Guitarist Graeme Stephen leads Playtime Jazz Sessions at Edinburgh Fringe festival

The session, which operates fortnightly throughout the year, has taken advantage of some space that has become available in its host venue, the Outhouse’s Fringe programme to stage concerts featuring the musicians who form the nucleus of its regular series.

Guitarist Graeme Stephen, who has made a specialism of creating new soundtracks to silent films, presents his original score to the classic chiller The Cabinet of Dr Caligari on 16 August at 7pm. The concert will feature Stephen, saxophonist Martin Kershaw and drummer Tom Bancroft playing to an overhead projection of Robert Wiene’s 1920 film, which stars Friedrich Feher, Rudolf Lettinger and Werner Krauss.

Stephen then joins Kershaw, bassist Mario Caribe and the Canadian drummer Chris Wallace, who is making a return visit to his former base, in saluting Wayne Shorter on 23 August at 7pm. This follows recent, enthusiastically received Playtime tributes to Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman.

The final concert in the series, on 25 August at 9pm, presents the Playtime house quartet – Stephen, Kershaw, Caribe and Bancroft – exploring evergreens from the Great American Songbook in their own, idiosyncratic style, with arrangements from all four musicians.

Since its inception in April last year, Playtime has built a reputation for creative, inclusive music presented in the intimate loft setting of the Outhouse, which is situated in Broughton Street Lane, just round the corner from Edinburgh’s tram terminus in York Place. As well as the Evans, Monk and Coleman tributes, previous successes have included a busy Fringe programme in 2014, which contributed to the Outhouse winning a Herald Angel award, and the recent premiere of Graeme Stephen’s Distances with Amsterdam-based string quartet Zapp4.

– Rob Adams