Results for "Scotland"

Louise Dodds

Best Vocalist nominee at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2022, Scottish jazz vocalist Louise Dodds  recently released her third studio album, a duo project with renowned Azerbaijani pianist, arranger and composer Elchin Shirinov, bringing together their love of folk, classical and jazz. The project has been supported by Creative Scotland.

Prior to this release, Louise released her first album in 9 years in March 2022. The album, ‘The Story Needs an Ending’, was also Louise’s first fully original album. She took the album on the road, performing 12 dates across Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The album was selected by Jim Gilchrist in his Arts Review of 2022 in The Scotsman.

Tommy Smith

Born: April 27, 1967

Smith grew up in the housing schemes and began his prolific career at 14 when his quartet won Best Band, and he received Best Musician Trophy at the 1981 Edinburgh Jazz Festival. A year later, he was invited to appear on the TV show 'Jazz at the Gateway' with Niels Henning Ørsted Petersen and Jon Christensen; toured with the European Youth Jazz Orchestra, and recorded his quintet for BBC Radio.

At 16, he released his first two albums, Giant Strides and Taking Off! and studied at Berklee with financial assistance from Sean Connery. He joined Gary Burton's quintet after a recommendation from Chick Corea at 18, toured worldwide, and recorded on ECM's album Whiz Kids.

Ben Bryden

Born: August 14, 1986

Ben Bryden is a transatlantic saxophonist and composer combining a lyrical sound with a memorably melodic approach to composition. Born in Scotland and based in New York since 2009, he has performed with a multitude of admired musicians from the jazz idiom, (Will Vinson, Ben Wendel, Eivind Opsvik, Chris Lightcap, Kenny Wollesen and the legendary Les Paul) and at many of the city’s most loved venues (Cornelia Street Cafe, Zinc Bar, The Bar Next Door, Le Poisson Rouge, The Iridium) In Europe, he has collaborated closely with artists such as Steven Delannoye (Belgium), Phil Robson, Tim Thornton (UK) Reinier Baas and Mark Schilders (Netherlands), leading a number of groups and appearing at festivals and venues such as Ronnie Scotts, The Edinburgh Fringe, Glasgow Jazz Festival. He has released 4 records to date: Bright Noise (“A fluidly lyrical band built around two-tenor interplay” Time Out New York), 1957 Flying Scot (“The most delightful artifact” BBC Radio Scotland) and Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler "Intriguing and melodically engaging interpretations" ★★★★ Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman) ​November 2019 saw the release of his fourth offering, on Circavision Productions: Figure of Eight is a programmatic palindrome of musical wanderlust showing how far flung and seemingly disparate ideas and influences feed back into one another to create a coherent and connected whole

Evelyn Laurie

Born: June 1, 1956

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra

Active since: January 1, 1995

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) is considered by many to be one of the UK’s foremost contemporary big bands. Founder/Director and leading saxophonist Tommy Smith established the SNJO in 1995 with a crystal clear artistic vision and core values of versatility, discipline and expression.

Since its inception more than twenty years ago, many of the leading lights in world jazz have enthusiastically shared the stage with the SNJO. People like Gary Burton, Arild Andersen, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke, Makoto Ozone, Mike Stern and Kurt Elling have all joined the orchestra to explore virtually every room in the house of jazz.