The Scotsman Sessions #432: Colin Steele and Dave Milligan
Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions, a series of short video performances from artists all around the country introduced by our critics. Here, ahead of their Miles Davis tribute concert at the Glasgow Jazz Festival, Colin Steele and Dave Milligan perform Bye Bye Blackbird
In an auspicious alignment of anniversaries, the 40th Glasgow Jazz Festival later this month follows on the May centenary of the birth of one of the most influential figures in jazz and indeed in modern music, trumpeter Miles Davis – who made an appearance at the festival in 1990. It’s an anniversary also for trumpeter Colin Steele who, as a 19-year-old, played at the very first Glasgow Jazz Festival.
To mark the centenary, the festival is staging Steel’s celebrated show Colin Steele Quintet Play Miles Davis, which, owing to demand, plays not one but two gigs at the City Hall Recital Rooms on 13 June (both are already sold out). So, here he and longtime collaborator, pianist Dave Milligan, launch a new Scotsman Sessions season with their duo performance of an old standard that Miles favoured, Bye Bye Blackbird, Steele’s trumpet sounding with the buzzy, smoky tone of the Harmon mute which Miles made very much his own.
The Edinburgh-based trumpeter, whose Miles show has won widespread plaudits, agrees that it’s hard to think of Davis being born a century ago, when his sound and influence remain so much part of contemporary music: “It’s almost like his voice is everywhere,” he says, “his influence with absolutely every modern trumpet player.”
Steele confesses to being unable to recall what or with whom he played at that first Glasgow Jazz Festival. He was still a student at Glasgow University and it was a fringe gig at the Blackfriars bar: “I must have been a lot more dynamic in looking for work at that point, knocking on doors.”
Forty years on, he scooped Best Instrumentalist category at December’s Scottish Jazz Awards following the critical acclaim attracted by his album of instrumental arrangements of Blue Nile songs. The Miles Davis show, however, goes way back, he reckons, to when he was regularly playing the legendary Henry’s Jazz Cellar in Edinburgh: “Here we are 25 years later and, to be honest, we’re playing pretty much the same Miles tunes. But they’re timeless and, to me, they’re the ultimate modern jazz.”
He and Milligan are joined in the quintet by a choice roster of Scottish jazz names: saxophonist Martin Kershaw, bassist Kenny Ellis and drummer Alyn Cosker. Their repertoire will tend to concentrate on Davis’s Kind of Blue and Milestones period, deathless material such as Walkin’, So What, Freddie Freeloader and Flamenco Sketches: “I could happily play Flamenco Sketches every day for the rest of my life,” says Steele.
In the meantime, Steele is about to release the second album by his joyous folk-jazz ensemble Stramash. And Dave Milligan launches a new jazz-folk crossover septet of his own, Chroma, at The Merchants House on the last night of the Glasgow Jazz Festival.
Those disappointed to find both Glasgow Miles shows sold out can take heart at Steele’s news that it will enjoy a five-night run at Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar during this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, plus an appearance at the Findhorn Bay Festival in September.
The 40th Glasgow Jazz Festival runs from 10-14 June, see www.jazzfest.co.uk
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.