lilacs. Smith, as featured soloist, drew on his most personal saxophone playing and pianist Paul Harrison shone in his linking passages as the imagery moved from alarm call.
© Rob Adams

The Scotsman - 18 November 2002 - Kenny Mathieson
Tommy Smith took a chance by commissioning German pianist and composer Florian Ross for the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s latest collaboration. Ross is by no means a big name, but Smith’s judgement was handsomely vindicated in a superb concert.

The first half featured most of Ross’s Lilacs and Laughter, a suite for brass ensemble and rhythm section illustrating the pianist’s sharply focused and imaginative compositional talents.

The band sounded a little nervous in the opening Chorale, but soon warmed to the task. The were joined by the saxophone section after the interval for the world premiere of Ross’s new work A Day in the Life of... which employed a more direct approach, but with equal structural ingenuity and musical impact.

Smith was excellent as the featured soloist on tenor saxophone, while Ross conducted the music, with Paul Harrison taking over on piano. The five movements had grown to six with the last minute addition of a quartet section.

By way of a bonus, Smith’s new Youth Orchestra opened the second half with Maria Schneider’s demanding Wyrgly, and played it like seasoned veterans..
© Kenny Mathieson

The Scotsman - 24 February 2003 - Kenny Mathieson
**** (4 stars)
“Strayhorn’s adventurous harmonies, sophisticated structures and highly original use of chord voicings, instrumental timbre and musical textures were beautifully rendered, enhanced by the SNJO’s brand new sound system, which produced a very natural “acoustic” sound in the hall..
© Kenny Mathieson

The Guardian - 6 December 2002 - John Fordham
Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen is a fine disciple of the brass lineage of Miles Davis, Art Farmer and Woody Shaw - and she’s a selfless group player, so this collaboration with the powerful Scottish National Jazz Orchestra led by Tommy Smith represents plenty of give and take, even though she’s handed the famous Miles Davis role on the famous Miles Ahead music conceived in collaboration with the late Gil Evans. Jensen exhibits a composer-like awareness of shape and narrative. The tracks appear in the same running order as the original disc, and the arrangements are Gil Evans originals. You might wonder why anyone other than an arts marketeer looking for a sponsorship-tempting prestigious project would ever need a clone of the same classic without Miles Davis on it. But Jensen’s take on the music is often fascinating, and not in Davis’s shadow at all - listen to her haunted trilling sounds and achingly developed delivery on Maids of Cadiz over the famous Evans chord-clouds, her behind-the-beat feel on the Birth of the Cool-like title track, or her pure, pealing tones on Blues for Pablo, and you know that while this might be jazz-classical music, the interpreters are treating it as a personal creative opportunity, not a repeat performance with better recording technology.
© John Fordham

Perthshire Advertiser - 24 May 2002 - Alison Anderson
There is nothing like a sax for sex appeal. Put five together and WOW! Their velvet tones caressed and enveloped their listeners in a sensual wave of sound which filled Perth Theatre. Then along came and impish drum and double bass, playing cheeky little games with each other, tickling their audience’s fancy. Trombones muscled in, and trumpets blasted out for all their worth, determined not to let size matter. Throw in the ivories, pounding up and down like dervishes, the ubiquitous rhythm guitar - and the coolest dude in town. It all added up to a wonderful evening of jazz courtesy of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra led by sax supremo Tommy Smith.

The 17 musicians gave us a musical biography of the great pianist and bandleader, Count Basie. Tommy Smith was the star of the show but did not hog the limelight. The spotlight fell on individual musicians from all sections of the orchestra who rose to the challenges in fine style, including a vocal number from Tommy’s wife, Laura Macdonald, who was also a key member of the sax quintet.

But the most enjoyable pieces came when individuals became one to produce the Big Band Sound for which Basie has been immortalised.

