Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
Peter and the Wolf
Spartacus Records
IT was writer Ayn Rand – and not singer Mick Jagger, as is sometimes claimed – who said: “A thing worth doing is worth overdoing.” The witticism could be a motto for both saxophonist, composer and bandleader Tommy Smith and actor and performer Tam Dean Burn, whose consummate skill in a variety of disciplines is sometimes marred by a tendency to excess.
Put the pair of them together and the problem is inevitably amplified. One of the reasons why Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is the unchallenged champion work of classical music for young people is that it tells its story briefly, the orchestral instruments supplying the characterisation to a fairly concise narrative. Smith’s arrangement of the music for big band and Liz Lochhead’s Scots vernacular version is over twice as long, and I can imagine youngsters who might be enthralled by the original becoming impatient.
Burn’s performance is certainly expansive and in no danger of being overshadowed by the band, while that of pianist Makoto Ozone (as Peter) is, if anything, understated. There is as fine playing from the SNJO members as we know to expect (notably from Martin Kershaw on clarinet) and Smith’s writing is also as reliable, drawing on the most melodic and popular styles of mid-20th century writing for jazz orchestra.
But as the text errs towards Stanley Baxter pastiche of Hugh MacDiarmid’s dictionary-raiding, there can be a bit of a wait until the next swinging chorus comes along.
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