Music review: SNJO - The Jazz Genius of Billy Strayhorn

Of the many personalities the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra has adopted easily over its soon-to-be twenty years of existence, the one it seems to pull on especially like a familiar but still smart suit is that of Duke Ellington's band. Only some of the music played in this tribute to Ellington's extraordinarily prolific amanuensis, Billy Strayhorn was actually played by the Ellington orchestra but given the two men's close working association, it's not too fanciful to imagine any of the pieces that lay neglected in Strayhorn's archives for some thirty years and were dusted off here finding their way into Ellington's canon.

The playful, barrelling Tonk, which merged a theme borrowed from French composer Francis Poulenc with Ellington's beloved train-inspired rhythm, would have sat comfortably on SNJO's In the Spirit of Duke CD of Ellingtonia, as might the lovely ballad Blue House. What really mattered, though, was that here was music that went back decades and managed, under Tommy Smith's direction, to convey a vintage hallmark and yet sound recently minted.

With so many pieces to play, there was less of the space that other SNJO projects have allowed for individual blowing, so this was the orchestra presented largely as a unit, with much concentration on restraint, stealth, a just-so sense of swing and not least beautiful tone production. Paul Towndrow's alto gliding soulfully through Blue Heart's glissandi and Martin Kershaw's several superb clarinet features underlined the classy musicianship available to Smith, who demonstrated class personified himself in a duet with pianist Brian Kellock of Strayhorn's theme tune, Lush Life, written from experience and played from the heart.