Interspersed between the full and varied Basie numbers were the quips and anecdotes from Mr Cool Customer - Tommy Smith. Yes, this man is a master on the saxophone, nut he also comes across as a really l;likeable ‘people person’. And if Tommy seemed young to his audience (mostly of a ‘certain age’), the youngest member of the orchestra was a mere babe in arms. Not that his youth - he was born in 1982! - seemed any handicap to his performance. The entire orchestra not only mastered the music of another ear - they really captured the feel of this music from another time and another place.

The next time Tommy Smith and the SNJO drops by, book your seats early and prepare for the hottest show in town.
© Pat Quinn

The Evening News - 8 August 2002 - Pat Quinn
***** (5 stars)
Just when you thought the jazz festival couldn’t get any better, along comes the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with four internationally renowned guests. Sometimes you just can’t believe your luck. SNJO leader Tommy Smith pulled off a coup last night at the Queen’s when he married 17 of Scotland’s best musicians with vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, tenor saxophonists Scott Hamilton and Harry allen, and trombonist Dan Barrett.

They opened the first act with the crowd pleasing Jumpin’ At The Woodside - which featured Hamilton and Allen - and the gig never looked back. From then on, many of the musicians in the core band got to solo alongside one of the guests. For instance, on Peanut Vendor trumpeter Ryan Quigley partnered Hamilton, trombonist Chris Grieve jumped in with Barrett, and trumpeter Philip Cardwell played alongside Allen. They traded eights, fours and twos with abadon. This was the formula for the evening with numbers such as Wind Machine by Sammy Nestico, and an extract from Duke Ellington’s Latin American Suite.

This brings us to the two lady volcalists. The first was Rebecca Kilgore, who has a voice which is dramtcially understated. It was like silk drawn over glass. The second female singer, doing her debut vocal, was none other than Laura Macdonald - Smith’s wife. She earned her applause for Shiny Stockings.

This was a truly memorable gig. Everyone had fun; and judgeing by the expressions on the face of the usually supercoll Mister Smith, he knew that he had it in the bag..
© Pat Quinn

The Herald - 22 February 2002 - Keith Bruce
This is a world-class band without a doubt. smith’s selection of pieces from its history proved the point. With no guest soloists and only pianist Steve Hamilton - hardly a stranger - not a regular, the band drew its virtuosi from its own ranks. Each soloist pushed the next on, and the trumpeters, Colin Steele, Ryan Quigley, Tom MacNiven, and Eddie Severn were on particularly spectacular form. The repertoire told its own story too as commissions like Mario Caribe’s The Gate and Chick Lyall’s John Muir (featuring a blistering Smith solo) were bracketed by works from Duke Ellington and more than held their own in the company. Whether recreating the sound worlds of Miles Davis and Gil Evans, Kenny Wheeler or Charles Mingus, jousting cheesily with Count Basie, or cementing its status as top interpreter of Maria Schneider, the SNJO was immaculate. Even the elements of showmanship in presentation worked.

Out there in the rest of the world only student ensembles tackle such diverse repertoire, and then for rather different reasons and with considerably less aplomb. For a professional band to range so widely is unusual at the least. To do so as convincingly as this is remarkable..
© Keith Bruce

June 2003 Review: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
KENNY MATHIESON hears the SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA take on Ellington and Mingus in their first Highland tour.
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
Saturday 7 June 2003
THE SNJO embarked on their first extended Highland tour with this concert at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness on Saturday. The group are no strangers to this venue, but their subsequent explorations will take them into virgin territory in the Highlands and Islands.

That is a remarkable achievement in itself. The band only formed under their director and driving force, saxophonist Tommy Smith, in 1996, but they have made rapid progress in that time, both on the bandstand and in terms of the spread of their activities. They perform both jazz ‘repertory’ material and new work in the course of their activities, and have already racked up an impressive record in both areas.

