NEWS news NEWS!

7/4/2010

Been rehearsing the last 2 days with snjo and the Taiko Drummers. Tommy has written all the music using references from traditional japanese music (i think) and its pretty amazing music. The drummers are fantastic so its been a really good couple of days. To check out the dates for the tour go here.

7/4/2010

Bob Brookmeyer

One of my favourite Musicians, composer, arrangers and bandleaders is Bob Brookmeyer. He constantly inspires me with his melodies, his arrangements and his masterful direction of a big band. There are not many albums i wait for eagerly these days but i believe any album by Mr Brookmeyer has to be worth buying. Apparently there is a new album by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra coming out featuring new music by Brookmeyer and Artist house have released a video on youtube previewing some of the music. Here is one of the clips and if you have time you should try and check out the other clips (there are lots of them!)

3/3/2010

john scofield!

Start rehearsing tommorow with snjo and john scofield. Started rehearsing today without Mr Scofield, playing some great arrangements by Mike Abene, Mike Gibbs, Florian Ross, Geoff Keezer amongst others especially commissioned by Tommy Smith for these concerts. Here is a clip of John Scofield playing Green Tea which we will be performing. The arrangement that snjo will be playing is by Geoff Keezer and has a big Thad Jones influence in it.

Just got a gig with Richard Wetherall in Llay, North Wales June 8th. Here is a clip of Richard at last years Manchester Jazz Festival.

19/9/09

Jazz review: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Plays Wayne Shorter

Published Date: 14 September 2009

By KENNY MATHIESON

QUEEN'S HALL, EDINBURGH
*****

TOMMY Smith and the SNJO keep delivering. Their foray into saxophonist Wayne Shorter's brilliant and idiosyncratic repertoire with ten newly commissioned and notably diverse arrangements was another triumph.

One of the great fascinations in this

kind of project is the multi-faceted nature of the listening experience, here layering Shorter's compositions with the new arranger's transforming vision and the creative input of the musicians.

Smith's trump card was to feature vibraphone maestro Gary Burton as guest soloist. Although he has no track record in Shorter's music, he is one of the truly great improvisers in jazz, and his lucid, penetrating style proved perfectly matched to the rather cerebral melodic and harmonic dimensions of Shorter's musical mind. The players of the SNJO made their own telling contributions, both in their ensemble playing and in soloing.

They concentrated on compositions from the 1960s, when Shorter led his own classic sessions for Blue Note and was a key member of the seminal Miles Davis Quintet.

That association furnished two classics here, Florian Ross's Nefertiti and Mike Gibbs' magnificent setting of ESP.

Pino Jodice's Speak No Evil, Christian Jacob's This Is For Albert, Fred Sturm's Yes Or No and Issie Barrett's Witch Hunt all impressed with very different approaches.

10/09/09

GARY BURTON!

Had 1st rehearsal yesterday with the SNJO and Gary Burton playing the music of Wayne Shorter and it was very inspiring. The first tune we played was Speak No Evil which was fantastic, always great to hear those first notes in a rehearsal from somebody you have listened to for years, Gary Burton is so swingy! Heres a clip of Gary Burton with Cedar Walton playing Cedars Blues. Enjoy.

6/09/09

Got a gig with Richard Wetherall , Eryl Roberts, Tim France and Pete Turner on 14th october for the North Wales Jazz society. Should be good,

THE FARMERS ARMS,

WAEN, Nr. St. ASAPH find details here .

20/07/09

New website

My old friend and teacher, the great Tony Faulkner has redesigned his website and it has many great features including Tonys great compositions ( including score extracts!) You can check it out here.

Tony with Thad Jones!

30/6/09

RIP Richard Hawdon

Dickie Hawdon was one of my trumpet teachers at Leeds College of music, he was also responsible for setting up the jazz course in Leeds which i believe was the first of its kind in europe. Dick was a wonderful man who gave me many opportunities to develop my jazz playing. He was of course a wonderful trumpet player and in the 1950`s- 60`s he was known as the english Clifford Brown. Although i didnt see him for many years he will always be a great inspiration to me and will be missed by everyone who new him.

Dick is seen hear with the Tubby Hayes band (extreme right). For more information about Dick go here and here.

20/6/09

I`ve just finished reading this biography of Lee Morgan, its a great read and a fascinating story. Now im just going back and checking out all the recordings. Lee Morgan really was a fantastic musician. To check out the book go here.

Mean while, here`s a nice video of Lee Morgan with Billy Harper. Enjoy!

3/4/09

Managed to get some new tracks downloaded onto the sounds page, please click on page and have a listen. Hoping to add a lot more stuff soon!

25/3/09

Just had news that in september of 2009 the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra will be undertaking some dates with Gary Burton, we will be performing the music of Wayne Shorter and the dates are as follows

10 - Byre Theatre, St. Andrews

11 - Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

12 - Concert Hall, RSAMD, Glasgow
13 - MacRobert, Stirling.

Hope you can come, should be good!