Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Orphy Robinson
May 23, 2024
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra reunite with Orphy Robinson, one of the most engaging and influential voices in British jazz. Developing on last year’s sell-out concert, this year’s event celebrates the work of the much-loved Barbadian trumpeter and towering figure in British jazz, the great Harry Beckett.
Orphy and GIO collaborate on Harry Beckett’s rarely-performed Many Pauses, as well as the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed Improcherto (for HB). Devised by GIO’s George Burt in 2011 to celebrate Harry’s vibrant approach to life and music-making, Improcherto (for HB) features an ingenious, elegant, and sophisticated score written on Post-it Notes. GIO’s premiere of this piece featured Evan Parker and Lol Coxhill at The Sage, Gateshead. This performance will see both Orphy and George Burt take soloistic roles.
The packed programme will also premiere two brand new pieces. Ceylan Hay (aka Bell Lungs), one of Scotland’s most in-demand, prolific and well-travelled young composer/performers will present a new work commissioned for this event, while GIO’s Raymond MacDonald will premiere a new piece, incorporating reworked samples of one of Harry Beckett’s last performances in Scotland, playing with the Burt/MacDonald Quartet at The Blue Lamp Jazz Club in Aberdeen in 2005.