REVIEW: Big band deserve a big hand
IT WAS billed as The Ryan Quigley Big Band featuring singer songwriter Justin Currie.
Neither of whom was familiar until you recognised some of the top jazz musicians who have starred in the popular Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon at the Howden Park Centre recently.
Now, if you were expecting to hear famous jazz standards, well, you were disappointed because Ryan Quigley produced a programme mainly of his own contemporary compositions, and Justin Currie followed the same route.
To his credit, his voice was pitch perfect for the complex arrangements and he knew how to swing.
However, if you happened to be a Stan Kenton aficionado, then the exquisitely arranged almost symphonic band harmonies blew your head off and took you to another place.
Former Mid Calder gal, singer Cathy Rae, was accorded credit for getting the musicians together, and in each number various band members were given solo spots, with Quigley proving he could blow that horn a la Kenton and still have breath left to chat.
In this band, everyone was a star and Scotland can be proud to have such players available. Long live big band music.
One criticism, though. This was a concert and part of a tour. So how come the band appeared in assorted coloured, mainly tie-less shirts and even a T-shirt when their black suits and high standard of playing, deserved better?
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Weather for Bathgate
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
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