Exploring jazz

SHETLAND Jazz Club is staging a musical conference at Lerwick Town Hall on the afternoon of Sunday 28 September.

Jeff Merrifield of the jazz club said the gathering would be “more of a forum-cum-jam-session-cum-networking opportunity” and all musicians and music fans were welcome to come along – free of charge – to explore “all the possibilities for developing vibrant new ways of promoting, presenting and playing jazz”.

He said the history of jazz was “liberally sprinkled with bold new initiatives” and it has “never been a standstill genre” dating back to its earliest days in the Louisiana Delta and New Orleans.

“Growing out of the blues and the songs of the cotton fields, all sorts of offshoots arose,” Merrifield said. “Brass bands, honky tonks, ragtime, Dixieland – all flourished.

“Then came the big bands of Paul Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson, taking stars like Louis Armstrong along with them. Then there was swing music, followed by bebop, cool jazz, experimental fusion music, progressive jazz, all the way through to hip hop and rap.”

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Merrifield said jazz has permeated the soiundtracks of films, adverts and “some of the most memorable music you have heard” – even influencing “a plethora of classical composers” including Stravinsky and Gershwin.

In Shetland, Peerie Willie Johnson successfully integrated a swinging guitar jazz into folk tunes – leaving a legacy that many have adopted. “The likes of Ron Mathewson and Billy Kay have also added to that rich legacy,” Merrifield pointed out.

“It is in the spirit of all these fine endeavours that Shetland Jazz Club stages this unique conference in the great hope that some new dynamic cross-fertilisation can happen within the Shetland musical family and that some new ideas will be fermented for the presentation of future jazz-oriented gigs.”

He urged anyone with the “slightest interest in jazz or related music” to come along and participate in “what should prove to be a fascinating and entertaining day”.

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“Bring your instruments and try things out,” Merrifield added. “Make a noise for Shetland jazz. And there will be an all-day bar to help things along.”

The conference will be followed at 8pm by a gig featuring some of the best players on Scotland’s contemporary jazz scene.

Rising band Cat’s Club features Scottish jazz musician of the year Paul Harrison on keyboards, Mario Caribe on bass and John Lowrie on drums, all backing Cathie Rae singing a selection of songs old and new. Tickets are available priced £12 (£10 for concessions) from Shetland Box Office.