Gig review: Guitar Night Out: Simon Thacker, Camerata Ritmata, Chris Day, Belhaven Fruit Farm, dunbar

For a single day, joked artistic co-director Hugh Macdonald in his concert introduction, the Lammermuir Festival had turned little Dunbar into the guitar capital of the world.

Allan Neave was offering guitar-based chamber music there in the morning, and young Scot Sean Shibe performed Rodrigo’s famous Concierto de Aranjuez with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the afternoon.

The day concluded with an informal evening of guitar jazz and contemporary music in the unlikely setting of Belhaven Fruit Farm.

Stars of the show were East Lothian-born guitarist Simon Thacker with his jazz quartet Camerata Ritmata, who brought striking energy and wit to an unusual and eclectic couple of sets. Thacker is clearly a keen musical traveller: his jazz arrangements took in Azerbaijan, Brazil, Thessaloniki and 13th-century Spain. But what unified these contrasting pieces were the group’s tight ensemble and driving rhythmic energy – although the audience had a hard time tapping their feet along to Thacker’s sparky, ever-changing rhythms.

A couple of numbers based on the medieval Cantigas de Santa Maria combined ancient-sounding bare harmonies with beautifully liquid playing from Thacker, and his Alim Qasimov arrangement became a funky, exotic-sounding romp. It was a shame that the players seemed a bit po-faced – although drummer Stuart Brown was clearly in his element.

East Lothian-based guitarist Chris Day provided contrast after the interval with a spirited version of Steve Reich’s minimalist masterpiece Electric Counterpoint, but he wasn’t as nimble as he perhaps should have been, and the washes of synthesiser chords that engulfed the slow movement seemed to have little to do with the rest of the piece. Still, the concert was a fitting conclusion to a day of guitar celebration.