Latest news with #ScottishNationalJazzOrchestra
Edinburgh Reporter
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
SNJO piano man brings all-star quartet to Edinburgh Jazzfest5
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) pianist Peter Johnstone launches his International Organ Quartet's debut album, Resistance Is Futile, at Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival on Friday 11 July. Featuring New York-based vibes virtuoso Joe Locke, saxophonist Tommy Smith and Johnstone's SNJO colleague, Alyn Cosker on drums, the quartet will play the opening concert in the EJ&BF's St Bride's Centre series from 6pm. A former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, Johnstone has toured internationally with vocalist Kurt Elling and Vienna-based American saxophonist Andy Middleton and worked with guitarists Jim Mullen, Rob Luft and Nigel Price as well as appearing extensively as pianist with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. He is also Tommy Smith's partner in a duo that plays Meadowbank Church on Wednesday 16th July and is the first graduate of the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow to return in a teaching capacity. The quartet, in which Johnstone plays Hammond organ, features music exclusively written by Johnstone. It recorded Resistance is Futile at Castlesound Studios in Pencaitland during its first set of concerts in October 2023. The St Bride's concert is part of a tour that includes the 606 Club in London. 'It's fantastic to hear such accomplished musicians as Joe, Tommy and Alyn bringing my music off the page,' says Johnstone. 'Our first tour included sell-out concerts in Glasgow and at Ronnie Scott's in London and attracted some great press comments. I can't wait to get everyone back together again for these dates in July.' Pete Johnstone Like this: Like Related
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From A Working Man to Lucy Dacus: a complete guide to this week's entertainment
A Working ManOut now Name? Levon Cade. Profession? A simple construction worker. Former profession? Black ops military. The actor? Jason Statham, of course. He reunites here with the director of The Beekeeper for another instalment in their partnership apparently dedicated to Statham playing guys being pulled out of retirement for one final action-packed job. La CocinaOut now Based on the 1957 stage play The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker and written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, this new version reimagines the kitchen in question as that belonging to a Times Square tourist trap restaurant where white waitresses take orders for a staff of mostly undocumented migrants. NovocaineOut now Our hero is a bank executive – stick with us – with the inability to feel pain, in this high-concept action thriller starring Jack Quaid as a guy who must rescue his dream girl (Amber Midthunder) from nefarious bank robbers. From film-making duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Misericordia Out now French director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger By the Lake) returns with the story of a man heading back to his home town for the funeral of his former boss, the village baker. Comic thriller which premiered at Cannes last year and bagged eight nominations at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. Catherine Bray Trilok Gurtu/Scottish National Jazz OrchestraPerth, 29 March; Edinburgh, 30 March Gurtu is the revered percussion pioneer who began adapting Indian tabla traditions to western drumkits in the 1970s and has played with jazz stars including Don Cherry, John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul. He explores his rich, global-music history with the formidable Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and the arrangements of genre-hopping German composer Wolf Kerschek. John Fordham Brooke Combe3 to 19 April; tour starts Liverpool Released in January, Dancing at the Edge of the World, the debut album from Scotland's Brooke Combe, showcased a brand new British soul talent. Expect that huge potential to blossom further on this tour, which climaxes with a homecoming show at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom. Michael Cragg UsherThe O2, London, 29 March to 7 May The Stone Kold Freak hitmaker brings his Past Present Future tour to London for a 10-date residency at the O2 arena. During the tour's US leg Usher sang and danced his way through 47 songs each night, including Yeah!, OMG and You Make Me Wanna …, so please pace yourselves. MC Total Immersion: Pierre BoulezBarbican Hall, London, 30 March The BBC Symphony Orchestra pay a centenary tribute to the composer who was their chief conductor from 1971 to 1975. The day of films, discussions and concerts ends with a rare performance of Pli Selon Pli, Boulez's masterpiece set to the sonnets of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Andrew Clements UnderseaHastings Contemporary, 29 March to 14 September Under the sea, nothing looks the same. Artists can dream of coral caves, monster fish and shipwrecks, in a blue-lit realm of the fabulous. The earliest art in this subaquatic survey depicts a half-mythic world of 18th-century natural history. Paul Delvaux sees the sea surrealistically and Michael Armitage mystically. José María VelascoNational Gallery, London, 29 March to 17 August A 19th-century landscape artist gets a show at the National Gallery – nothing unusual about that, except the vistas here are sunbaked Mexican valleys where bright green cacti tower. Velasco's paintings of nature and industry in 1800s Mexico make a contrast with the temperate European views in the NG collection. Ian Hamilton FinlayModern Two, Edinburgh, to 26 May The poet and conceptual artist whose garden, Little Sparta, is his most famous creation, combined provocative images of modern history with a reverence for the classical world. This homage for his 100th birthday brings together many of