The music for their tour is drawn from the first category, but offers a radically contrasting experience, with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s delicate and elegant reworking of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker Suite’ in the first half, and some visceral, full blooded music by Charles Mingus in the second (their concert at the St Magnus Festival will feature a new piece, ‘The Orcadian Suite’, alongside the Ellington).

The jazz version of the ‘Nutcracker’ is typical of both the musical sophistication and the quirky humour expected from the Ellington-Strayhorn combination, down to some re-titling of sections. ‘The Dance of the Reed Pipes’ became ‘Toot Toot Tootie Toot’, for example, while ‘Russian Dance’ was transformed into ‘The Volga Vouty’ (both owe something to Los Angeles hipster Slim Gaillaird’s invented ‘vout’ language, methinks).

The music constantly belied those daft titles in its textural richness, and the band played beautifully throughout. Solos were brief and cogent, but the players had a chance to stretch out after the interval in the course of extended treatments of four compositions by Charles Mingus.

Mingus was an ardent devotee of Ellington, but evolved a characteristic style which was much more raw and elemental than his hero, although his glorious elegy to Lester Young, ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’, revealed a different side of his multifaceted musical personality. The surging ‘Moanin’’, with its famous baritone saxophone lead (expertly dispatched by Allon Beauvoisin), the colourful ‘Tijuana Gift Shop’ and his searing tribute to Charlie Parker, ‘Gunslingin’ Bird’, all generated real excitement, and provided ample soloing opportunities throughout the band.

The line up for the tour is: Tommy Smith, Paul Towndrow, Laura Macdonald, Martin Kershaw, Allon Beauvoisin (saxes/reeds); Chris Greive, Ewan McAllan, Lorna McDonald (trombones); Tom MacNiven, Ryan Quigley, Philip Cardwell, Linsey MacDonald (trumpets);  Steve Hamilton (pianos); Mario Caribe (bass in Mingus); Aidan O'Donnell (bass in Ellington); John Blease (drums).

The SNJO perform at the Town Hall, Stornoway (9 June); Arainn Chaluim Chille, Skye (10 June); Aros Hall, Tobermory (11 June); Arainn Shuaineirt, Ardnamurchan (12 June); Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall (25 June); Bowmore, Islay (19 September).

© Kenny Mathieson, 2003

Kenny Mathieson
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
THE HUB, EDINBURGH - August 2003
THE Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival launched with the latest collaboration fostered by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Their programme featured both arrangements of jazz standards and original compositions by the Swedish pianist Goran Strandberg.

This was a bold move by the band’s director, saxophonist Tommy Smith, and the festival. I suspect few people here would even recognise the composer’s name, far less be aware of his music, but opening up audiences to new experiences has been a consistent theme in the SNJO’s activities.

Strandberg brought along a couple of guests - trumpeter Magnus Broo and flautist Andrea Kupyers. The band itself had a couple of new faces in the saxophone section, while the trombones reverted to four rather than three players.

Strandberg proved to be a capable composer, but was painfully lacking in any stage presence. His diffident manner added to a general tentative feel in much of the concert, and while the band played well enough, they did not quite muster their usual sparkle.

Broo was featured as soloist on several tunes, including an arrangement of As Time Goes By and an energised adaptation of Bill Evans’s Very Early that went under the title of Verly. His high-note trumpet work and precise articulation proved impressive at each of these contrasting tempos.

Strandberg’s Pigs and Ponies and Psalm both carried echoes of a distinct Ellington influence, but one of the notable things about his music was its variety. The evocative impressionism of Lakes, the meatier drive of Sweat Lodge (also featuring Broo as soloist) and the brief cacophony on Ready and Go did not immediately reveal a single compositional hand at work.

Smith’s powerful, lyrical tenor saxophone was featured on several tunes, including Lakes and an arrangement of Come Rain or Come Shine, as was the incisive alto saxophone of Martin Kershaw. The band’s trumpet soloists were restricted by Broo’s presence, while Chris Greive took the only trombone solo of note on Danny’s Return, based on The Londonderry Air.
.© Kenny Mathieson

SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra opened their first extended tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with a programme mixing the music of two of the greatest creative figures in jazz history, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. The band perform both jazz 'repertory' material and new work in the course of their activities, and have already racked up an impressive record in both areas.

