Fergus McCreadie (keyboard)
Fergus McCreadie
makes interesting viewing, very dramatic and enthusiastic, head bobbing, body bending
towards the keyboard, unruly hair. I'm not surprised that he is a prize-winning
performer as he played mostly original compositions with great aplomb.
Unfortunately the first 20 minutes or so of tonight's
gig was marred by cutouts after every few notes. After Fergus made some
technical adjustments this was sorted but it was rather frustrating and people
may wish to catch up on the YouTube recording.
I missed the title of the first tune and
Fergus is softly-spoken so I may have missed other titles. The piece began with
very low left hand notes, fragmented, until the tune emerged, but stayed mostly
in a powerful left hand. A tune played by Bill Evans, possibly composed by
Harold Arlen, we were told. Next came Young and Foolish, sweet and
flowing, but foreshortened by a 2 minute break to sort out the sound. No
problems from then on.
This was followed
by an original from his second CD, a tune called Across The Flatlands (I
think) my favourite of the night, very Scottish and atmospheric, a 3-note
repeated riff with a highland dance tune above it and short bagpipe-like swirls
of sound, becoming more jazz-like, before the tune ends, seemingly in the
middle. Then a tune composed during lockdown, as yet untitled, a slower
meditative folky love song type of tune.
Fergus said that
only 30 per cent of his listening is jazz, (good to get other influences) and
he enjoys singer-songwriters, so he did a cover of the song Forgotten Eyes,
a very singable melody, with improvisation and full use of the keyboard. A request from the chat list next, Ardbeg from the album Turas, another
Highland influenced tune. The final offering was a tune with the working title Glasgow,
a slow melody which could be a love song, very enjoyable but nothing at all
like the Glasgow I remember from my last visit there, many years ago. You'd
expect a tune from that city to have more punch!
A very enjoyable
music session, despite the sound problems at the beginning.
Ann Alex
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