Tommy Smith
Modern Jacobite
Spartacus
IF YOU have been engaged at all with jazz music in the modern era, the voice of the soloist, and composer of the title piece, on this orchestral disc, is unmistakable. In the way of these things, we in Scotland perhaps under-appreciate just how distinctive a saxophonist Tommy Smith is, because he is one of our own. And the same holds true of the half-hour three-movement piece he has contributed. It stands as part of a continuum, from Smith's collaboration with Edwin Morgan on Beasts of Scotland to the Old Testament fire of Torah, in that it could be no-one else's writing, and he brings that individuality to his arrangements of Rachmaninov's Vocalise and Chick Corea's Children's Songs which bracket it.
But the third truth you can hear is that this is distinctly the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Under the baton of Clark Rundell, the musicians of the SSO have invested their individual and collective musicality in this disc, responding to the fact that Smith has given them plenty to do. Modern Jacobite is far from just a showcase for saxophone, with front desk players sharing the limelight. If the opening piece would sit easiest in the orchestra's season programme, it is the Corea pieces that should find a home at next year's Glasgow Jazz Festival.
Keith Bruce
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