Top Scots keyboardist tours all-star band
Peter Johnstone at the Hammond B3 (promo photo)
Scottish keyboardist Peter Johnstone takes his International Organ Quartet on a four-date tour in July to coincide with the release of the group’s first album, Resistance Is Futile.
Featuring New York-based vibes virtuoso Joe Locke, saxophonist Will Vinson and Johnstone’s Scottish National Jazz Orchestra colleague, Alyn Cosker on drums, the quartet will play Watermill Jazz, Dorking on Tuesday 8th, the 606 Club in London on Wednesday 9th, Zeffirellis in Ambleside on Thursday 10th and Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival on Friday 11th.
A former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, Johnstone has toured internationally with vocalist Kurt Elling and Vienna-based American saxophonist Andy Middleton and worked with guitarists Jim Mullen, Rob Luft and Nigel Price as well as appearing extensively as pianist with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. He is the first graduate of the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow to return in a teaching capacity.
The quartet, in which Johnstone plays Hammond organ, features music exclusively written by Johnstone. An album, entitled Resistance is Futile, will be released to coincide with the tour.
“I'm really looking forward to hearing such accomplished musicians as Joe, Will and Alyn bringing my music off the page,” says Johnstone. “The album has already been played on the radio in the U.S., Europe and Ireland and it's been very well received ahead of its release.”
Livia releases old and new Irish dreams
Dublin-based Livia Records continues to celebrate both the current Irish jazz scene and its valuable legacy with two releases during May.
Acoustic bass guitar virtuoso Ronan Guilfoyle’s latest album features his band Bemusement Arcade playing compositions that showcase Guilfoyle’s liking for working in compound time signatures and making them swing.
At Swing, Two Birds, as the album is called, also alludes to Irish humourist Flann O’Brien and features Guilfoyle’s son, Chris on guitar alongside alto saxophonist Sam Norris and drummer Darren Beckett.
Guilfoyle is a hugely experienced musician, having worked with pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarists Larry Coryell, Emily Remler and John Abercrombie and saxophonists, Joe Lovano, Beny Golson and Dave Liebman, among many other internationally established players. He is also an in-demand composer, with commissions across the contemporary music scene as well as a catalogue of jazz compositions.
Livia’s second May release is the latest in the label’s series of reissues featuring Ireland’s great guitar hero, Louis Stewart. In the late 1970s, Stewart went into the studio with a dream team rhythm section – the great English pianist John Taylor and two American legends, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Billy Higgins. The result, I Thought About You, is a classic album of its kind and much sought-after among vinyl collectors.