The music for their tour (which took place in early June) was drawn from the first category, but offered a radically contrasting experience, with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's delicate and elegant reworking of Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite' in the first half, and some visceral, full blooded music by Charles Mingus in the second.

The jazz version of the 'Nutcracker' is typical of both the musical sophistication and the quirky humour expected from the Ellington-Strayhorn combination, down to some re-titling of sections. 'The Dance of the Reed Pipes' became 'Toot Toot Tootie Toot', for example, while 'Russian Dance' was transformed into 'The Volga Vouty' (both owe something to Los Angeles hipster Slim Gaillaird's invented 'vout' language, methinks).

The music constantly belied those daft titles in its textural richness, and the band played beautifully throughout. Solos were brief and cogent, but the players had a chance to stretch out after the interval in the course of extended treatments of four compositions by Charles Mingus.
Mingus was an ardent devotee of Ellington, but evolved a characteristic style which was much more raw and elemental than his hero, although his glorious elegy to Lester Young, 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat', revealed a different side of his multifaceted musical personality. The surging 'Moanin'', with its famous baritone saxophone lead (expertly dispatched by Allon Beauvoisin), the colourful 'Tijuana Gift Shop' and his searing tribute to Charlie Parker, 'Gunslingin' Bird', all generated real excitement, and provided ample soloing opportunities throughout the band.

THIS CONCERT in Inverness was part of a tour which took the band into virgin territory in the Highlands. They visited Dunkeld, Ullapool, Stornoway, Skye, Mull and Ardnamurchan, none of which see much live jazz in the oridinary run of things, far less such high quality material. The band round out the tour with a concert at the prestigious St Magnus Festival in Orkney (25 June), where they perform The Nutcracker and The Orcadian Suite, a new piece commissioned by the festival and the Scottish Arts Council, and composed in five parts by Tommy Smith, Don Paterson, Mario Caribe, Chris Greive and Brian Byrne.
"The tour will take us to a lot of Highland venues that we haven't had the chance to play before," said Tommy Smith, the director of the SNJO. "This will be our first proper tour in the traditional style on the band bus, and is very much a continuation of the development we have been working on over the years."
That touring agenda would have seemed unthinkable when the SNJO was launched in 1996, but the band has made remarkable process under Smith's leadership. They have established a strong presence as a performing unit in Scotland, drawing on music ranging from classic big band charts of Basie and Goodman through to new commissioned pieces by both international jazz names and artists based in Scotland. They have collaborated with the likes of Kenny Wheeler, Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, David Leibman and Florian Ross.

The band issued their first CD late last year on Smith's Spartacus Records label, featuring Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen as soloist in a recreation of the Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaboration Miles Ahead.

NOT CONTENT with that, Smith has also formed a youth orchestra, at his own expense and in his own time. They currently bear the name Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra for as yet unresolved legal reasons, but are the Scottish National Youth Jazz Orchestra in all but name. The band is aimed at bringing together the cream of Scotland's young jazz players under 25, and should ensure a flow of talent into the senior orchestra.
Players like bassist Aiden O'Donnell, drummer John Blease and trumpeter Philip Cardwell have already made that step up. Cardwell is a case in point in that process. The young trumpeter from Fort William first came to attention as one of the outstanding players in another youth orchestra, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland. Tommy Smith was sufficiently impressed to pitch him in as a last-minute replacement for Tom McNiven when the SNJO made their debut at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness 1998, and he has gone on to play with the band many times since then.

