Guess What

Recorded at CAVA Sound workshop, Glasgow. In front of a live audience.

Basement Jazz (at that time Glasgow's only regular jazz club) had commissioned Tom MacNiven to write a series of pieces for a classic jazz quintet. Trumpet, Sax, Piano, Bass and Drums. Normally what happens with such 'commissions' is that they have one public performance and largely just disappear into the ether never to heard (nor seen again), we resolved to try and avoid that particular scenario.

So rather than try and do the recording in a conventional way ie. In a studio during the course of a few days. It was decided to approach CAVA and see if they were amenable to allowing us to turn their 'Studio A' into a jazz club for the evening. Then we could record the music essentially live with the quality of a multitrack recording . The management were more than happy to attempt this style of recording and made a great deal of effort to ensure that we had the very best in facilities for the evening.

On the night in question we invited an audience of approx 80 enthusiasts to helps us in our quest for a great recording. We also supplied everyone with a small sherry or two to help with the 'vibe'.
This led to one of the most unique and pleasurable experiences of any recording I have ever attempted, both for the band and audience alike.

The immediacy of recording in front of an audience was tempered by the need to get as good a result as possible, which in turn led to that indefinable 'something' that makes a recording special.
Yes we had to retake a couple of tracks, but this only added to the atmosphere, in fact we have included 2 takes from 2 of the pieces because each take had something that was worth listening to and we didn't want to deprive anyone of the experience.
As you can no doubt hear, the audience enjoyed the evening immensely, I do hope that you can enjoy a similar feeling when you listen to this cd.

A unique recording that allows the listener to hear not just a piece of Scottish jazz history but also some of our finest musicians on their way to becoming the national icons we know today.

Iain Copeland