Award-winning Scottish pianist Fergus McCreadie launches his third album, Forest Floor with concerts by his trio at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Friday 8th April and Ronnie Scott’s in London on Tuesday 19th April. The trio also have a prestigious showcase concert scheduled at the international trade fair Jazzahead! in Bremen and play further dates during April, May, June and July.

Following on from McCreadie’s self-released debut, Turas, which won Album of the Year at both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and the Scottish Jazz Awards, and its similarly well-received successor, Cairn, the new album is released on leading European label Edition Records.

McCreadie’s music reflects the influences of Scotland’s landscape and musical traditions and has won praise from reviewers and radio presenters across North America, Europe and Australia as well as in the UK.

He grew up in Dollar in Clackmannanshire, which is celebrated in the track Law Hill on the new album, and he studied on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s jazz course, graduating with honours in 2018. In addition to winning the Album of the Year title for Turas, McCreadie himself has twice won the Best Instrumentalist prize at the Scottish Jazz Awards, in 2018 and 2020

Although he has appeared on the Queen’s Hall and Ronnie Scott’s stages before, launching Forest Floor at two venues that are considered the spiritual homes of jazz, in Scotland and London respectively, is a huge honour for the twenty-four-year-old.

“The Queen’s Hall is iconic and its piano legacy is amazing,” he says of the Edinburgh venue which has staged dozens of top international jazz attractions over the past forty years. These include American jazz piano legends McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea and Jamaican calypso jazz creator Monty Alexander, who was an early admirer of McCreadie’s blending of jazz tradition with his Scottish roots.

Ronnie Scott’s has hosted almost every major jazz musician since it was opened by the late saxophonist whose name it bears in 1959.

You’re always aware of its history as soon as you step into the club. Just walking onto the stage, you can’t help thinking of the footsteps you’re following in. It can be a little daunting but also inspiring and to launch an album at both Ronnie’s and the Queen’s Hall is quite a thrill. ~ Fergus McCreadie

Forest Floor was recorded in the same studio as both of its predecessors, Quietmoney in Hastings, a location that clearly suits the trio and allows them to relax and be creative.

“With this recording, it’s the same studio, same piano and same musicians as before,” says McCreadie, whose trio will make their debut at one of Europe’s biggest jazz events, the Love Supreme festival in Sussex on 1st July.

But I feel the sound we have as a trio has become more developed and rounded somehow. This album has its own journey, its own destination. As we perform this more and more, the music will change and our approach to it will adapt with it. That’s the beauty of this music. It’s all about evolution, not standing still, but listening and adapting with it.

Tour dates

April 8: Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
April 19: Ronnie Scott’s, London
April 22: West Kilbride Village Hall
April 23: Perth Theatre
April 29: Jazzahead! Bremen, Germany
May 6: An Tobar, Tobermory
May 13: Nairn Community & Arts Centre
May 15: Merchants House, Glasgow
May 26: Bonington Theatre, Nottingham
May 27: The Witham, Barnard Castle
May 28: St Margaret’s, Braemar
May 29: Jazz Stroud
June 26: Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
July 1: Love Supreme, Glynde Place, Sussex