his statements and objects in an encounter with one of Scotland's spikiest greats. Giuseppe PenoneSerpentine South Gallery, London, 3 April to 7 September This artist born in 1947 has lived to see his vision of nature as an enduring alternative to the industrial world feel more timely than ever. Penone carved out his aesthetic of found wood as a member of the Arte Povera movement in the 1960s. He's still true to it. Jonathan Jones Candoco: Over and Over (and Over Again)DanceEast, Ipswich, 4 April A new piece from Candoco, a company made up of both disabled and non-disabled dancers, working with choreographer Dan Daw. It's inspired by rave culture and the search for utopia, with a soundtrack of acid house, techno, grime and more. The performers dance out their histories in a search for freedom. Lyndsey Winship John Tothill3 to 22 April; tour starts Bristol The standup scene is rather light on Wildean aesthetes at present, making ex-teacher Tothill an even more welcome presence. Gilding mundanity with erudite exuberance, the comic's current show even manages to bring an air of decadence to the tale of the grim medical trial that helped fund his most recent Edinburgh run. Rachel Aroesti ManhuntRoyal Court, London, to 3 May Robert Icke's blazing production of Oedipus, starring Mark Strong, is heading to Broadway later this year. In London, his latest show, as both writer and director, excavates the story of fugitive Raoul Moat. Starring Samuel Edward-Cook (from Icke's The Player Kings), it revisits the biggest manhunt in UK history. Kate Wyver Derren Brown: Only HumanSwan Theatre, High Wycombe, 4 & 5 April; then touring The masterly mentalist and illusionist kicks off his new tour this week. He has dazzled and dazed audiences on TV for decades, but there is really nothing like watching him live on stage. Details are strictly under wraps, but the mystery only adds to the anticipation. KW Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion MobLandParamount+, 30 March Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren play an underworld power couple who employ a brutal fixer (Tom Hardy) in this new series from Ronan Bennett, who swaps the gritty, nuanced thrills of Top Boy for a Guy Ritchie-backed madcap crime caper with all the subtlety of a nightmarishly deployed sledgehammer. The BondsmanPrime Video, 3 April Fred is back from the dead with one enormous caveat in the debut TV series from indie horror movie masters Blumhouse (Paranormal Activity, Insidious). Kevin Bacon stars as a bounty hunter who is returned to Earth and given the unenviable task of executing escaped demons by the devil himself. Dying for SexDisney+, 4 April In 2020, TV host Nikki Boyer released a podcast made with her late friend Molly, whose stage IV cancer diagnosis sparked a series of sexual escapades. Now New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether has adapted it into a life-affirming comedy-drama, with Michelle Williams as Molly and Jenny Slate playing Boyer. AustiniPlayer/BBC One, 4 April, 9.30pm Some big British names (Ben Miller, Sally Phillips) lead this Australian comedy about Julian, a children's author who accidentally retweets a white supremacist on the eve of a book tour down under. Could the autistic man claiming to be his biological son end up saving his ailing career? RA AtomfallOut now; PS4/5, Xbox, PC After a nuclear disaster in the Lake District, you must survive in an irradiated world that's been overtaken by mechs and fascists. This action RPG takes inspiration from the likes of Fallout and classic British sci-fi. Post TraumaOut 31 March; PS5, Xbox, PC The retro survival-horror revival continues with this Spanish game about a middle-aged train conductor stuck in a nightmare world. With its obscure puzzles, ominous atmosphere and discomfiting slowness, it's a more cerebral horror experience than the raft of zombie shooters out there. Keza MacDonald Lucy Dacus – Forever Is a Feeling Out now Dacus returns from her sabbatical as one-third of Boygenius – alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker – with this fourth solo album. Limerence is a smokey piano number full of deft lyrical observations, while the hot and heavy Ankles is a gorgeous slice of indie-pop. Jessie Reyez – Paid in Memories Out now On Psilocybin & Daisies, a messed-up love song built round a sped-up sample of 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins, Canada's Jessie Reyez outlines her relationship goals. On the soulful Goliath, meanwhile, she promises to fight anyone for the one she loves, anchoring an album full of big, OTT emotions. Mumford & Sons – Rushmere Out now After ditching the waistcoats, silly hats and banjoist Winston Marshall, Mumford & Sons return with their fifth album. They haven't lost the scale, though, with Malibu ballooning into a big folk-rock stomper, while the Greg Kurstin-assisted title track should go down well at a festival around sunset. Perfume Genius – Glory Out now Mike Hadreas, AKA Perfume Genius, returns with his seventh album, 11 songs that veer from the gothic Americana of lead single It's a Mirror to the desolate piano balladry of Dion. No Front Teeth, meanwhile, features haunted backing from Aldous Harding. MC The Final Days of Sgt TibbsPodcast A missing cat might not sound like the most riveting premise for an audio series but this documentary follows the increasingly dramatic story of Sgt Tibbs, whose disappearance starts a mighty neighbourhood feud. The CourtauldYouTube London's Courtauld Gallery hosts a fantastic archive of its art history lecture series, including expert commentary on everything from Vietnamese modernism to queer histories of photography and the modern role of art conservation. The Covid Generation RevisitedBBC World Service, 29 March, 12.06pm Five years on from the beginnings of the UK lockdown, this fascinating documentary interviews graduates from the class of 2020 to see how the pandemic affected their prospects for both better and worse. Ammar Kalia
