The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Fife Jazz Festival
February 3-March 18, various venues
The Kingdom gets a swing in its step as the 11th Fife Jazz Festival comes to venues, big and small. This year’s programme boasts an impressive line-up including something for all tastes.
International jazz stars and top artists from the Scottish scene will present a combination of world premieres, debuts and new collaborations. And there will be plenty of Festival favourites too.
This first weekend features three concerts in St Andrews, with the acclaimed Rose Room; one of the last ever performances from Blues N Trouble; and Dave Batchelor presenting The Story of Swing.
Singer Seonaid Aitken debuts a new homage to Ella Fitzgerald in her centenary year at the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes. Later one of the great figures in British jazz, trombonist Chris Barber, will lead his Big Band through a programme of traditional jazz and Duke Ellington standards at Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline. Red Stripe Band return for a rollicking night at Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy. And for the first time, the festival includes Upper Largo in its schedule, with a performance from Strangeness and Charm in the Simpson Institute.
Roger Spence, festival director, explains what makes Fife Jazz Festival different: “Every significant festival in Fife takes place in the East Neuk but this one is Fife-wide. The majority of the audiences are local and that makes it quite distinctive,” he says.
“It’s the high spot in the year for jazz aficianados and the last 10 years have also proved that we have attracted a lot of people who are new to jazz.
“Everything in the festival is a highlight,” adds Roger, “but there is a sense of firsts and lasts. Blues N Trouble have been the foremost blues band in Scotland for 30 years, while the legendary Chris Barber is 85 – it’s unlikely Fife audiences will have the chance to hear them ever again.
“Sensational young blues singer Ina Forsman, the rising star of the European Blues scene, will be playing in Cupar and Dunfermline for the first time,” he continues.
“And of course we are celebrating the centenary year of jazz – 1917 saw the first ever recording of jazz in New Orleans, and it was the first time the word ‘jazz’ had been used to describe the music. Seonaid Aitken’s homage to Ella Fitzgerald will include all the big band numbers that made her famous.”
This year’s festival has been extended to include American vocalist Curtis Stigers, who will play at Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline on March 18 with a show that features the iconic songs of Frank Sinatra including Come Fly With Me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, My Kind Of Town and You Make Me Feel So Young.