SNJO look to the future with Nu-Age Sounds
Ahead of the SNJO's forward-thinking 2024 Nu-Age Sounds series, we chat to some of the artists and arrangers involved – Liam Shortall, aka corto.alto, kitti and Fabia Mantwill
This December, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) and guest vocalist Lucy-Anne Daniels are gearing up to perform the music of jazz pianist and composer extraordinaire Duke Ellington for their In An Ellington Mood nights across Glasgow, St Andrews and Edinburgh. We’ve started to look forward to their 2024 scheduling, and are particularly excited for their brand new series – Nu-Age Sounds.
Bringing together a handpicked selection of eight pioneers who are helping put the Scottish jazz scene on the map, Nu-Age Sounds will see the music of Liam Shortall, Anoushka Nanguy, Helena Kay, kitti, Ewan Hastie, Matt Carmichael, Fergus McCreadie and KARMA brought to life in new and exciting ways, with pieces reworked, rearranged and in some cases performed by others in a celebration of Glasgow and Scotland’s interesting and growing jazz scene and emerging talent. Ahead of the series, which runs in March 2024, we catch up with a few of the musicians and composers involved.
Liam Shortall has been living and working as a musician in Glasgow since 2013, joining the SNJO’s trombone section in 2017. In 2019 he began making music as corto.alto, releasing his debut album Bad With Names in October. Enthusiastic about the new series, Shortall tells us: “It’s very inspiring to have our national orchestra form a project that has a focus on what’s going on within the young Glasgow improvised music scene. I’m excited to see how this collaboration can introduce new audiences to both the musicians featured as guests in Nu-Age Sounds as well as the SNJO. The artists chosen as guests for this project are very musically diverse, which really represents the variety of music happening within Scotland’s young jazz scene right now.
“As part of corto.alto’s collaboration, I will be writing arrangements of some of my music for jazz orchestra.” He continues: “This is an opportunity that is, although quite daunting and a first for me, one that I am very excited to showcase.”
As well as musicians who already have a history with the SNJO, artists like vocalist and songwriter kitti are excited to be working with the orchestra for the first time. “I’m a lover of big band swing music, as I was raised listening to the likes of Duke Ellington’s orchestra,” she tells us, “so to have been contacted by the SNJO was a big surprise for me!”
Having been working within the Scottish music scene for over eight years now, kitti “can’t wait to hear how everyone else’s compositions are going to sound,” and says that she’s “bursting with excitement for these Nu-Age Sounds shows.” Across three nights at Dundee Rep (1 Mar), Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket (2 Mar) and Edinburgh’s The Queen’s Hall (3 Mar), a trio of kitti’s songs are set to be rearranged by composer, saxophonist and vocalist Fabia Mantwill. “I am honestly overwhelmed with joy at the idea of my music being arranged by Fabia,” kitti tells us. “Her achievements are endless and to just have her listen to one of my songs would be a big deal! I truly can’t wait to hear her arrangements and perform them live to audiences across Scotland with the SNJO.”
kitti’s excitement at having her music arranged by Mantwill isn’t misplaced. The Berlin-based composer has won awards for her work, including the 2021 German Jazz Prize for Arrangement of the Year, the same year she first worked with the SNJO on their The Apparition Bridge series. “I’m thrilled to be involved in the Nu-Age Sounds programme and to collaborate with the SNJO again,” Mantwill tells us.
“For this programme, I’ll be arranging a longer piece that incorporates three songs by the talented Scottish singer-songwriter kitti. Her soulful and touching voice reminds me a bit of Aretha Franklin, which is something I definitely want to capture in the arrangement. But most important for me is to emphasise and colour kitti’s personal stories. And being able to use the rich and diverse sound palette of the SNJO for that is, of course, fantastic.”
All three artists we speak to are quite clearly excited for these forthcoming concerts of collaboration which, in keeping with the forward-thinking idea behind them, will also take a different form on the night than the SNJO audience are perhaps au fait with – the shows will be standing, and will incorporate video and projections into the performance. “It is essential that institutions like the SNJO are looking beyond the traditional view-point that a lot of people restrict the genre of jazz to,” kitti tells us. “Jazz is a wonderful spectrum that plays with the mixing of genres, colours and textures. Each musician is unique in their writing and self-expression. By selecting the musicians and writers that the SNJO has for these Nu-Age Sounds shows, they are beautifully representing Scotland’s jazz scene as it really is.”
In An Ellington Mood takes place at Royal Concert Hall (New Auditorium), Glasgow, 8 Dec; Laidlaw Music Centre, St Andrews, 9 Dec; The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 10 Dec
Nu-Age Sounds takes place in 2024 at Dundee Rep, Dundee, 1 Mar; Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 2 Mar; The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 3 Mar