Torah and Beauty & the Beast comes to Caird Hall, Dundee
May 13th, 2011
Following several 5* reviews for their recent concerts with top jazz vocalist, Kurt Elling, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, now presents two masterpieces of large-scale composition, Torah and Beauty and the Beast. Specially written for the SNJO by its director, the world-renowned saxophonist Tommy Smith, the contrasting pieces present orchestral jazz at its most powerful.
Torah and Beauty and the Beast will be performing at The Caird Hall on Sunday 22nd May 2011 at 7.30pm.
There will be a free pre concert talk with Tommy and Bill at 6.45pm.
Tickets £17.50/£10 and free for under 16yrs from Dundee City Box Office Tel 01382 434940, www.dundeebox.co.uk
Torah, Smith’s acclaimed work based on the first five books of the Bible, is a tour de force for tenor saxophone and orchestra, with the composer as soloist on a personal, spiritual journey through the blues and jazz stratospheres. Originally composed for American saxophone masters Joe Lovano, Torah describes the story of The Creation, common to the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths, in music that is robust and beautifully detailed, approachable, stimulating and rewarding.
Hailed as “exhilarating” on its premier, Tommy Smith’s Beauty and the Beast translates the traditional European folk legend into a vividly compelling jazz suite featuring the former Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra saxophonist from the USA, Bill Evans.
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra is widely recognised as the leading jazz ensemble of its kind in Europe, an ultra-dynamic, expressive and exciting big band of high quality individual talents playing as a superbly organised collective force, notable for their success in creating new music.
Evans and Smith, both musicians of extraordinary power, imagination and sensitivity, will lead orchestra and audience alike through musical retellings of The Creation and Beauty and the Beast that are sure to be among 2011’s musical highlights – expect compelling new music and inspirational sound played by Scotland’s finest jazz musicians.
‘With Beauty and the Beast, Smith… delivered another splendid work…Ambitious in scale, dense in structure, restless in its attention to the legend, exhausting in its time signature shifts, exhilarating in its sense of controlled freedom’.
The Herald
“Torah represents Smith’s most exhilarating and playing to date, couched in a sweeping series of compositions that position him as one of modern jazz’s most intriguing and compelling large ensemble composers.”
All About Jazz
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