WE'VE become used to the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra adopting other bands' personalities to celebrate various composers' music.
But what we had in the second half here was an example of SNJO’s director, Tommy Smith, apparently re-shaping one of his own compositions to fit the personality of his featured soloist, and doing so very successfully.
I can’t claim intimate knowledge of Smith’s Beauty and the Beast but the version he produced for saxophonist Bill Evans was quite different from my recollections of the original, premiered with Dave Liebman in 2001. This one rocked and by introducing bass guitar – handled here with almost indecent aplomb by Kevin Glasgow – Smith not only gave Evans the propulsion he’s been generally accustomed to, he took his own writing, and thus SNJO, into the realms of Gil Evans’ later work and George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra.
Bill Evans himself revelled in his role. Alternating between soprano and tenor, he played Smith’s written lines with authority and improvised in torrents, alert to the quick, tightly accented orchestral manoeuvres and wild horn blasts and yet playing the more reflective passages with tenderness and feeling.
One drawback of these featured soloist concerts is that the orchestra’s individual talents are restricted to playing written parts. But pianist Steve Hamilton took his chances to impress and when he, Glasgow and drummer Alyn Cosker joined Smith and Evans for a brisk, exhilarating encore that was essentially an expanded version of Smith’s current band, Karma, it was a line-up that demanded further investigation.
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