Shire link to jazz duo’s New Focus on Song
Pianist Euan Stevenson and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski will be close to a source of inspiration when they play at Birnam Arts in Dunkeld on Friday.
The Glasgow-based jazz duo’s latest album, ‘New Focus on Song’, features a track called ‘Green Park’.
Audiences often assume that it was written in praise of the royal park near Buckingham Palace or the London Underground station, when in fact, pianist Stevenson’s thoughts were on the Green Park Hotel in Pitlochry when the tune came together.
“My grandmother was very fond of the Highland Perthshire hotel and its location and every year she used to gather the whole family around her for a weekend there,” he explained.
“It came to be a special place and I wrote the tune as something to remember her by but also to remember the great times we had there. Stevenson and saxophonist Wiszniewski have been working together since 2005 but they only adopted the New Focus name in 2011, after they were commissioned by Edinburgh Jazz Festival to recreate the great saxophonist Stan Getz’s orchestral album Focus to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the album’s release.
“It’s really exciting to work with the string and harp players, and we really enjoy playing as a more conventional jazz quartet,” said Wiszniewski, who away from New Focus is one of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s star soloists.
“But there’s also something special about a duo gig. It brings out the melodic side of what we do.
“We’ll be playing mostly our own music in Birnam, including ‘Green Park’, but we also like to include wellknown jazz tunes to try and give people something they’re familiar with as well.” Tickets are adults £12, concessions £10 and under 16s £5, www.birnamarts.com Euan and Konrad