ONE of the most exciting young jazz pianists in the UK, whose first recording scooped two Album of the Year awards, will appear at Black Mountain Jazz at the Melville Centre in Abergavenny on Sunday, February 23.
Scotsman Fergus McCreadie won the under-17 section of the Young Scottish Jazz Musicians of the year award, and last year Turas, the album by his trio, won Album of the Year in both the prestigious Parliamentary Jazz Awards and in the Scottish Jazz Awards.
He's also won prizes from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Linda Trahan Memorial Prize from St Andrews University. He has also been featured on BBC Radio Scotland regularly as a leader and as a band member. He's appeared alongside such jazz celebrities as Bob Mintzer, Mike Stern, Iain Ballamy and Tommy Smith.
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In 2016, McCreadie’s group entered the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award, a competition set up to encourage young jazz musicians and help them to further their careers. They won and put the £5,000 prize money towards making Turas, which is Scottish Gaelic for tour.
“The idea was that the music would take listeners on a tour of Scotland because although we play jazz, it’s jazz with a Scottish accent,” he says. “I used to play the bagpipes when I was young and some of the phrasing from the pipes has crept into my piano style.
"I’m also influenced by the Scottish landscape and places and I try to incorporate this into my writing, although being around folk musicians in Glasgow and listening to groups like the Gloaming has rubbed off on me too."
Also, last year, his trio captivated audiences in Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands and they were invited to appear at the Ronnie Scott’s International Piano Trio Festival at the London jazz club after impressing the management with earlier performances.
Following the success of his first album, McCreadie and his trio - David Bowden (double bass) and Stephen Henderson (drums) - went into the studio last month to record the follow-up, which is expected to be released early in 2021.
Sundays' gig starts at 8pm. Doors open 7.30pm. Tickets at the door on the Black Mountain Jazz website at http://blackmountainjazz.co.uk/club-programme/
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