llSTINGS EDINBURGH JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVALS
EDINBURGH JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVALS
lISTINGS
Tickets are available from the Edinburgh Festival Theatre Box Office (529 6000) for events at that venue only; all other tickets are available from The Queen’s llall Box office (668 2019) or The Ticket line (220 4349), except those for concerts at the Tron Jazz Cellar, where tickets can be purchased on the door or from the venue.
SATURDAY 5
I Mardi tires The Grassmarket. 1—4pm. Free. Enjoyable. ifslightly chaotic. launch to the Festival. with bands playing simultaneously — sometimes to interestingly lvesian effect — on ten floats. plus parade bands and New ()rleans-style food in the pubs and restaurants.
I Jazz Festival opening Party The Queen's Hall. Clerk Street. 8pm-2am. £7.50. A jazz ball featuring a number of variations on the Dixie and Trad theme.
I nussell Cowieson 0uartet Jazz at the Tron. Tron Tavern and Ceilidh House. Hunter Square. 8.30pm. £3 (£2). The Tron takes on responsibility for the contemporary jazz stream of the programme this year. and begins with this fine saxophonist. who is one of the most accomplished and inventive members of Scotland’s new jazz generation.
SUNDAY 6
I Gospel Service The Ross Theatre. Princes Street Gardens \V‘st.
1 lam—12.30pm. Free. The now traditional prelude to Jazz ()n a Summer‘s Day. with the Rev Alan Sorenson presiding. and music from Topsy Chapman and the Hot Antic Jazz Band.
I Jazz On A Summer’s Day The Ross Theatre. Princes Street Gardens West. Free. The biggest freejazz event in the country is compered by trumpeter Digby Fairweather. and runs as follows: lpm: lothian Schools Jazz Band with Bruce Adams (Scotland); 1.40pm: Fondy Riverside Bullet Band (Belgium); 2.20pm: llot Antic Jan Band (France) with Topsy Chapman (USA); 3. IOptn: Brasshoppers (UK); 3.25pm: Cabadella Jazz Band (Denmark); 4.05pm: Big Al Carson (USA); 4.50pm: Swedish Jazz Kings (Sweden. funnin enough); 5.20pm: Great British Jazz Band (oh. take a wild guess — and see preview).
I Van Morrison with the BBC Big Band Festival Theatre. 13—29 Nicolson Street. 8pm. SOLD OUT.
I International Kick-0ft The Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. 8pm—2am. £7.50. The Cavendish proved a good home for The Cotton Club last year. and much of the best festival action goes on here. either it) the tnain auditorium. or in The Harlem Room upstairs. Tonight‘s bill is not the most exciting. and basically re-shuffles the Jazz on a Summer‘s Day line-up.
I Mike Travis‘s EH15 Jazz at the Tron. Tron Tavern and Ceilidh House. Hunter Square. 8.30pm. £3 (£2). This band's innovative take on bringing togetherjazz and various strands of ethnic music is one of the freshest recent developments on the local scene. and threatens to restore some much needed credibility to the whole fusion game.
MONDAY 7
I History of Jazz Piano The Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. 2.30—6pm. £5. The afternoon sessions at this venue are often gems. and today looks like no exception. Dick Hyman will launch proceedings by taking us through his history ofjazz piano. followed by Pianorama (3.45pm). featuring successive contributions (in case you had a vision of them all playing at once) from seven pianists. The Harlem Room features European variants on New ()rleansjazz. I Ella Fitzgerald Songbook 2 The Queen's Hall. Clerk Street. £9. £12. A new programme for this successful show featuring British singers Barbara Jay (who came up with the idea in the first place). Maxine Daniels and Rosemary Squires, with the Tommy Whittle 0uartet. I Jazz 0rgan Recital St Giles Cathedral. High Street. 8pm. £6. A first for the Festival (with a second to follow on Friday) as jazz takes a bow in the venerable cathedral. Organist Dick Hyman and singer Topsy Chapman do the honours forjazz. while organist Ben Saunders will play Giles Swayne‘s Riff/{(11}:
I From flew Orleans To ChicagoThe Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. Spin—2am. £7.50. A well- travelled road. again featuring most of the bands from the previous night.
/’
I VAN MORRISON is not a name that you would expect to find in this Jazz Festival, but then neither was Michael Hyman last year. The Belfast troubadour has sold out the Festival Theatre even more quickly, and if you don’t have a ticket already, then you’re out of luck. What you will miss, though, is harder to guess at: singing jazz with a big band is not an easy business, and it will be fascinating to hear how he manipulates his distinctive but - in jazz terms - technically limited style in that setting (an earlier project with the Danish Radio Big Band was inconclusive in that regard). Festival Theatre, Sun 6.
