News
Cosker, Cottle, Hamilton, Hitchcock, and Quigley
- Christopher Glasgow
- Scottish Music Centre
- 29 Jun 2009
Jazz musicians have worked long and hard to take their virtuosity to a very high level. Many of them also have a competitive streak that regularly emerges in jam sessions, where everyone seems intent on playing longer, harder and faster than their colleagues.
There was more than a little of both factors at work in this gathering of band leaders (although it seemed to be an offshoot of Ryan Quigley's big-band project, and he did all of the announcements). The acrobatics were never less than impressive, however they neglected other more measured but equally important aspects of the music.
What we heard was a hugely skilled group vying to push the music – a selection of familiar staples from the jazz repertoire – harder and harder in unrelenting fashion for 90 furious minutes. Even the two ballads had a feisty edge. Everyone played superbly, and it was undeniably an impressive and exciting event at this month’s Glasgow Jazz Festival.
