Through the Waves

Scotland, and especially Edinburgh, has a thriving jazz scene, so great players like trumpeter Colin Steele no longer have to migrate south to be recognised. And staying closer to his roots means that Steele’s music has retained its Scottishness, as this braw new album with an all Celtic line-up shows. With original tunes like ‘Paps of Jura’, Steele has cleverly re-interpreted jigs and reels in the modern jazz idiom to produce fresh and invigorating arrangements blown through with gaelic references.

 

Our rating

4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:21 pm

COMPOSERS: Colin Steele
LABELS: ACT
WORKS: Through the Waves
PERFORMER: Colin Steele Quintet
CATALOGUE NO: 9436-2

Scotland, and especially Edinburgh, has a thriving jazz scene, so great players like trumpeter Colin Steele no longer have to migrate south to be recognised. And staying closer to his roots means that Steele’s music has retained its Scottishness, as this braw new album with an all Celtic line-up shows. With original tunes like ‘Paps of Jura’, Steele has cleverly re-interpreted jigs and reels in the modern jazz idiom to produce fresh and invigorating arrangements blown through with gaelic references.

Steele is in an exuberant and declamatory mood, his lines glancing off the chord changes like light off the loch. But this is most certainly not a folk album and the combination of Steele’s rarefied tone and Buckley’s soaring sax choruses in the end speak more of 52nd Street than Queen Street. Garry Booth

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