Edinburgh Jazz Festival
Martin Kershaw Octet
Piccolo, George Square, Edinburgh
Keith Bruce, five stars
A SPONTANEOUS standing ovation for a previously unheard 50 minute jazz work would be worthy of note at any time. That Thursday evening’s came at the end of a night that made absolutely no concessions to shallow “entertainment”, with the band leader on a sincere quest to pass on his enthusiasm for the inspiration for his music, was more than inspiring in itself.
If many of the audience knew little about David Foster Wallace, who took his own life ten years ago, when they arrived, they departed much better informed, as well as having heard some of Scotland’s finest players at the top of their game. Leading a quartet with pianist Paul Harrison, bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer Doug Hough, Kershaw’s first set focused on the writer’s modernist doorstop Infinite Jest. The tune Gately, introduced as “a tortured chorale” was actually a lovely ballad, the already-recorded And But So pivoted on a piano figure that suggests a sentence forever beginning again, and newer clarinet feature Peemster included a fine solo excursion by Gourlay.
After the interval, the premiere of Dreaming Of Ourselves was preceded by a reading by Kershaw from The Pale King. The piece may have been composed as a memorial to Foster Wallace but it is far from gloomy, as carefully structured and full of wit as the best prose writing. Stylistically it seemed to owe debts, at different times, to America’s Gil Evans and Britain’s Mike Westbrook and stood comparison with the best of both.
Having been the featured soloist before the break, the composer gave opportunities to all of his band – now completed by guitarist Graeme Stephen, trumpeter Sean Gibbs, trombonist Chris Grieve and Adam Jackson on alto sax, with the leader on soprano and tenor. Gourlay and Gibbs produced particularly apposite responses to the score, while Stephen added a fine Fripp-esque wig-out towards the end of a compelling narrative without a single dull moment.
As well as being one of Scotland’s finest players, Kershaw is also a very popular teacher, with at least one former pupil in this band. Everyone in this audience now knows why.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here