SNJO Georgia Cécile This is a Communion Queen's Hall Edinburgh 24th February 2023 Review
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra “This is a Communion” with special guest Georgia Cécile at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was a concert where the boundaries of what many people would define as jazz, gospel,and soul, and a touch of Celtic music blended, into one to celebrate everything that music brings to our lives.
The programme for tonight with songs written by Georgia Cécile and songwriting partner Euan Stevenson includes songs from Georgia’s debut album “Only the Lover Sings” and some new songs. There is, for me, no doubt that this creative partnership (formed some 10 years ago) is producing some of the most interesting songs and music in contemporary jazz and doing it with fitting tribute to some of the greats of yesterday whilst also taking their music into new directions. In music tonight, the influences of Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington and many others can certainly be heard, but the one distinctive voice of the evening belongs to Georgia Cécile. As well as co-writing songs with Cécile, Euan is also a gifted musician himself and, as his arrangements for the SNJO for this series of concerts prove, a skilled musical arranger too.
This musical communion celebrates not only the music of this concert, but all music in all of its uncountable variants. Here we have stories of love found, love lost, love unrequited, music to just get up and dance to, and everything in between, and the individual members of the SNJO (many with solo spotlight moments) were obviously enjoying this music and the arrangements as much as Georgia Cécile and the audience.
In arranging this evening’s programme of music for the SNJO, Euan Stevenson has obviously had a lot of fun with the arrangement opportunities that the SNJO opened up to him and it was good to hear a new soundscape on some of Georgia Cécile’s debut album songs, including “Bittersweet” and “Harpoon”. Most fun though seems to have been had for both Euan and Georgia with the new song “Communion” and this cross-over into a far more upbeat soul infused sound is an obvious musical direction that both should explore in songs to come.
If this show proved anything, it is that Georgia Cécile is not an upcoming force in contemporary jazz music, she has more than truly arrived as one of its new stars, and both her voice and her music with Euan Stevenson are going to be around for a very long time to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The programme for tonight with songs written by Georgia Cécile and songwriting partner Euan Stevenson includes songs from Georgia’s debut album “Only the Lover Sings” and some new songs. There is, for me, no doubt that this creative partnership (formed some 10 years ago) is producing some of the most interesting songs and music in contemporary jazz and doing it with fitting tribute to some of the greats of yesterday whilst also taking their music into new directions. In music tonight, the influences of Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington and many others can certainly be heard, but the one distinctive voice of the evening belongs to Georgia Cécile. As well as co-writing songs with Cécile, Euan is also a gifted musician himself and, as his arrangements for the SNJO for this series of concerts prove, a skilled musical arranger too.
This musical communion celebrates not only the music of this concert, but all music in all of its uncountable variants. Here we have stories of love found, love lost, love unrequited, music to just get up and dance to, and everything in between, and the individual members of the SNJO (many with solo spotlight moments) were obviously enjoying this music and the arrangements as much as Georgia Cécile and the audience.
In arranging this evening’s programme of music for the SNJO, Euan Stevenson has obviously had a lot of fun with the arrangement opportunities that the SNJO opened up to him and it was good to hear a new soundscape on some of Georgia Cécile’s debut album songs, including “Bittersweet” and “Harpoon”. Most fun though seems to have been had for both Euan and Georgia with the new song “Communion” and this cross-over into a far more upbeat soul infused sound is an obvious musical direction that both should explore in songs to come.
If this show proved anything, it is that Georgia Cécile is not an upcoming force in contemporary jazz music, she has more than truly arrived as one of its new stars, and both her voice and her music with Euan Stevenson are going to be around for a very long time to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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