Festival Music ROUGH CUT NATION Music meets art uptown
Gallery gigs are ordinarily bespoke, shop-front affairs that flaunt their art- rock credentials. The renovation of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has allowed some of that DIY spirit to mess up its normally plush interior with its current show of 12 artists not afraid to get their hands dirty with street art and graffiti culture. To accompany the show, SNPG curators have teamed up with local indie record emporium Avalanche for a series of gigs by local acts. The seven early-evening shows kick off on 7 August with a show by former Uncle John and Whitelock associates new outfit, Tut Vu Vu and A La Fu, and are followed on 8 August by a double bill of troubadours opened by Emily Scott at 5pm and Rob St John, who has been toughening up his Nick Drake-style whimsy of late with a full
band, an hour later. On 14 August teenage Pet Shop Boys collaborator Unicorn Kid goes mental, while later shows include St Jude’s Infirmary with Zoey Van Goey on 22 August and Withered Hand with Meursault on 28 August in keen double-bills. Have a ball. No posh frock required. (Neil Cooper) ■ Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 624 6200, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 & 28 Aug, times vary, free. SHOOGLENIFTY Keep on Shooglin’
When Shooglenifty burst onto the Scottish folk scene in the early 90s playing their radical new take on traditional music-meets-club culture (quickly dubbed ‘acid croft’), their impact was enormous. According to co-founder Garry Finlayson, there was no great blueprint in place when they emerged out of the break-up of Edinburgh ‘psycho-rockabilly’ outfit Swamptrash.
‘There was no master plan on the
drawing board. I think the music developed the way it did because it was the inevitable product of the musicians that we are. It was a very organic process. We didn’t really spend time thinking about what we were going to do or trying to verbalise our direction. We just did it.’ Original members Finlayson (banjo),
Angus J Grant (fiddle), Malcolm Crosbie (guitar) and James Makintosh (drums) are still in the six-piece band,
46 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 6–13 Aug 2009
along with Luke Plumb (mandolin) and Quee MacArthur (bass). The unexplored musical routes they opened up are much more populous these days, but they have continued to develop their own eclectic grooves and their incendiary live gigs remain hugely popular. (Kenny Mathieson) ■ Queen’s Hall, 668 3456, 12 Aug, 10pm; 27 Aug, 7pm, £15, £13.
BARBARA MORRISON Ebullient and expressive jazz singer
Los Angeles-based singer Barbara Morrison has been a popular visitor to Scotland in recent years, and settles in to a Fringe residency via a couple of outings within the Jazz Festival programme.
Raised in Michigan, she has an
ebullient, wise-cracking stage presence and expressive, swinging take on jazz singing that is backed up by a real feel for more down-home blues and gospel material, a product of both her early roots in the church and rhythm and blues – including a stint with Ray Charles.
Her early professional work fell into the latter category, but joining the Johnny Otis Band allowed her to dip her toe into jazz.
‘That would’ve been about 1977, I guess, when I recorded a jazz album with Johnny,’ she says. ‘I recorded with some great jazz artists – I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did it anyway. I still like to mix it up in my show, with some jazz and some blues and some rhythm and blues all in there.’ (Kenny Mathieson) ■ The Outhouse, 557 6668, 8–9, 14–15, 21–22 Aug, 7.30pm & 10.15pm; 10–13, 17–20, 24–29 Aug, 8pm, £15.
EDINBURGH JAZZ FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Burns meets big band jazz
The second of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra’s two concerts turns from familiar ground with Duke Ellington into rather more uncharted waters. Robert Burns has been even more ubiquitous than usual in the course of this 250th anniversary year, but this project gives a new twist to the celebration. Pianist David Milligan, a man equally well-versed in jazz and folk music, was commissioned to produce a piece for jazz orchestra to mark the anniversary. The result, Sylvander & Clarinda: A Song Cycle for Scots Song and Jazz Orchestra, premieres in this concert.
As co-director of The Unusual Suspects, Milligan is already comfortable with the idea of piloting a genre-busting large ensemble and his arrangements for the band should be fascinating. The job of singing the songs will fall to three Scottish singers, Corrina Hewat, Annie Grace and Karine Polwart. They are best known in the folk world, but also have distinct crossover tendencies, and should be well-placed to take on this unique challenge. (Kenny Mathieson) ■ Queen’s Hall, 668 3456, 8 Aug, 8.30pm, £19.50, £16.
DUB SYNDICATE Sci-fi wall wobblers
Anyone who witnessed former Pop Group vocalist Mark Stewart with ex- Sugarhill house band The Maffia play Edinburgh last year with seminal producer and On-U Sound head honcho Adrian Sherwood manning the controls will probably still be wondering where on earth – or anywhere else – some of the sense- zapping dub sounds conjured up that night come from. It was a similar story when Sherwood reignited a collaboration with artist Graham Fagen for ‘I Murder Hate,’ a compendium of Robert Burns songs reinvented in a reggae style.
For his latest visitation, Sherwood teams up with On-U Sound stalwarts Dub Syndicate for another live mash- up of science-fiction sound-clashes