Home » Jazz Articles » Extended Analysis » Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: Scottish National Jazz...

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: American Adventure

By John Kelman
April 15, 2014
View read count

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: American Adventure

Sometimes an idea seems great on paper, but in execution doesn't exactly work out as planned. Other times, that same idea doesn't just look great, it actually exceeds already high expectations. When saxophonist

Tommy Smith

saxophone, tenor
b.1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Tommy Smith—almost single-handedly responsible for rebuilding a modern jazz scene in his home country of Scotland, where he returned after studying at Boston's Berklee College of Music in the 1980s and releasing a couple of well-regarded albums on Blue Note—brought his Scottish National Jazz Orchestra to the United States in the summer of 2013 for a short tour, he came up with the idea of hitting Avatar Studios in New York City to record a number of well-known jazz tunes, largely arranged by a collection of American composers/arrangers and featuring a cherry-picked collection of A-list American players.

The result, American Adventure, might be considered a pleasant surprise, if it weren't for the consistent excellence Smith and the SNJO have already demonstrated on albums like Torah (Spartacus, 2010), an ambitious suite of music originally written by the Scottish saxophonist to feature

Joe Lovano

drums
b.1952

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Lovano (who delivered the piece with SJNO in 1999) but, on the recording, featured Smith in one of the best performances of his career to date.

Smith didn't just choose a roster of well-picked players, known for their impressive virtuosity, sheer musicality and appreciation of the tradition; he also matched them perfectly to the project's commissioned music. Fred Sturm's brassy, funkified arrangement of

Marcus Miller

bass
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Marcus Miller's "Splatch," first heard on

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' electro-centric 1986 Warner Bros. debut, Tutu, features a Davis alum from earlier in the '80s, electric guitarist

Mike Stern

guitar
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Mike Stern, who turns in a solo of characteristically high octane, bop-centric phrases and visceral bends, leading to an incendiary duo with SNJO drummer

Alyn Cosker

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Alyn Cosker.

And speaking of incendiary,

Jim McNeely

composer / conductor
b.1949

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim McNeely's arrangement of pianist

Richie Beirach

piano
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Richie Beirach's "Pendulum"—the title track to the live recording Pendulum (Artist House, 1978), reissued in expanded form by Mosaic in 2008 as Mosaic Select 32: Pendulum Live at the Village Vanguard—becomes a ten-minute tour de force that, beyond McNeely's expansion of the tune's basic premise into something more appropriately epic, features positively nuclear solos from tenor saxophonist

Donny McCaslin

saxophone, tenor
b.1966

" data-original-title="" title="">Donny McCaslin, pianist Dave Kikoski (the only artist to feature on more than one track) and saxophonist

Dave Liebman

saxophone
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Liebman, Beirach's longtime musical cohort who played on the original, continues to play it with the pianist in the reformed

Quest

" data-original-title="" title="">Quest, and here rips it up with a searing soprano solo that may well provide the album's most thrilling moment.

And that's saying something. Vibraphonist

Joe Locke

vibraphone
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Locke turns in a powerhouse performance on Sturm's energetic rework of

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter's "Yes or No," originally from the saxophone legend's JuJu (Blue Note, 1964), but here swinging so hard it just about bursts off the page, with Cosker taking very little solo space but listed as "featured," no doubt, for his potent performance throughout. Saxophonist

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans manages to evoke memories of

Michael Brecker

saxophone, tenor
1949 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Brecker without being at all imitative on Smith's reverent but expansive arrangement of

Chick Corea

piano
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Chick Corea's "Quartet No. 1 (part 2)," from the pianist's classic Three Quartets (Stretch, 1981), while another Shorter composition, "Pinocchio," first heard on Miles Davis' Nefertiti (Columbia, 1967) and here, arranged by Jacob Mann to swing in a more traditional space, closes the set on a high note with impressive turns by trombonist

Michael Dease

trombone
b.1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Dease, saxophonist

Joel Frahm

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Joel Frahm and drummer

Clarence Penn

drums
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Clarence Penn.

Geoffrey Keezer

keyboards
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Geoffrey Keezer's arrangement of

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's balladic "Dear Lord" (featuring the consistently excellent Kikoski, as well as a lyrically searching solo from trumpeter

Randy Brecker

trumpet
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Randy Brecker) and Smith's lush arrangement of

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" (sung by

Kurt Elling

vocals
b.1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Kurt Elling and with the arranger featured on an elegant solo) add much-needed respite from the rest of American Adventure's thrill-a-minute energy, a Scottish-born but undeniably credible and deep tribute to the tradition that succeeds on many levels.

Intelligent, contemporary big band arrangements for Smith's clearly talented and broadly capable Scottish National Jazz Orchestra combine, on American Adventure, with its collection of a baker's dozen of top-drawer American musicians—well, twelve Americans plus one Scot—for an hour-long set that, in the very capable hands of Smith and his stellar 14-piece big band, prove the tradition is alive, well...and taking place on a global scale.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Splatch; Duke Ellington's Sound of Love; Yes or No; Pendulum; Dear Lord; Quartet No. 1 (part 2); Pinocchio.

Personnel

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra

band / ensemble / orchestra

Ru Pattison: alto and soprano saxophones; Martin Kershaws: clarinet, alto axophone; Konrad Wiszniewski: tenor saxophone; Bill Fleming: baritone saxophone; Ryan Quigley: trumpet, flugelhorn; Cameron Jay: trumpet, flugelhorn; Tom MacNiven: trumpet, flugelhorn; James Marr: trumpet, flugelhorn; Chris Greive: trombone; Phil O'Malley: trombone; Michael Owers: bass trombone; Brian Kellock: piano (1-3, 7); Calum Gourlay: acoustic bass; Alyn Cosker; drums (1-6); Mike Stern: guitar (1); Kurt Elling: vocals (2); Tommy Smith: director/conductor, tenor saxophone (2); Joe Locke: vibraphone (3), Donny McCaslin: tenor saxophone (4); Dave Kikosi: piano (4-6); Dave Liebman: soprano saxophone (4); Randy Brecker: trumpet (5); Bill Evans: tenor saxophone (6); Michael Dease: trombone (7); Joel Frahm: tenor saxophone (7); Clarence Penn: drums (7).

Album information

Title: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: American Adventure | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Spartacus Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

The L.A. Treasures Project:Live at A...
< Previous

Young Guns
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.