For two decades, Tommy Smith’s efforts have helped make the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra one of the best in the world, while Eddi Reader is one of the nation’s favourite singers. Bring them together and the result is an unforgettable musical collaboration, writes Susan Welsh
Scottish singer Eddi Reader has many strings to her musical bow and is equally at home whether singing ballads so hauntingly beautiful her voice can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up or pop numbers that can pack out dance floors.
But this summer, she’ll fulfil something of a personal dream by turning her attention to jazz. Her love of jazz is no secret and she’s said before that at times she felt like she’d been born out of time and that what she really wanted to be was a 1940s jazz singer.
Eddi is joining The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO), considered by many to be Europe’s foremost contemporary big band and directed by the wonderful Tommy Smith, as it tours the Highlands and islands with Alba: Sounds of Scotland. These concerts will help the SNJO celebrate its 20th anniversary in style, as together they let audiences hear a selection of newly arranged songs.
Alba: Songs of Scotland is an intriguing collaboration of Eddi’s inimitable voice with the wonderful depth of big-band jazz sound, which can be heard at a number of locations including Shetland, Ullapool, Inverness, Arran and Skye.
“It’s going to be challenge for me as it’s a different discipline entirely, with a lot more listening involved. I know when to fly and to control my voice, but this is a mixture of classical and quirky folk,” said Eddi.
“I have to discipline myself not to play around, but listen to the orchestra. I’ll be singing in my usual voice, but the arrangements around it will be different. So, for example, in Auld Lang Syne, there will be a number of flutes and whistles doing different arrangements. The arrangers have taken areas of different songs and adapted them to be suitable for a jazz orchestra, which creates a more complex sound, but you’ll still recognise it as Auld Lang Syne.”
Founded by director Tommy Smith in 1996, the SNJO is dedicated to promoting jazz as a pre-eminent art form through performances, original compositions, recordings, and educational outreach programmes. Many leading lights in the jazz world have enthusiastically shared the stage with the SNJO – big names like Cleo Laine, John Scofield, Kurt Elling, Makoto Ozone and Randy Brecker, to name but a few.
“I’m looking forward to working with Tommy, as it’s always interesting working with musicians who come from different genres. I’ve done a little bit of it before, having worked with Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth when they did arrangements of songs I wanted to sing, but they were more ‘torch’ songs. This time, we’re taking a whole different approach to traditional songs and I think it’s going to be wonderful. The jazz arrangements will remain true to the essence and beauty of these songs, so anything romantic will sound even more romantic.”
Eddi is the latest star to come onboard. As she and Tommy are passionate and eminent musical ambassadors, it seems fitting they should be exploring the music and songs of Scotland, songs that can stir strong and mixed emotions informed by history, identity and political ideas.
Together, they’ve chosen for these concerts a wonderful selection of popular airs, ballads and original music designed to fire the Scottish musical imagination. Many tell the story of love in its many forms: from the devotional and the poetic to the mystical and the fierce. It’s evoked strongly in the Gaelic of An Ataireachd Ard (the high surge of the sea), reflectively in Glen of Tranquillity, and affectingly in the lilting Loch Tay Boat Song.
Alba would be incomplete without reference to Robert Burns. He was indisputably a love poet with few peers, and Eddi Reader is a well known and admired interpreter of his work. Her performances with the SNJO are certain to capture the intensity of Burns’s lyrical ardour in famous pieces such as Ae Fond Kiss and John Anderson My Jo.
As Eddi tends to sing truthfully and from the heart, with strong emotions tempered by understanding and self-knowledge, her partnership with the SNJO should make for a compelling journey through Scotland’s collective memory with the promise of vivid, vibrant and inspiring music.
Concert dates for Alba: Songs of Scotland include: The High School, Lamlash, Arran, 8pm, Thursday, June 11 (www.alba-arran.eventbrite.co.uk); The Mareel, Lerwick, 7.45pm, Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13 (www.shetlandboxoffice.org); Aros Hall, Tobermory, 7.45pm, June 16 (www.comar.co.uk); Aros Centre, Portree, Skye, 7.30pm June 17 (www.aros.co.uk); Iochdar Hall, Iochdar, South Uist, 8pm, June 18 www.alba-uist.eventbrite.co.uk); An Lanntair, Stornoway, 8pm, June 19 (www.lanntair.com); Macphail Theatre, Ullapool, 8pm June 20 (www.macphailcentre.co.uk); Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, 7.30pm, June 21 (www.eden-court.co.uk), and last but not least, they appear at the St Magnus International Festival, Orkney, at 7.30pm on Monday, June 22 (www.stmagnusfestival.com).