Scottish National Jazz Orchestra

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with Kurt Elling

Legendary jazz vocalist gets backing of the country's biggest jazz band

4 Mar 2011

As mouthwatering prospects go, this meeting of arguably the world’s top jazz singer and arguably the UK’s finest jazz big band is as good as it gets. Elling has only performed once before in Scotland, also with a big band (from Norrbotten), and the…

The World of Gods

23 Mar 2010

Tommy Smith is never short of imaginative ideas when it comes to cooking up repertoire for the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, but this pushes even that estimable band’s envelope – and then some. I can’t be absolutely sure, but I’d guess that this is…

SNJO with John Scofield dates for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling

23 Feb 2010

Conventional wisdom insists that the jazz big band had its heyday in the Swing Era before the advent of bebop, but it has remained popular with both jazz fans and musicians. Two home-based projects this month also demonstrate that the big band has been…

Konrad Wiszniewski

9 Dec 2009

Saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski confesses that he is unlikely to don a Santa suit for the two Christmas concerts he has lined up, but says there will be a few festive trimmings added to the otherwise self-composed repertoire for the debut of a new…

Best of British Jazz Showcase

16 Sep 2009

The Europe Jazz Network is an association of producers and presenters of contemporary jazz and improvised music from all across Europe. It has gone through significant changes since it was first launched in 1987, but is now thriving, with Nod Knowles…

SNJO plays Wayne Shorter

3 Sep 2009

The music of saxophonist Wayne Shorter is the latest to come under the radar of Tommy Smith and the excellent Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, and promises to be one of their most memorable incursions. ‘Wayne is a superlative composer of memorable…

Homegrown

25 Jun 2009

The Homegrown showcase at the Glasgow Jazz Festival is now in its fifth year and offers an opportunity to both the public and a number of invited promoters and agents to catch up with the latest work of a range of Scotland’s best musicians. More…

SNJO plays Coltrane

18 Jun 2007

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra turn their attention to the music of one of the greatest of all jazz masters, saxophonist John Coltrane. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Coltrane’s death, a coincidence which struck…

SNJO Plays Dizzy

11 Nov 2006

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra have consistently moved between commissioning new music and performing repertory projects like this one. Tommy Smith and his troops turn their attention to the great Dizzy Gillespie this time round. The trumpeter…