Gig review: Ryan Quigley Big Band with Justin Currie

Published on Monday 29 June 2009 19:28

RYAN QUIGLEY BIG BAND WITH JUSTIN CURRIE **** OLD FRUITMARKET, GLASGOW

TRUMPETER Ryan Quigley is on a roll right now, following recent wins at the Scottish Jazz Awards and the Parliamentary Jazz Awards with this debut as leader of his own big band, a considerable undertaking these days.

As a mainstay of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, he was able to call on quite a few colleagues to fill important positions, and a number of distinguished guests – notably saxophonists Nigel Hitchcock and Paul Booth, lead trumpet Roger Ingram, and bassist Michael Janisch – to ensure they would hit the ground running.

The trumpeter wrote all of the arrangements, which fell into two categories – ripe, brassy, classically-conceived jazz charts for the band on their own (a mix of standards such as All The Things You Are and a gorgeous You Go To My Head plus several of his own tunes), and more sparsely written material to accompany their guest, Justin Currie.

The singer admitted to a certain nervousness (though he put it more colourfully than that) when his Frank Sinatra moment came, but he handled his first outing in this context well, stumbling only a little in the final stages.

Quigley's arrangements were nicely tailored to suit Currie's delivery, and nudged him in the direction of jazz without losing his own distinctive stamp. As well as arrangements of several Del Amitri songs, they included a version of the standard Nature Boy and a beautiful rendition of Brian Wilson's God Only Knows.