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Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year 2011 Final

Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
3 stars
Since the Scottish Jazz Federation founded the Young Scottish Jazz
Musician of the Year competition five years ago, the event has become a
consolidation of talent hungry enough to already be out there doing
it. All five of tonight's finalists may be no older than twenty-one,
yet they've been learning their chops with assorted youth jazz
orchestras and at various music schools for some time. Small wonder
chair of the judges Dennis Rollins, who led a panel that included
Herald and Jazz UK critic Rob Adams, praised Scotland's musical and
educational networks, singling out the winner as someone possessed with
a way of communicating ideas beyond instrumentation to create what he
deemed “a magic.”

Backed by the sterling house band of drummer Tom Gordon, bassist Mario
Caribe and Paul Harrison on keyboards, all five finalists took a
forward-thinking approach to the old school, from pianist Peter
Johnstone's opening Keith Jarrett melody through to trombonist Kevin
Garrity's groove-laden take on Horace Silver's Nica's Dream. Inbetween,
drummer John Lowrie took The Very Thought of You beyond balladeering,
while double bassist Brodie Jarvie was bold enough to tackle the
leftfield leanings of Radiohead's Knives Out. But it was alto sax
player Ruaridh Patterson who won the day, swinging between Jackie
McLean's Little Melonae and a forceful take on Ornette Coleman's Tears
Inside to provide the magic Rollins spoke about.

Pattison may have won, but as all involved were keen to stress, talent
tonight was in abundance. Looking too at such a variety of
instrumentation on show, if resources were pooled, a quintet of
considerable power might just take the world by storm.

ends

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