Gig review: Ellington - In the spirit of the Duke, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

By KENNY MATHIESON
Published on 29/10/2012 04:17

THE MUSIC of Duke Ellington has featured in the repertoire of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra right from the band’s inception in the mid-1990s.

The band’s artistic director, saxophonist Tommy Smith, has explored both very familiar and more neglected corners of that vast repertoire, and this latest outing maintained that tradition.

They covered a lot of ground in the course of two long sets, ranging from such pre-war classics as Black & Tan Fantasy, Caravan and a gorgeous reading of Mood Indigo (with Ellington’s original surprise ending), through to excerpts from several of his suites, including The Queen’s Suite, the Latin American Suite and the classically-derived Peer Gynt and Nutcracker.

As ever with this band, the standard of soloing was very high throughout, but the real strength of the concert lay in the ensemble playing.

The musicians brought out the full dazzling range of Ellington’s characteristic use of musical colour, harmony and rhythm in exemplary fashion, both in full band and in some gorgeous segments for solo instruments employed in chorus, notably all five saxophones on Le Sucre Velours, and combinations of trumpet, clarinet and trombone on Solitude, and trombones and bass clarinet on Mood 
Indigo.

It was hard to find fault with anything in this performance. Smith chose to use many of Ellington’s original arrangements, but it is testimony to both the band and the music that it all emerged sounding freshly-minted.

* * * * *