Before a sea of white faces clad in no-nonsense black (no comment) – aka the Clockwork Strings, later described as an “inspiring group of musicians” drawn from the “top of the top of Scottish orchestras” – the golden-voiced and golden-gowned Seonaid Aitken, who at the Scottish Jazz Awards in June was crowned not only “Best Vocalist” but with her gypsy jazz quartet Rose Room “Best Band”, glided across the stage of The Assembly Hall on The Mound on the closing night of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival as far removed from the “lonely flight” of the titular “Skylark” which formed part of a spellbinding opening set under the direction of conductor and fellow violinist Adam Robinson.

Exuding her trademark warmth, confidence and infectious joie de vivre, Aitken’s opening number begged the question which the remainder of her self-arranged selections attempted to answer: “What Is This Thing Called Love?” Including a “couple of curveballs” in “Ae Fond Kiss” featuring the Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year Joe Williamson who continually impressed on guitar, particularly in the “cosy” duet “The Nearness Of You”; a finger-plucking and playful interpretation of “Embraceable You”; and a “personal indulgence” of “I’ll Never Be The Same” accompanied by a brooding cello section.

There is no doubting the quality of the musicianship (the hand-picked Clockwork Strings really are “the top of the top”). Similarly, the arrangements are highly original and (add your own superlative) striking, breathing new life into old standards such as “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” which ended the first set with a big Broadway bang and contemporary classics including Christine McVie’s “Songbird” made famous by Eva Cassidy.

But to split hairs (and it really is splitting hairs, in fact more a reflection of personal taste), what was perhaps lacking was a bit of grit, the lived-in experience of many of the artists referenced such as Bessie Smith (“After You’ve Gone” which featured Stuart Wilson on bass) and Nina Simone (whose arrangement of “Love Me Or Leave Me” Aitken finds so electrifying that she transcribed it for the “band, sorry orchestra” before slam-bam jamming all over it).

After a unexpected detour to Disneyland in the form of a delightful orchestral take on “Some Day My Prince Will Come”, the second half packed a much more emotional punch, starting with Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye” which included the rarely performed introductory verse about quarrelsome lovers which as Aitken observed really did “change the whole context of the song” and accentuate “the change from major to minor”. This was followed by a maple-thumping rendition of “The Man I Love” which provoked a fortissimo “wow!” from one impressed audience member and several other gems about falling in and out and fathoming the complexities of love.

Discussing the origins of the concert, Aitken explained that she was approached by Adam Robinson to arrange a song for strings, the success of which whetted their appetite to “bring more work from London to Scotland” for musicians of the undoubted calibre of Clockwork Strings. Judging by the standing ovation they received at the end of their debut performance, here’s hoping the money men from within the stranglehold of the M25 will walk 500 miles and walk 500 more to fall down at the door of audiences like tonight’s. Most of whom, like the title of the second song of the evening, were “Confessing That I Love You”.

Peter Callaghan
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3 Comments

  1. “Sea of white faces”? Obviously didn’t look closely enough

  2. Had an excellent view of an excellent gig. The point I was alluding to was that there were very little in the way of racial diversity. On a similar note, most jazz bands I’ve seen of late are predominantly male. Excellent musicians, but hardly reflective of society.

  3. Probably a fair representation of the diversity to be found in classical music though

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