Skye Swing Jazz Festival focuses on fun and fun for 2017

The 2017 Skye Swing Jazz Festival gets under way tomorrow (Friday October 27) with an emphasis this year on fun and funk.

Kicking off the weekend of music and dancing, is an Oscar-winning film, accompanied by an innovative score, played live by one of Scotland’s most exciting and prodigious musical talents.

Graeme Stephen’s score for F W Murnau’s visual masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won him the innovation award at the Scottish Jazz Awards in 2012. The film won the Unique and Artistic Picture Award at the First Academy Awards in 1929. Harnessing influences from various musical styles including folk, classical and jazz, Graeme will be performing with world-class musicians Pete Harvey, cello; Phil Bancroft, saxophone; and Tom Bancroft, drums/percussion.

The event, which takes at 7.30pm at An Talla Dhùisdeil, Isle Ornsay, will take the form of a fancy dress Hallowe’en-themed evening to get the festival going with a swing. There is a prize for the best costume and the bar will be open from 7pm.

On Saturday October 28, audiences are invited to dress up in their 1970s best for a time travel evening of music and dancing through the history of one of funk’s most enduring bands, The Crusaders.

Beginning life in the early 1950s, The Crusaders, in their various forms, produced more than 40 albums and launched some of R&B’s best-loved artists, such as Randy Crawford, Wayne Henderson, Hubert Laws and Bill Withers, into immediate stardom.

The Crusaders Time Machine will play tunes from the hard-bop era and hits from the groovy period at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, TDC Main Hall. The musicians are Gordon McNeil, tenor sax; Rick Taylor, trombone; Malcolm MacFarlane, guitar; Paul Harrison, piano and electric piano; Mario Caribe, double bass, electric bass and arrangements; and Stuart Brown, drums.

The festival ends on Sunday October 29 at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, An Talla Mòr, with the popular duets night. This time around, six musicians will form three duets, two trios and a sextet in an unforgettable evening of music making. Musicians are Al Price, mouth organ, and Huey Dowling, guitar; Rick Taylor, trombone, and Bradley Johnston, guitar; and Fraser Fifield, pipes, whistle and sax, and Sodhi Tabla, percussion.

The Skye Swing Jazz Festival is organised by SEALL (Skye Events for All) in conjunction with FOTS Records.

Pam Allan of FOTS Records, said: ‘We are hugely excited about this year’s Skye Swing Jazz Festival, with 17 of Scotland’s finest musicians coming to Skye for three days of amazing music.

‘Over the weekend, we have an Oscar-winning movie with a brand new score and a time travel through the history of one of America’s greatest jazz funk bands, the Crusaders, complete with dressing-up, dancing and dancers. The Sunday event features three duets, which then make two trios then a sextet, in an unforgettable evening of music to close our wonderful weekend.

‘Three days of fabulous music, dancing, dressing-up and a whole lot of fun, what more could you ask for? Get your funk on and come and join us.’

Tickets and further information from www. seall.co.uk or call 01471 844207.