The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dundee Jazz Fest
Various venues, November 15-19
The 35th Dundee Jazz Festival marks a return to the event’s original home, Dundee Rep as well as staging events from the Unicorn to Broughty Ferry.
The festival began in 1983, soon after the current Rep building was opened, and immediately established a triple theme of old, new and blue, with the legendaryTexan bebop saxophonist and blues singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson among its first guests.
Old, new and blue are the watchwords yet again as the organisers celebrate the centenaries of recorded jazz and one of its greatest recording stars, Ella Fitzgerald.
They’ll also showcase the latest sounds from New York, courtesy of singer Becca Stevens and drummer Jaimeo Brown, and present a programme of blues ranging from the classic acoustic style of Los Angelean singer-guitarist-pianist-banjo picker Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton to the high energy blues-rock of County Monaghan blues belter Grainne Duffy.
The music begins at the Gardyne Theatre on November 15 with the return of former Average White Band (AWB) singer-guitarist-bassist Hamish Stuart and his band featuring special guest, fellow AWB founder, saxophonist Molly Duncan.
Jaimeo Brown and his New York band, including highly rated saxophonist Jaleel Shaw and guitarist Chris Sholar, play the festival’s first concert at the Rep in more than 10 years on November 16 when the opening group, pianist Fergus McCreadie’s trio gives a taste of the youthful talent currently flourishing on the Scottish scene.
There will be further evidence of Scotland’s status as a jazz production line when teenage singer Luca Manning and pianist Alan Benzie, who won the inaugural Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year title as a 17-year-old in 2007, open for Becca Stevens at the Rep on the Saturday.
The Gardyne Theatre programme includes the centenary celebrations, with singer Ali Affleck throwing a New Orleans party on Friday and singer and radio presenter Seonaid Aitken teaming up with the Groove Merchant Big Band in A Night with Ella on Saturday 18th that will also introduce guest Sam West to recreate the great Ella FitzgeraldLouis Armstrong duets.
Tennessee-based troubadour Nathan Bell, whose blues-rooted, hard hitting storytelling style was a hit at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January, makes his Dundee debut at the Unicorn next Saturday.
The Reading Rooms host hot hip-hop band The Mouse Outfit – fronted by UK hip-hop legend Dr Syntax and verbal acrobat Sparkz – on Friday and to close the festival next Sunday, five Broughty Ferry bars offer a musical pub crawl.