Katy Clachan,
of Ayr Jazz Festival
“Quattro MacJazz made their spectacular debut at Ayr Jazz Club in September
2007, delighting their audience to the extent that they want MORE…! It was
certainly an honour for the club to be able to host such a “fierce
foursome”!
These four talented musicians have assembled in the form of Quattro MacJazz
to provide some of the hottest New Orleans & Gospel music around at the
moment and are sure to set places alight with their endless enthusiasm. We
wish them well in their new venture!”
Bill
McLaughlin, Promoter, Author and Singer:
"This band's 175 years means that it is
well past the stage of thinking about instruments, and what it produces is a
coruscating brilliance of sound and musical ideas.
Forrie is not just the best in Scotland, he is probably the best traditional
jazz clarinettist alive today.
Lennie comes into the same category! No trumpeter I hear today plays with
the same energy and verve and certainly not with the same imagination.
Alastair is an all time great on banjo and gives the band something
completely different with his singing of spirituals and Scottish songs.
This band is unique! If you don't hear them you've missed your chance of
hearing the best there is!"
Jan Atkins : Arran Voice
but I would also like to
thank Quattro MacJazz for the fantastic concert on Saturday night. It was
brilliant to hear old and new pieces played and sung by such well-known and
brilliant musos — and they said this was only the second concert they have
given together. All I can say is “Haste ye Back” soon.
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Harry Ross: Arran Banner
Quattro MacJazz hit Whiting Bay
The
Banner's music correspondent Harry Ross writes about an enjoyable evening
listening to Quattro MacJazz playing to a full house in Whiting Bay Hall
last Saturday evening
No,
this is not a report on a new model of the German car maker Audi's latest
model but it is the latest model of a new jazz quartet to visit Arran with
the evocative name of 'Quattro MacJazz' and I must admit I had slight
misgivings that a piano-less and trombone-less jazz combo would not quite
have the depth and breadth needed to 'cut the mustard' - so to speak.
However, nothing could have been farther from the truth and the renowned
dexterity and quality of Forrie Caims (clarinet), Lennie Herd (trumpet),
Graeme Blamire (double bass) who was deputising for Roy Perry and the
incredibly dextrous Alasdair Macdonald (banjo, and what a big banjo) created
a big sound, much to my surprise, so that the balance of the group was just
about right.
There
was a somewhat 'Dixieland' start to the evening, which is, after all, where
jazz was from so to speak - possibly brought about by the use of the banjo
instead of a piano, but I must say the blend was excellent and there was
outstanding rapport particularly between Forrie Cairns and Lennie Herd whose
playing was - to coin a phrase- 'meant for each other.'
On
that pseudo-romantic note I will finish by simply saying 'come back very
soon.' |
