Jazz breaking news: Gunther Schuller To Conduct SNJO At Edinburgh Festival
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Gunther Schuller is to conduct the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra in a special performance at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on 26 August.
Sax legend Joe Lovano joins the orchestra (led by saxophonist Tommy Smith) for a programme including music by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. The concert will also feature Gil Evans’ arrangements of Porgy and Bess, as heard on the classic 1958 Miles Davis album on which Schuller himself played horn.
Composer and historian Schuller is best known for coining the term “Third Stream” which refers to music that combines classical and jazz techniques. He began his career as a classical horn player before making his entry into jazz on Miles recordings of the 1940s and 1950s.
The concert, under the auspices of the Edinburgh International Festival (rather than the Jazz and Blues Festival held in late July / early August), marks only the third time the International Festival has included a jazz concert. The previous occasions were 1962’s Plain Song and All that Jazz show featuring George Melly among others, and Oscar Peterson in 1980.
This year’s festival also includes a performance of Porgy and Bess by Opera De Lyon. Tickets, priced from £8 to £32, are available from 27 March at www.eif.co.uk/snjo or by phoning 0131 473 2000.