How curious and ''big band'' even the most avant-garde jazz is recalibrated to on Where Rivers Meet. But that's part of the point. Whether it's Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Anthony Braxton or Albert Ayler and there are new orchestrations of work by all these saxophonic titans of the avant-garde here on this St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh 2021 SNJO recording. Their styles are rendered accessible, dare I say ''middle-of-the-road'', big band? Yes, do dare. Although the album's lack of edge is a flaw given the nature of a lot of the music interpreted after all, if you ever find listening to Anthony Braxton daunting, there is a useful way into his music that among the treatments orchestrator Paul Harrison has carefully channelled as if an exercise in decoding and blended with the SNJO's own signature flavours mapped out from the beat of Calum Gourlay down to the last dot. And this great orchestra, thriving-on-a-Smith, as ever is in a unity like one instrument. An astonishing year for Scottish jazz on numerous recordings. And 'When the Saints' pops up let's mark and celebrate that phenomenon. Stephen Graham
Tags:
