Edinburgh Fringe 2025
‘…and Jazz was Born in Scotland’
Brian Molley Quartet
Genre: Jazz, Live Music
Venue: The Jazz Bar
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This was an hour of music showcasing the considerable influence that Scotland (of all places) had in the development of jazz music, showcasing a new five piece suite composed by Brian Molley and performed by him and his quartet.
Review
Many places claim to be the originator of jazz but New Orleans, Louisiana is widely accepted as the genre’s starting point in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a fusion of African American musical traditions like blues and ragtime with European harmonies and forms.
But there’s also an argument in support of Johan Sebastian Bach being the founder of this genre that continues to delight and surprise in equal measure – his style of music has featured in jazz numbers from the outset.
But Scotland? Really? The land more associated with the wailing bagpipe? What contribution could it have possibly made its creation?
Well, more than meets the eye, apparently, according to Brian Mooley. An early form of jazz (although it wasn’t known as such) appeared around the start of the 18th century in what was known as “call and response” music, normally in the form of a hymn. This was often heard in churches up the West Coast of Scotland and the Western Isles. The leader would sing a line and the congregation would respond which would often result in a little “improv”, depending on the functionality of the respondents’ short term memory.
This call and response style found its way across the Atlantic in the mid 1800’s with Scots heading for the East Coast of the US in search of a better life and spread to both settlers and indigenous North American Indians as most music did in those days – word of mouth. It’s a short hop then down to New Orleans. With Molley feeling that Scotland’s contribution to jazz needs to be recognised, he’s composed a fifty minute suit of music in five sections to celebrate the Scot’s influence on the genre.
Starting with a hymnal based call and response themed tune, his quartet segued seamlessly into an extremely recognisable jazz styled ceilidh. From there we hit a hornpipe theme with a strong JS Bach feel to it, before celebrating the North American Indian influence with a reflective and, at times, poignant “Trail of Tears” march. This excellent new piece of music concluded with what can only be described as a foot-tappingly rousing celebration of classic Louisiana style jazz, with a side serving of ragtime, rounded off with extended improvised solos from each of the instrumentalists.
This is a very talented jazz quartet that just lets their music do the talking, with the ensemble of piano, percussion, bass and sax/clarinet producing a symphony of sounds, any jamming (or improv if you prefer) in each part of the suite effortlessly passed between them with the merest twitch of an eyebrow or flick of a finger.
I suspect most of the audience would have stuck around for more of this quite delightful and uplifting music played by a group of consummate musicians who never miss a beat or waste a note. This show is only on over the weekend 16/17 August so you’ll have to hurry if you want to catch it live. If you can’t, then look out on their website for details of a recording due out later in 2025. Strongly recommended!
