by John Robertson
article reproduced by kind permission of the Shetland Times
Shetland Arts has pulled off an extraordinary coup by attracting three of the world’s most innovative musicians to Lerwick next month - the gig by Afro-Cuban jazz and world music pianist Omar Sousa will be hosted by the Shetland Jazz Club as it makes a dramatic return from its slumbers of the past two years.
Sousa's trio will include singer and Arabian lute (oud) player Dhafer Youssef from Tunisia, another big name in world music who has collaborated with some of Norway's outstanding jazz musicians in recent years to critical acclaim. Backing those two will be New York percussionist Marque Gilmore - no ordinary drummer either, dubbed the father of live drum and bass music and who has played with a long list of artists from the cutting edge of jazz, electronica and world music including Talvin Singh, Roy Ayers and Mica Paris.
It is quite likely to be the most outlandish concert ever seen in the genteel surroundings of the Town Hall on Thursday 19th October as the trio create stunning and at times challenging, music beneath the stained glass windows and Royal portraits.
The event is also proving a demanding task for Shetland Arts, due to the exacting technical requirements of the trio who generate highly complex, delicate, extreme and unusual sounds from their instruments. Music officer Davie Gardner said the Town Hall was the venue because Sousa requires Shetland’s Steinway grand piano which is housed there. He can hardly believe he has managed to get the trio to Shetland. He told The Shetland Times: “It’s too good to be true. It’s going to be an amazing show and in an unusual setting."
Tickets will go on sale soon.
Sousa was nominated for a Grammy and a BBC Radio 3 award this year for his last album, Mulatos and he is regarded as "a piano sorcerer" of breathtaking skill and imagination who produces music of power and passion, subtlety and grace. Born and raised in Cuba, Sousa has recorded a host of albums in an array of styles, including jazz ballads, funk, hip hop, Cuban pop and African folklore. Billboard magazine called him "one of the truly illuminated minds of world jazz".
Dhafer Youssef, as well as being an outstanding oud player, possesses an incredible soaring voice and is a firm favourite with BBC Radio 3’s world music DJs.
Sousa's trio is doing six UK shows together, culminating in a concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow before he heads off to play shows with his quartet in Tokyo.
Shetland Jazz Club's new chairman Roy Longmuir, is certainly looking forward to the revived club’s first visiting band, although traditional jazz fans might be in for an eye-opener. "It'll not be to everyone’s taste!" he said. Under the leadership of Lesley Roberts the Jazz club ran many winter seasons of laid-back concerts with local and visiting musicians in all different venues around town, including the boating club, the old country club, Islesburgh, the Garrison Theatre and the North Star.
Roy says the lack of a firm venue has been one of the problems but his dream of finding a smoky little dive that we can call our own” is never going to happen in this antiseptic age. He has a freshly formed committee to help him rejuvenate the club, which includes his music enthusiast brother, Alan, and one of Shetland's prominent female jazzers, saxophonist Helen Tait.
The " house band" of old faithful local jazz musicians is still around and one of the club's big hopes in to form a youth "house band" from among the many young jazzers in Shetland. Some of them from the Shetland Youth Jazz Orchestra came and played at the club's successful open gathering in Lerwick Boating Club in the summer. The club signed up around 20 new members that day and Roy and his aides are now embarking on another recruitment drive to get the organisation on a firm footing again.
Memberships cost £10 from committee members or by downloading a form from the website. Anyone under 18 can sign up for free. Joining up will qualify members for discounts on ticket prices.
Although the big Sousa gig is the exciting event to look forward to, the club is kicking off its season tomorrow with a jazz disco and quiz night at the Norscot Angling Club where you can listen to jazz recordings and test your knowledge of the jazz world over a few pints.
Another local night is planned for November, possibly in Da Noost. Also on the cards is a gig of Django-style jazz early in the New Year, featuring a trio led by the guitarist Tony Oreshko, who was up at the folk festival a few years back with Shine.