Philip is now a regular member of the SNJO trumpet section, but is also young enough to be part of Tommy's youth orchestra as well.
"Philip did really well when I pitched him in that night in Inverness wearing a suit I lent him!" Tommy said. "He's really come on - he's even got his own suits now.... There is a lot of excellent young talent in Scotland, and I formed the youth orchestra to provide a platform for the best of them to develop, and to help keep them here in Scotland. I got a lot of help from my local community and the Scottish jazz scene to go to Berklee College when I was 15, and I would like to put something back into helping young players now."

Smith sees that process as part of a wider development of jazz education in Scotland, and is currently engaged in extensive lobbying of the Scottish Executive with a view to setting up a Scottish Jazz Academy.

"We have a lot of youth jazz orchestras in Scotland, we have summer courses, and hundreds of people are playing jazz. I feel that the lack of a proper jazz academy is a big weakness in the infrastructure. What happens now is that talented jazz musicians leave here after they finish school, which is fine, but I would like them to have a choice at least, and if we had a proper jazz academy on a par with our European neighbours there'd be more focus, and it would also help to consolidate and strengthen the undoubted pool of jazz talent we have here."

It remains to be seen whether Tommy can pull off this ambitious plan, but given his track record of achievement, who would bet against it?
The band's line up for the tour (which differs a little from the one pictured above) was: Tommy Smith, Paul Towndrow, Laura Macdonald, Martin Kershaw, Allon Beauvoisin (saxes/reeds); Chris Greive, Ewan McAllan, Lorna McDonald (trombones); Tom MacNiven, Ryan Quigley, Philip Cardwell, Linsey MacDonald (trumpets); Steve Hamilton (pianos); Mario Caribe (bass in Mingus); Aidan O'Donnell (bass in Ellington); John Blease (drums)

© Kenny Mathieson, 2003

Jazz Views by NICK LEA
Forum 28 in Barrow In Furness played host to the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on one of their rare forays on to English soil, performing a selection of music from the book of Count Basie. With eighteen-piece band of 5 reeds, 4 trombones, 5 trumpets and 4 strong rhythm section as favoured by the man himself an enthusiastic audience was treated to some swinging music from some of the best musicians north of the border.

The orchestra kicked off with suitably enough with ‘The Kid From Red Bank’ the band revelling in the swinging groove, and showing the ability to swing at a more gentle tempo on the Neil Hefti arrangement of ‘Lil’ Darling’, and from there on treated us to some of Basie’s classic arrangements as well as some less well known songs.

There is a veritable feast of talent emerging from within the band’s ranks with trumpeter, Ryan Quigley impressive on several pieces with some nice high note work thrown in for good measure. There was a traditional sax duel on ‘Blues In Aflat’ with altoists Laura Macdonald and Martin Kershaw (whose debut album ‘Fruition’ is shortly to be released by Caber Music) battling it out, whilst musical director Tommy Smith, delivered some of his warm toned and breathy tenor on ‘Blue And Sentimental’. Also impressive was pianist Paul Harrison, who was able to take on the Basie mantle with his introductions and comping without compromising his individuality when given the chance to solo. Ex-pat Brazilian bassist, Mario Caribe (check out his album ‘Bacuris’ in this month’s CD Reviews and drummer John Blease took care of rhythm duties with great aplomb.

How such a venture is viewed is a matter for debate, but this hugely talented aggregation avoid the pitfalls of being tagged merely as a repertory band by playing much original material and commissions, and when playing the music from the rich tradition of jazz history (they have explored the music of Miles Davis, Mingus, Benny Goodman, Ellington, and are shortly to embark on some lesser known pieces by the great Billy Strayhorn) play with a contemporary edge when soloing and not slavishly imitating the solo style of the day. Bringing so much of this great music alive, to once again be heard in concert halls throughout the country, for audiences young and old must surely be commended, and judging by the audience response at the Forum 28 much appreciated.

