Award-winning master vibraphonist Joe Locke and vocalist extraordinaire Kenny Washington join forces once again with the SNJO to play a fabulous selection of tracks taken from the modern American songbook – a rich and weighty tome running to several volumes of wonderfully popular songs.
Singer-songwriters such as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and Bill Withers brought heartfelt soul music to their work, while artists and performers like Earth, Wind & Fire, Heart, Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan showered their enduring recordings with jazz, funk, orchestra and electric ornamentation.
The platinum success of their gold-plated careers is in no small part due to the availability of jazz music and Jazz Masters as a fountain head of knowledge, artistry and intellect The SNJO and their guests will take this music into their care and reapply generous brushstrokes of improvisation through newly commissioned arrangements to create new melodic patterns and textures from comfortably familiar musical imagery.
Joe Locke is widely considered to be one of the major voices of his instrument. He has performed and recorded with a diverse range of notable musicians, including Grover Washington Jr, Raul Midón, Kenny Barron, Eddie Henderson, Cecil Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Eddie Palmieri, Ron Carter, Bobby Hutcherson, The Beastie Boys, the Münster Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, the Orchestra da Camera della Sardegna and the Lincoln, Nebraska Symphony.
Tommy Blaize is one of the most popular singers on British television. No one else entertains the 12 million people that Tommy entertains, week in, week out. He’s a man alone in a band apart, front and centre with the UK’s most-loved musical troupe. And he’s been there for 20 years. As lead singer of the BBC Strictly Come Dancing band, Tommy's powerful yet sensitive performances have helped create some of the most memorable TV moments of recent times. Singing live to a live audience every week, Tommy is the man with the golden pipes whose unique, soulful sound is etched in the public consciousness.
Many consider the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) to be one of Europe’s foremost contemporary big bands. The band has enthusiastically shared the stage with many of the leading lights in world jazz, such as Cleo Laine, John Scofield, Gary Burton, Bobby Watson, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, and Bill Evans.
POP!ROCK!SOUL! is also available as a 5-piece band with Joe Locke (vibes), Jim Ridl (piano/keys), Lorin Cohen (acoustic/electric bass), Samvel Sarkisyan (drums) and Kenny Washington (voice).
Example set list: Josie, Got To Get You, Ain't No Sunshine, She's Always A Woman, Overjoyed, Landslide, For The Love Of You, Moby Dick, A Change Is Gonna Come, Golden Slumbers.