Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2023 Fergus McCreadie & Charlie Stewart
Meadowbank Church 17th July Review
Meadowbank Church 17th July Review
Fergus McCreadie & Charles Stewart performing at Meadowbank Church as part of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival 2023 was a chance for everyone in the audience to catch up with two of Scotland’s leading young musical talents.
This show was at its heart really what traditional music (well any music really) is about, friends coming together to share their music and enjoy each other’s company along the way. Meadowbank Church is a small enough venue for that feeling of being in a room with musicians playing and still to be able to feel that you are a part of the experience in a personal way, and as Fergus and Charlie
explored their combined love of jazz and traditional music together over a 75 minute set, there were more than a few musical surprises in store for us all.
Fergus McCreadie has for some time now been exploring his own path in music and fusing elements of jazz piano into a sound that is at times very traditional and often with a very distinctive resonance to the landscape of Scotland itself, and at times capturing that almost mystical feeling that these spaces can give to you in his soundscapes. Anyone who purchased (or just listened to) the last album by Fergus, the award winning “Forest Floor” will recognise some of the musical themes tonight as, with Charlie, their arrangements of traditional and more contemporary songs were explored.
Charlie Stewart also has a very strong musical foundation in Jazz music (studying jazz double bass at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow), but the folk musician in him finally came to the notice of many people when he won BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the year in 2017. Charlie also has a new album with Rebecca Hill, “Thawcrook”, that was released in April this year.
Jazz and traditional music might seem to be a strange combination of genres to some people, but in the end, music is simply music and if you let its threads weave their own way something new always gets created. Tonight that was a mixture included “In Praise of Uist”, contemporary and traditional reels, music inspired by living in a dingy flat and more, but somehow it not only all felt like it belonged together, but had always done so, and the applause at the end from the audience for this sold out concert proves that Fergus and Charlie’s combination of jazz and traditional music is quickly attracting a whole new audience of followers.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This show was at its heart really what traditional music (well any music really) is about, friends coming together to share their music and enjoy each other’s company along the way. Meadowbank Church is a small enough venue for that feeling of being in a room with musicians playing and still to be able to feel that you are a part of the experience in a personal way, and as Fergus and Charlie
explored their combined love of jazz and traditional music together over a 75 minute set, there were more than a few musical surprises in store for us all.
Fergus McCreadie has for some time now been exploring his own path in music and fusing elements of jazz piano into a sound that is at times very traditional and often with a very distinctive resonance to the landscape of Scotland itself, and at times capturing that almost mystical feeling that these spaces can give to you in his soundscapes. Anyone who purchased (or just listened to) the last album by Fergus, the award winning “Forest Floor” will recognise some of the musical themes tonight as, with Charlie, their arrangements of traditional and more contemporary songs were explored.
Charlie Stewart also has a very strong musical foundation in Jazz music (studying jazz double bass at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow), but the folk musician in him finally came to the notice of many people when he won BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the year in 2017. Charlie also has a new album with Rebecca Hill, “Thawcrook”, that was released in April this year.
Jazz and traditional music might seem to be a strange combination of genres to some people, but in the end, music is simply music and if you let its threads weave their own way something new always gets created. Tonight that was a mixture included “In Praise of Uist”, contemporary and traditional reels, music inspired by living in a dingy flat and more, but somehow it not only all felt like it belonged together, but had always done so, and the applause at the end from the audience for this sold out concert proves that Fergus and Charlie’s combination of jazz and traditional music is quickly attracting a whole new audience of followers.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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