I THE DIRTY oozeu pretty much rescued the ailing flew Orleans brass band tradition in the city in the late 705, and their exuberant extension of that tradition brought the music to a whole new audience through tours and concerts with the likes of The Grateful Dead and, most recently, The Black Crowes. Their repertoire has always been elastic, and is likely to be even more so now that they have added guitar and keyboards to the regular line-up. Festival Theatre, Wed 9; Cotton Club, Wed 9—Thurs 10.
I McEwan’s Pub Trail The Pub Trail will run from today until Friday. with both lunchtime (12.30—2pm) and evening (8—10.30pm) sessions. See the Jazz Festival brochure for full details. and expect the usual pub listening conditions. Also see Jazz listings for details of an expanded Festival week programme at Fat Sam‘s.
I Chick lyall uuintet Jazz at the Tron. Tron Tavern and Ceilidh House. Hunter Square. 8.30pm. £3 (£2). Some of the pianist‘s work seemed to be losing focus fora time. but this quintet has already earned some enthusiastic reactions.
TUESDAY 8 .
I The Cotton Club The Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. 2.30—6pm. £5. No inspirational overall title today. but the session is essentially given over to women. George Melly takes us through The Bessie Smith Story. followed by the ladies of Jazz, featuring a half-dozen singers. The Harlem Room rota includes Brass Reality, whose debut album For Rt’ll/ suggests they will be worth checking out.
I George Melly The Queen’s Hall. Clerk Street. £9. £12. Melly is very tnuch an acquired taste. bill if you like dodgy jazz and blues singing interspliced with long in the tooth risque humour. this is for you. John Chilton’s Feetwarnters provide the usual accompaniment
I lntemational BrassThe Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. Spur—2am. £7.50. Brass Reality kick-off the evening session. which includes a special focus on trumpeters in Blazing Trumpets (1 1.45pm). The Harlem Room offers a trombone tribute to JJ. Johnson and Kai Winding (9.10pm).
I McEwan’s Pub Trail See Mon 7.
I Peter King 0uartet Jazz. at the Tron. Tron Tavern and Ceilidh House. Hunter Square. 8.30pm. £5 (£3). Britain‘s leading bop-based saxophonist joins the Brian Kellock Trio for what will be a superb meeting of musical minds.
WEDNESDAY 9
I The Art of Jazz CuitarThe Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross.
2.30~(rpm. £5. No hyperbole required here in a self-recommending session featuring Martin Taylor, John Pizzarelli (see preview) and Australian newcottier Bruce Mathiske, who also appears upstairs in the Harlem Rootn. and sounded a fine player in a brief set caught itt Glasgow last month.
I The Jazz Festival Cala CONCertFestival Theatre. 13—29 Nicolson Street. 8pm. £9—£l5. An intriguing line-up. to say the least. The Dirty Dozen will top and tail an event which ranges across stylistic boundaries. and features music from Dick Hyman, who is co-ordinating the whole thing. The John Pirelli Trio (see preview ), Pierre Dorge’s flew Jungle Orchestra (see preview). and Bob Wilber’s Soprano Summit featuring Kenny Bavem, with a couple of others thrown in for good measure.
I Cotton Club StompThe Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. Rpm—2am. £10. Despite the very traditional title. tonight's session has a more modern slant to it. with Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams lining up alongside the Tim Barella Big Band (10.30pm). and the New Jungle Orchestra (11.45pm). The new-look Dirty Dozen will provide a final flourish (lam).
I McEwan’s Pub Trail See Mon 7.
I Dave 0’lliggins 0uartet Jazz at the Tron. Tron Tavern and Ceilidh House. Hunter Square. 8.30pm. £5 (£3). The saxophonist is always a popular visitor to Scotland. and this gig with pianist Steve Hamilton will allow him to cut loose more readily titan in his more constrained (but equally compelling) role with Martin Taylor‘s Spirit of Django (see Thurs 10).
THURSDAY 10
I The Cotton Club The Cotton Club. The Cavendish. West Tollcross. 2.30—6pm. £5. More from Bruce Mathiske. and a Salute to Charlie Parker (who died 40 years ago) with Bruce Adams and Alan Barnes (3.45pm).
I Martin Taylor’s Spirit of mango and Claire Martin Trio The Queen‘s Hall. Clerk Street. £9. £12. A brace of Martins on this excellent Linn Records double bill. with guitarist Martin Taylor taking his
24 The List 28 Jul-10 Aug 1995