Photo Gallery The Scottish Jazz All Stars Band Photo
Take the finest exponents of Scotland’s jazz
tradition, add the leading lights of Scotland’s new golden age of jazz and the
result is The
Scottish Jazz All Stars, playing
the music of the tradition with the panache of 2005. When
Forrie Cairns and
Fionna Duncan
meet
Brian Kellock and
Tom
Gordon
the result can only be the best jazz in the country. The Scottish version of the
Buena Vista Social Club are joined by the finest of the young lions to make
great music.
During the jazz boom of 40 years ago Scots bands and musicians played a
disproportionately important role. It’s generally agreed that the finest band
was led by Edinburgh’s Alex Welsh,
the best individual musician was Sandy
Brown and the hardest working most loved
band in the whole scene was the Clyde
Valley Stompers.
There are fifty years of Scottish jazz in the newly formed Scottish Jazz All
Stars. The Great clarinettist Forrie Cairns and Scotland’s favourite singer
Fionna Duncan started down the jazz road in the mid fifties. They performed
together gloriously in the Clyde Valley Stompers and then in Forrie Cairns and
the Clansmen. Bassist
Ronnie Rae
paid his dues with the Alex Welsh Band, the best in Britain.
Ronnie and Fionna have now devoted themselves to Scotland for more than thirty
years, he being the first call bass player for everybody and she increasingly
devoting her time to The Fionna Duncan
Jazz Vocal Workshops, which have
transformed jazz singing in Scotland.
Forrie moved to Switzerland to play with
Bob Wallis and then the
Piccadilly Six
but he’s very enthusiastic about the chance to play
more in Scotland with his new band.
Brian Kellock continues to garner plaudits as one of the best pianists in the world as
his awards demonstrate. BBC best CD
of ‘Live at Henry’s’ 2002;
BBC best jazz instrumentalist 2003,
Classic CD, "one of the Top 10 Jazz
Pianists in the world"
Drummer
Tom Gordon
has played with Tommy Smith, Larry Adler, Georgie Fame, James Morrison, The BBC
Concert Orchestra and The London Philharmonia. He is the regular drummer with
the BBC Big Band. Tom played on the Elton John Track "The Heart Of Every Girl"
for the film Mona Lisa Smile. He continues to travel to London regularly to work
with the BBC Big Band and can be heard on their weekly radio show "Big Band
Special".
Guitarist John Russell is Scotland’s leading acoustic rhythm guitarist is much in demand by touring jazz stars from Europe and the USA. Trumpeter Lennie Herd has been a stalwart of the Scottish jazz scene for 50 years and is the band’s secret weapon. Trombonist Dave Batchelor has been making and recording jazz in Scotland for more than 25 years with his own band and many others.