A wee nip of this well-matured island festival leaves a warm afterglow

Published on Tuesday 18 September 2007 01:23

BLACK BOTTLE ISLAY JAZZ FESTIVAL

VARIOUS VENUES, ISLAY

THE combination of a scenic, sea-girt setting - ringed by seven single-malt distilleries - with a discerning selection of Scottish and international artists has proved a winning one for the Black Bottle Islay Jazz Festival, the ninth annual outing of which at the weekend drew its now-customary crowd of loyal regulars, as well as numerous first-timers from the island and elsewhere.

There's something about leaving the mainland behind that seems peculiarly conducive to the festival experience, of whatever musical hue, and that sense of distance from daily concerns is wonderfully easy to come by on Islay, with the drives between concerts parading its ever-changing panoramas of land and water, sunlight and shadow. The particular flavour of each show is heightened by the diversity of local venues, from cosy village halls to working distillery sheds, the 18th-century former laird's house to the new Gaelic college.

It was in the last of these, Ionad Chaluim Chille le - a partner institution of Sabhal Mr Ostaig on Skye - that Scottish stars Tommy Smith and Brian Kellock appeared on Friday, reuniting the partnership that has so far produced two acclaimed albums, Bezique and the aptly named Symbiosis. The interplay between saxophone and piano indeed ran far deeper than the mere juxtaposition of their two individual talents, displaying a degree of mutual understanding and responsiveness that lent the music a tremendous dynamism at its core.

It was the first of several gigs for Kellock during the festival, he being one of the home-grown musicians who anchor the Islay programme each year, performing in sundry different permutations both with each other and with visiting international guests. This not only provides for numerous different line-ups from the same pool of players, but facilitates a good many first-time encounters among them, thus keeping things fresh and interesting for artists and audiences alike, with more than one such meeting in previous years having blossomed into longer-term collaborations.

By the time he appeared at Sunday night's final festive hootenanny - hosted by saxophonist Laura MacDonald, and featuring strong turns from most of the weekend's performers - Ohio-born Ken Peplowski, a longtime stalwart of the New York scene, certainly looked to be relishing the experience. In between a Saturday lunchtime quartet gig and a head-to-head with Kellock the following day, Peplowski's main concert teamed up his clarinet and tenor sax with the fierce, fearless blowing of Swedish trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz, as they revisited the oeuvre of pioneering pianist Thelonious Monk. Peplowski's beguilingly relaxed, melodious, yet nimbly adventurous delivery was strikingly offset by Bergcrantz's tough, edgy, wilfully wayward attack, while Monk's softer side was highlighted in a memorably bruised, regretful version of his classic Round Midnight.

The rhythm section of pianist Paul Harrison, double bassist Aidan O'Donnell and drummer Alyn Cosker sounded equally fired by the sparks that were flying - and thus well warmed up by the time they high-tailed it to their next gig, down the road at Bruichladdich Hall, with the Ryan Quigley Sextet. With the leader's scorching, muscular trumpet flanked by MacDonald and Paul Towndrow on alto and tenor sax, their set struck an ideal late-night balance between jam-style spontaneity and close-knit cohesion, in a diverse choice of material that ranged from Quigley's own dramatic tribute to the late folk/fusion pioneer Martyn Bennett, to a mournful, Mediterranean-tinged rework of the Sting track Fragile.

One-off shows during the weekend included something of a damp squib late on Friday from Edinburgh-based jazz/funk/hip-hop crew Live Sciences, whose lumbering, repetitious riffs were unleavened by stilted, frequently unintelligible rapping and largely mediocre solos. By contrast, up'n'coming Dumfriesshire-born saxophonist Leah Gough-Cooper, currently studying at the prestigious Berklee College in Boston, enhanced her burgeoning reputation with Saturday's arrestingly assured and sophisticated set in Port Ellen, her authoritative, atmospheric playing and inventive original compositions complemented by excellent work from her three-piece band, in particular some sparkling interplay between guitar and electric bass. With her intensely distilled blues/soul voice, local singer Sheena Swanson is a regular fixture on the Islay bill, and proved her mettle once again with a fine set of vintage standards, featuring Harrison once again on piano, Mario Caribe on double bass and Brian Palmer on drums. Her contribution added richly to the weekend's uniquely distinctive character.