If Carlsberg did jazz names, then the double Grammy-nominated Jazzmeia Horn, whose trio of concerts with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra marks her first visit to Scotland, would be top of the list. And the title of her opening number from her debut album Social Call, I Remember You, are the words which would have been ringing in the ears of the appreciative audience whose post-show superlatives included “fabulous”, “terrific” and “excellent”.

In her tall golden headdress and long golden gown, the Dallas-born vocalist who shot to fame by winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Competition in 2015, started “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” and built to a crescendo of “Legs and Arms”. The latter, the title of a revenge ballad from her second album Love & Liberation about a  “perverted freak” peeping Tom. The moral of which being “don’t piss a woman off”.

Perhaps the balance, at first, was more weighted in favour of the band which under the direction of Tommy Smith was as tight and blistering as ever. With flautist Yvonne Robertson, who featured in their autumn concerts An American Journey with the remarkable saxophonist Bill Evans, injecting an ethereal air to the brassy stramash. A particular highlight being the self-penned People Make The World Go Round which opened with a jungle of noise followed by a stinging critique of “corrupt leaders”, “police brutality” and racism which “still exists on a high level”.

But the longer the concert went on, the more she spread her wings and connected to the room. Thrilling the audience with her “Honeysuckle Rose” voice which is as pure and effortless as it is fearless and explosive. Dispelling any concerns she had at the start of her career that “I didn’t think people would like my music”. Do we “dig it”? Yes we do – in spades. As her first collaboration with a jazz orchestra in Britain, under the arrangement of Bill Dobbins, was nothing short of scat-tastic.

Peter Callaghan
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