Reviewed by Nick Lea.
© Nick Lea

June 2003 Review: Jazz at St Magnus
KENNY MATHIESON reports on an outbreak of jazz at the St Magnus Festival.
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall, Wednesday 25 June

THE ST MAGNUS FESTIVAL has an international reputation as an event with classical music at its core, but the festival has increasingly featured both traditional music and jazz (not to mention theatre, dance and visual arts) within its programme.

The finale of this year’s festival pushed jazz to greater prominence than ever before. Saxophonist Tommy Smith brought the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra to the island for the first time to perform in the final main evening concert at the Pickaquoy Centre. To mark the occasion, the festival commissioned a new piece from the group, The Orcadian Suite.

It ran a bit longer than ideal, and apparently offended some sensibilities in the hall, clearly unused to the musical language of jazz, or the (normal) volume level of the band. Each of the five composers – Mario Caribe, Chris Greive, Tommy Smith, Don Paterson and Brian Byrne – chose an Orkney-related theme as their subject matter, and produced a variety of different approaches.

Caribe’s atmosphere evocation of the ancient history of Skara Brae included a powerful soprano solo from Martin Kershaw. The saxophonist figured again in Chris Greive’s impressionistic Ocean – Liquid History, which built from slow, abstract beginnings into a more expansive outcome.

Tommy Smith once rehearsed a concert at The Ring of Brodgar to an audience of cows, and commemorated the event with a spectacular stampede in his piece, which was written as a late substitution when pianist Steve Hamilton had to withdraw from his proposed section.

Don Paterson paid tribute to Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown in Countryman, while Brian Byrne’s Dance on the Stones of Stennness rounded out the commission.

The band turned to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn after the interval, reprising their performances of The Nutcracker Suite as featured on their Highland Tour earlier this month, albeit with only the most basic (or no) piano comping.  Whatever the objections raised afterwards (and I heard of them only at second-hand), they were given a good reception by a sizeable audience, and responded with a raucous romp through Charles Mingus’s Nostalgia in Times Square by way of an encore.

Tommy Smith had already featured twice in the festival prior to the SNJO concert. On Tuesday night he teamed up with pianist Brian Kellock in St Magnus Cathedral. The duo tailored their approach to the acoustic of the venue, and worked their way through a series of extended meditations on standards and contemporary jazz tunes by Steve Swallow and Smith himself in highly inventive fashion, but at slower tempos and in more spacious style than usual.

Smith also took the soloist’s role in a fine lunchtime concert with the BT Scottish Ensemble, playing his own arrangements of Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs. These are virtually re-compositions of Corea’s solo piano originals rather than simply arrangements, and both music and performances confirmed the excellent impression they made when first performed last year.

Reports suggested that the classical element of the programme had been a notable success this year, and on the evidence of the BBC Philharmonic’s scintillating final concert at the Pickaquoy Centre on Tuesday, that was easy to believe.
.© Kenny Mathieson

KENNY MATHIESON
SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA ****
THE HUB, EDINBURGH

THE SNJO combined repertory programmes and original commissions in this jazz festival concert dedicated to the idiosyncratic genius of pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Nominally associated with the bebop pioneers, Monk was a law unto himself and left a unique musical legacy.

Tommy Smith commissioned ten musicians to write brand new arrangements of Monk tunes for the concert, although as he pointed out, most of them amounted to re-composing rather than simply arranging the material. The new pieces took a variety of approaches to the job. John Hollenbeck’s Four In One made little overt reference to the original melody, while others, including Tim Garland’s reworking of Epistrophy and Joe Locke’s blistering version of Evidence, made more central use of the source material.

Chris Grieve made a fine job of the notoriously complex Brilliant Corners, while both Smith, in an imaginatively eccentric version of Round Midnight, and Laura MacDonald, in Straight No Chaser, gave familiar tunes an unusual twist. Steve Hamilton’s Ruby My Dear and Julian Arguelles’ Ask Me Now were both very deftly achieved, while John Rae’s Skippy caught both the energy and spirit of Monk’s music.
.© Kenny Mathieson