It's now two weeks since the Glasgow International Jazz Festival. I've been meaning to submit reports on the concerts we attended, but there has been quite a bit to say, and so I have deferred this. My reasons have been in part because I haven't had the time to sit down and do it, but also because some reflection seemed to be needed. The concert experiences were unusually varied and proved to be wildly mismatched with my expectations -- and that's why I hope you will find the reports interesting. So if some of the details are hazy, I must apologise for my poor memory. Perhaps I should imitate Lades, and carry a notebook everywhere!

The GIJF lost money last year, and sacked its director. Olive May Millen took over and changed the format significantly. This year, there were just four 'core jazz' concerts, all held in the early evenings of Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday. The late evening slots were devoted to jazz and blues for party-goers (but nevertheless good artists, such as Jimmy Smith, Buddy Guy, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Nils-Petter Molvaer). It wasn't practical to stay on for the late-night sessions -- it's an hour's drive back from Glasgow to Embra, I *do* have a day job, and, in any event, as I land up paying for the entire family, it gets expensive! So we went to the first three early evening concerts. The early concerts were scheduled for 7.30p.m., the late ones for 10.30p.m. -- I'll return to this point later.

Thursday night was headlined by Dave Holland's current band, but there was a supporting set from an Edinburgh-based trio led by Brian Kellock (piano) with Kenny Ellis (bass) and John Rae (drums). All three are very fine musicians in the process of moving from 'young' to 'established' status. Of course, I've heard them play many, many times. Brian, in particular, spent some years when he would take any gig at all, playing as a sideman in every style from trad to free. Although he is able to pick and choose his work a little more these days, he's still working as a 'gun for hire', and unfortunately, this background shows on the rare occasions when he steps forward as leader. In such circumstances, he tends to play in a sort of generic modern style which is always entertaining, but never surprising. This tendency was exacerbated, I think, by the formal setting of a big concert; John played more 'time' than he usually does, and Brian didn't rise to his best. The numbers that they chose were taken from a new album they have just recorded together, of numbers associated with Fred Astaire (an odd choice, of itself). Tonight is the CD launch gig at the local jazz club. It will be interesting to see how the material comes over in that less formal situation. But in the GIJF context, Brian's trio provided an entirely satisfactory introduction to Holland's band. They played a short set of perhaps 45 minutes and after a short interval, the headline act was on stage shortly after 8.30.

Holland's band was basically that which recorded 'Points of View', with Eric Potter (saxes) deputising for Steve Wilson i.e. Robin Eubanks (tbn), Steve Nelson (vibes) Billy Kilson (dms) [At least, I think it was Kilson on drums!]. The material they played was largely taken from that album. For reasons which aren't relevant here, I was slightly distracted during this set, but I was nevertheless drawn into the music. Eubanks' trombone was absolutely stunning in both its technical facility and its musicality and is my abiding memory from the concert. There were many highly elevated moments during Holland's bass solos. Kilson's drumming deserves special mention -- throughout, it was supportive and complementary to whatever else was happening, but never obvious. Nelson's contributions failed to touch me, for some reason, but were undoubtedly both skilled and tasteful. Iestyn and I were in strong disagreement over Eric Potter's contribution; he thought it was mere noodling, whereas I was more impressed. We were agreed, however, that it was less well integrated into the band's overall conception. I still thought he did pretty well for a dep!

The crowd obviously liked what they heard, too, because there was ample applause and many folk on their feet at the end. The set had taken a few minutes over the hour, but Olive came out to say that there wasn't time for an encore, because they had to clear the hall and prepare for the next concert. People were disappointed but not too unhappy -- I'd guess they felt they had had their money's worth of fine music and that an encore would have been a bonus.