[Dixielandjazz] Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival--Ken Mathieson writes

[Marek Boym]

>From Ken's desctiption,


On 15 August 2013 04:45, Norman Vickers <nvickers1 at cox.net> wrote:

> *To:  Musicians and Jazzfans list; DJML*
>
> *From: Ken Mathieson via Norman Vickers*
>
> * *
>
> *Glasgow, Scotland resident and drummer/arranger Ken Mathieson sends a
> review of recent Edinburgh JazzFest.*
>
> *At my request he has given us this report and invites us to the 2014
> Jazzfest there.  I’ve appended dates and website below.*
>
> * *
>
> *As reported  previously, Ken has performed with and arranged for Fat
> Sam’s Jazz Band of Edinburgh for about 14 years and, as he writes below,
> performs with his own group now.  His work as an accountant previously  has
> taken him to Brazil where he participated in the music there, as well.*
>
> * *
>
> *Ken Mathieson writes:*
>
> * *
>
> * *
>
> *From:** Ken Mathieson [mailto:ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 6:28 PM
> To: Norman Vickers
> Subject: Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival*
>
> * *
>
> *The 35th annual Edinburgh Jazz Festival & Blues Festival took place in
> the last week of July with concerts covering just about every aspect of
> jazz and the blues. It wasn't always like that: in its early years, most
> of the gigs were pretty informal and the musical fare was predominantly
> traditional jazz of all styles and mainstream. The festival's founder was
> banjoist and bandleader Mike Hart, a name which will ring bells with
> musicians and jazz fans who attended the Sacto Jubilee in the 1970s and 80s
> and the San Diego Jazz Festival more recently. Mike modelled the concept on
> Sacto, with predominantly semi-pro bands from around the world working a
> circuit of pub gigs. In time, big names started to be booked and the gigs
> started to become concerts. In the 1980s and 1990s major players like
> Sweets Edison, Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Kenny Davern, Bob Wilber, Teddy Wilson,
> Al Cohn, Milt Hinton, Jake Hanna and others too numerous to mention became
> festival regulars and a whole weekend of blues concerts was added.***
>
> * *
>
> *As the demographics of the customers changed, so too did the
> festival's musical policy. Producer/Director Roger Spence was recruited to
> programme the more contemporary content, while Mike Hart remained
> responsible for the trad/mainstream element. Over time, Mike has taken more
> of a back seat, but still played this year in a concert with a
> specially-assembled Dixieland band of local players. This year's
> programme covered an amazing range of musical idioms: New Orleans Brass
> Bands, Ragtime, Dixieland, Gipsy Swing, Cajun, Blues of all genres,
> Jump-Jive, Big Band, Bop, Hard Bop, Post-bop, Hip-hop, Contemporary Fusion
> styles, Scandinavian cool, Brazilian Choros, Flamenco-jazz and so on. Among
> the headline concerts were the Darius Brubeck Quartet, Ellington's Sacred
> Music (complete with big band, tap dancer, gospel choir etc), a British
> trad extravaganza with the Three Bs (Barber, Bilk and Ball and their bands
> - the Ball band is led by son Keith since Kenny's recent death), Eric
> Burdon & the Animals, Fat Sam's Band, which is still a big draw in its
> hometown.***
>
> * *
>
> *This year I was involved in concerts by the Batchelors of Jazz, a local
> Dixieland band of mainly pro and ex-pro players, the Roy Percy Sextet, my
> own Classic Jazz Orchestra  with New Orleans clarinetist Evan Christopher,
> and accompanying New York based singer/pianist Champian Fulton. She was a
> delight to work with: a fine singer and an excellent pianist with a heavy
> Errol Garner influence. Watch out for her: she's got genuine ability. Roy
> Percy is an Edinburgh-based string bass player who is in demand all over
> Europe. He's at home in a variety of styles, but his forte is slap-bass
> playing. His sextet comprised Evan Christopher on clarinet, London-based
> Enrico Tomasso on trumpet and vocals (he's also Acker Bilk's trumpeter as
> well as a busy free-lancer), Edinburgh-based alto sax player Martin Kershaw
> (an incredibly fluent and musical player with a gorgeous tone), the
> wonderfully talented Italian pianist Paolo Alderighi, Roy was on bass and I
> was on drums. Enrico brought along a pile of arrangements of material
> recorded by the John Kirby Sextet which were a tough read (tempos can be
> quite challenging, dynamics are crucial, melody leads are
> constantly changing) but they're a delight to play, epecially when we get
> them right!***
>
> * *
>
> *For those of you unfamiliar with my Classic Jazz Orchestra (CJO), it's
> an octet (tpt, tbn, 3 reeds, pno, bs, ds) consisting mainly of pro and
> ex-pro players and its policy is to re-interpret (not replicate) the first
> 80 or so years of jazz styles, so we cover pretty well everything from
> Jelly Roll Morton to Charles Mingus. Indeed our concert programme, with
> good pal Evan Christopher as our guest, did exactly that, although its twin
> themes were the New Orleans Clarinet Tradition and some of Jelly's
> compositions from the last year of his life when he was writing for an
> abortive big band project. CJO has 2 outstanding clarinetists in its
> line-up (Dick Lee and Martin Foster) and I had written a few pieces
> featuring Evan, Dick and Martin as a clarinet trio. It's a measure of their
> musical taste that they didn't turn these pieces into a "chopsfest" but
> played outstanding music while jousting with each other in a good-natured
> way. The N.O. Clarinet Tradition pieces paid homage to Tio, Bechet, Bigard,
> Noone, Simeon, Fazola and Ed Hall, while the Morton rarities included Stop
> and Go, Ganjam, Jazz Jubilee, Superior Rag as well as better-known pieces
> like Black Bottom Stomp and Grandpa's Spells (although it's worth knowing
> that we play all of that stuff in a variety of styles with occasional cross
> references to Jelly's recordings).***
>
> * *
>
> *For readers wondering about a visit to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in
> 2014, don't hesitate: it's a beautiful city steeped in history, has great
> places to eat and the jazz festival is a well-produced event with
> world-class performers. It's also a friendly city, so, if you do turn up
> next year, please come up and say hello.*
>
> * *
>
> *
> -----*
>
> *Here’s info from the website:*
>
> *Our dates for 2014 are 18th to 27th July - we hope to see you there.
> See website www.edinburghjazzfestival.com  ***
>
> *
> ------*
>
> * *
>
> *Norman writes:  it’s interesting to note that the Edinburgh Jazz
> Festival has enlarged their styles of music to accommodate  changing tastes
> of its patrons.  My guess is that there was similar reaction and criticism
> from the “old heads” at Edinburgh  as we saw and heard on DJML as relates
> to the change in emphasis and minor name change  from  some devotees of the
> Sacramento Jazz Festival, renamed Sacramento Music Festival.*
>
> ** **
>
>
> *--end--*
>
>  ****
>