Scottish Jazz Awards, Glasgow review: a night for the new school

Amid a party atmosphere under the glittering chandeliers of the Savings Bank venue, this year’s Scottish Jazz Awards threw the spotlight very much on Scotland’s – and particularly Glasgow’s – flourishing younger generation of jazz talent. It fell to their elders, however – the vivacious house duo of pianist Brian Kellock and double-bassist Roy Percy - to launch proceedings with a peremptory C Jam Blues, before the evening’s genial host, singer and actor Suzanne Bonnar, announced the awards.

Performances from previous winners saw 2023 Best Vocalist Marianne McGregor delivering a slinky take on Teach Me Tonight and last year’s Rising Star winner, singer-flautist Kimberley Tessa with Over the Rainbow, while Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year, guitarist Timmy Allan, joined Kellock and Percy in a swingy excursion.

This year’s Rising Star award went to singer-songwriter Laura Oghagbon, currently studying at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, while Best Instrumentalist saw pianist Fergus McCreadie add to his trophy cabinet, the pianist returning to collect the Best Band award on behalf of saxophonist Matt Carmichael’s Quintet, in which he also plays.

Album of the Year saw trombonist, composer and producer Liam Shortall collect Best Album prize for Bad With Names by his genre-defying outfit corto.alto, yet another product of Glasgow’s simmering young jazz scene, while drummer Stephen Henderson’s Modern Vikings scooped the Critic’s Choice Award – interestingly, a band that combines the young talent of McCreadie’s Trio, in which Henderson plays, with an older generation in saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski and guitarist Graeme Stephen.

The Fionna Duncan Best Vocalist award, named for the late, great singer and teacher, went to Edinburgh’s Niki King, who gave an emotional tribute to Duncan, her mentor, and to the rising generation of vocalists: “the old school and the new school”.