Music review: Nu-Age Sounds, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Among the stars of that revival were BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022 Ewan Hastie, performing his own compositions for double bass On Reflection and Down South. His playing was mellow but stimulating, for a lengthy sonic exploration backed by the SNJO; around a dozen players arranged in a semi-circle, with drummer Alan Cusker and pianist Peter Johnstone lending especially important contributions throughout.

Mercury Prize nominee Fergus McCreadie followed Hastie. Looking every inch the young jazz prodigy, the pianist’s As the Mist Clears was an odyssey, his playing becoming faster and faster as the music’s patterns became more eclectically elaborate, with crashing drums, deep guitar chords and rising horn notes pulling the piece to a crescendo.

Smith’s own sax blazed over a suite of his own work, including the classic Karma, before a second half comprising artists not yet as garlanded, but likely to be in future: tenor saxophonist Helena Kay, a Fifer; “total badass of the Scottish music scene” Anoushka Nanguy, aka Noushy, whose breezy trombone playing was rich in emotional twists; saxophonist Matt Carmichael; and enviably talented multi-instrumentalist Liam Shortall, aka corto.alto, who alternated between trombone and guitar on his own Bad With Names.

A collective finale packed all of the above onstage, topped off with the rich jazz vocal of Kitti, who opened the show, for a real crescendo to a special evening.