Two rising stars of Scottish jazz show the way with new albums

Despite the awful stasis of lockdown, this year is beginning auspiciously for pianist Fergus McCreadie and tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael, both in their early twenties and products of the vigorously fruitful jazz course at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the city’s attendant crucible of emerging young talent. Both have developed a strikingly organic synthesis of lyrical, at times volatile jazz and Scottish folk elements.

McCreadie, who graduated with Bmus Hons from the Conservatoire, has just issued his trio’s second album, Cairn, on the prestigious Edition label, following the acclaim which greeted his independently released debut, Turas, which scooped album of the year categories at both the Parliamentary and Scottish jazz awards. Carmichael, currently in his final RCS year, releases his quartet’s debut, Where Will the River Flow, on 12 March.

As well as leading his trio with long-standing bandmates David Bowden on bass and drummer Stephen Henderson, McCreadie also plays in Carmichael’s quartet, alongside bassist Ali Watson and drummer Tom Potter.

The 23-year-old pianist has risen to the sometimes daunting challenge of the second album: “I’m definitely very pleased with it,” he says. “On the playing front especially, I think the band is a lot more mature and trusting.”

Tracks range from the stately opening tolling of North to the frenetically paced Jig, with powerhouse drumming from Henderson, while the title track develops from engagingly melodic bass and piano work to joyful momentum and muscle.

McCreadie agrees that Cairn is even more consciously informed by place and landscape than its predecessor. “It doesn’t sound like I’ve just taken two genres and patched them together. It would be really easy for something like what we’re trying to do to be very trite. But if you let it happen organically, it sounds much more successful.”

McCreadie cites Keith Jarrett as a major influence as well as folk bands such as Lau and The Gloaming, but also Nordic jazz players such as Jan Garbarek and Arild Andersen –he also credits his peers on the fecund Glasgow scene for constant inspiration.

Also a Scandi-jazz fan is 22-year-old Carmichael, described by his Conservatoire course leader, renowned saxophonist Tommy Smith, as “world class”. He spent two months in Norway at the beginning of last year, returning to record his album just before lockdown. It was partly funded by the Peter Whittingham Development Award he won in 2019.

Like McCreadie, Carmichael has an ear for melodic hook and opens his album with a beguiling one, Sognsvann, inspired by a favourite spot in Norway. Elsewhere, the tenor sax-evoked topography is Scottish: a tribute to his birthplace, Cononbridge, builds a whimsical riff into an exhilarating rush while flow becomes a jazz-reel spate in The Spey. His title track ebbs and flows with powerful currents of its own, with McCreadie’s piano further churning the waters.

As well as US greats like Coltrane and Adderley, the Nordic approach appeals to him: “It’s a different vibe to American jazz; not everyone plays bebop or swing or whatever, but everyone is on their own path, making for a lot of unique voices.”

He and McCreadie, he says, “both get what each other is doing more than other people. My music is definitely influenced a little by playing with Fergus, and I think his new album sounds a little more like something I would do than Turas. Maybe at this point our music is quite similar then, in the future, one of us might veer off in a different way.”

Where Will the River Flow, asks his debut title track (dispensing with any question mark). “In these uncertain times for musicians and the world in general,” he explains, “this track represents someone wondering what journeys might lie ahead, with an underlying sense of optimism.”

McCreadie acknowledges that a cairn is a landmark built of stones, added over time by wayfarers. Despite these uncertain times, he and Carmichael are embarking propitiously on the creative journeys ahead.

For more information, visit www.fergusmccreadie.co.uk and www.mattcarmichaelmusic.com

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