Saturday the 30th of June saw my final concert of
this season, though a summer jazz festival doesn’t really count as part of any
season other than the summer festival one. For want of something to do to
maintain my record of having attended something at every Glasgow Jazz Festival
since its inception (actually, my memory is so bad that I can no longer be sure
that this is true), I attended this year’s performance by the Strathclyde Youth
Jazz Orchestra (SYJO), and this is what I mean when I say that my memory is so
bad. I was writing this blog in my head as I sat in the Old Fruitmarket. Six
days later, and that piece of journalistic magnificence has all but vanished
from my Swiss-cheese brain. Lucky for me, and you, I took notes. Sadly, I’m
having trouble reading them!
They opened with a version of Duke Ellington’s ‘Take the A
Train’, spoiled by the lead trumpet, who, while note-perfect, struggled for the
entire gig to keep in time with everyone else in the band. They followed this
with a Dizzy Gillespie piece, ‘Tanga’, which was a new one on me, or was it?
I’ve just been looking at a version of it on YouTube, and it’s possible that
Dizzy and his United Nations orchestra (featuring a young Arturo Sandoval on
trumpet) could have played this at their gig in Glasgow on July 7 1990 (the
night the Three Tenors concert was taking place in Italy, prior to the World
Cup). Who knows? Anyway, the trumpeter who was having so much trouble in the
first number played flugel horn in this one, but there was no improvement. The
tenor solo was good though, and this was a feature for Allan Glen, a former
member of the band. He was one of many guests in the ensemble, conducted by Stewart Forbes, which consisted
of four trumpets, six trombones, six saxophones, piano, bass and drums. This is the second incarnation of the band, which
is now based at Strathclyde University. Previously, it was, I believe, funded by
the old Strathclyde Regional Council, created for the first festival in
1987, and was for many years under the direction of Bobby Wishart.
Back to last Saturday. The first vocal feature of the day
went to the sharp-dressed presenter of the Jazz House on BBC Radio Scotland,
Stephen Duffy, and he gave us his rendition of guest trombonist Adrian Drover’s
arrangement of ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’. Drover has been a fixture on the jazz
scene in Scotland from his days with the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, and had once been a member of Maynard Ferguson’s band. The second number was
Duffy’s own arrangement which brought together Neal Hefti’s ‘Li’l Darlin’’ and
the Gershwins’ ‘Our Love Is Here To Stay’. Duffy has a wonderful voice, and an
understanding of, and empathy with, this music which is second to none for someone of
his age. Perhaps that’s due to the fact that he seems to have been doing it
forever. I saw him perform with Bill Fanning’s band in the Glasgow Society of
Musicians when he was about 15 or 16 years old, and everyone was in awe of this
precocious teenager who not only knew the songs and how to sing them, but
had written big band arrangements to accompany them. That was back in the late
80s. He’s a young 41 now.
The band was back in the spotlight again in arrangement of
Oliver Nelson’s ‘Stolen Moments’. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Nelson’s own
arrangement, and this spoiled it somewhat for me. I seem to recall that my
first exposure to this piece was a recording by pianist Ahmad Jamal, played on
Humphrey Lyttelton’s much-missed Monday night show on Radio 2 and, lo, here it is on
YouTube. Next up, Lee Morgan’s ‘The Sidewinder’, which I seem to recall was my
highlight of the day. Time, once more, for vocals.
SYJO is about to start recruiting for next term, as Stewart
Forbes said about a dozen times, and, every so often, it unearths some gems.
Today was no exception. He introduced a young lady by the name of Deborah
Bismanah (apologies for the spelling), who was singing with the band for the
first time. If the song, ‘Georgia’, was somewhat unimaginative, the performance
suggested that she might just go on to become a big star. If she has a fraction
of the success and respect Stephen Duffy has had, she won’t have had too bad a
career. Speaking of Mr. Duffy, he returned for his final spot; Nelson
Riddle’s arrangement of ‘Don’t Be That Way’, which was recorded by Ella
Fitzgerald, and a Barry Forgie transcription (arranger unknown) of a song Tony
Bennett recorded with the Buddy Rich band, ‘There’ll Be Some Changes Made’.
Finally, the band returned to Duke Ellington, with an arrangement (again,
unknown) of ‘Things Ain’t What They Used To Be’, and this was followed by ‘All Blues’ by
Miles Davis. Stewart Forbes announced that they were out of time, and that was
my Glasgow Jazz Festival over for another year. Somewhat disappointingly, they
never played ‘Milestones’.
SYJO made their big debut in that first festival in 1987,
and I’ve seen quite a few line-ups along the way. That was the year I saw Benny
Carter, the man who made one of the first jazz LPs I ever bought, and, thanks
to the festival, I’ve also seen Oscar Peterson, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz,
Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Dizzy Gillespie, Phil Woods, Maynard Ferguson, Chic Corea, Nat
Adderley, George Shearing, Stan Tracy, Gary Burton, Wynton Marsalis and, I
suspect, a few others. I’ve missed dozens and dozens more. Almost all the
legends of jazz in its many forms are no longer with us, but as long as there
are people willing to play the music and people willing to put on gigs and
people interested enough to go to those gigs, jazz will survive. To live in the
hearts of those we leave behind is not to die.
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