Aberdeen Jazz Festival begins today – and the 10-day event boasts a packed programme.
Taking place at various venues in the city are more than 30 events with more than 100 artists taking part.
We’ve taken a look at some of the highlights of the festival.
Kitti’s Great Caledonian Songbook, Lemon Tree, March 19
Taking on centuries’ worth of standards forged by some of Scotland’s greatest songwriters is a move that says a lot about the self-assurance that defines kitti.
The Paisley singer is no newcomer, having previously earned plaudits under her real name Katie Doyle, but recent years have seen her career really take off under her lowercase moniker with best vocalist awards twice coming her way at the Scottish Jazz Awards.
Her raw yet smoky voice is a startling asset, and her burgeoning talents were given a deserved platform alongside the cream of Scotland’s fusion talents on renowned saxophonist Tommy Smith’s Nu Age Sounds showcase with his Scottish National Jazz Orchestra earlier this month.
Now she’s taking on material from the nation’s prestigious songbook, including bothy ballads, Robert Burns compositions and hits from the likes of Annie Lennox, Emeli Sandé and Paolo Nutini.
Kitti is being joined at the Aberdeen Jazz Festival event by Fife-raised violinist and broadcaster Seonaid Aitken.
corto.alto, Tunnels, March 22
Festival favourites corto.alto are a flexible ensemble comprising some of Glasgow’s foremost young jazzers.
Its leader is Dumfries-raised multi-instrumentalist Liam Shortall, who first made a mark on the city’s scene over a decade ago. A trombonist in the SNJO, he co-founded funksters Tom McGuire and The Brassholes and also featured in experimental trio AKU!
Among the talents who join Liam in corto.alto – it started on Facebook to showcase his self-produced music videos – is Mercury-nominated pianist Fergus McCreadie.
Taking in hip-hop and drum and bass – but with jazz influences still crucial in the mix – genre-hopping collaborations abound.
Liam, who released his debut opus Bad With Names last October, says: “When I make music, I don’t think about playing it live. There’s nothing wrong with playing something live completely different to how it is on the album.”
Look out for Dundee’s equally ambitious Millhouse Collective co-starring at the Tunnels.
Azamiah, Blue Lamp, March 22
If exotic, genre-blending soundscapes are your bag, then Azamiah should be high on your list of unmissable festival concerts.
The Glasgow-based collective are led by London-born songstress India Blue, whose 2020 breakthrough single Shades hinted at experiments in spiritual jazz, hip-hop, trap and bossa nova.
India’s vocal stylings salute the soulful Donny Hathaway and Amy Winehouse, but it’s cosmic jazz shot through with looped rhythms that define her band’s approach.
Positive reviews followed last year’s Azamiah album In Phases, with culture tome The Skinny hailing the debut as “sophisticated and poetic”.
It wrote: “Each individual piece of instrumentation provides a new entry point. Yet the true joy shines in listening to the ways the ensemble play and vibe off one another, creating a language – a spell – uniquely their own.”
Tommy Smith and Pete Johnstone, Blue Lamp, March 23
Any show by acclaimed sax player Tommy Smith guarantees a liberal dash of world-class musical quality.
Growing up, the Edinburgh-born composer was a precocious talent who recorded his debut album Giant Strides aged just 16.
His formidable potential was recognised by Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he went on to hone his craft, with a Blue Note recording deal coming his way in 1989 aged 22.
However, it was his founding of his stellar SNJO big band in 1995 that laid down a path for the career that he’d subsequently go on to forge, focusing on both repertory classics and contemporary works.
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland jazz guru Smith’s Blue Lamp concert will also feature one of his former proteges in the shape of pianist Pete Johnstone, a member of the successful quartet he formed in 2017.
Martin Taylor, Lemon Tree, March 24
Guitar maestro Martin Taylor has been beguiling listeners since the late 1970s.
He made his name playing with legendary French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli for 11 years, in a role once occupied by his idol Django Reinhardt.
Essex-raised Taylor first picked up a guitar aged just four and his unusual, self-taught technique involves playing in classical-like finger-style.
He says: “I just kind of picked it up listening to records and I heard a lot by jazz piano players of the early days, like Fats Waller and Art Tatum and I thought I’d like to be able to play that on the guitar.
“I even listened to some things and tried to work out how to play them and then realised they were actually guitar duets.
I was thinking it was difficult but I just carried on from there.”
Martin released his 100th album – a reunion with his band Spirit Of Django – back in 2011, and in recent years he’s developed his own online school for budding guitarists.
