(Further to my review of Kenny Washington's soon to be released album What's the Hurry comes this press release re a forthcoming single ...)
(Press release. Photo courtesy of Derek Clark)
The Scottish National Jazz
Orchestra releases its first single in its 25-year history on Saturday July 18.
The orchestra’s new arrangement of Sam Cooke’s classic Civil Rights anthem, A Change is Gonna Come is being made
available as a tribute to Nelson Mandela on what is International Nelson
Mandela Day and would have been Mandela’s 102nd birthday.
The recording came about when
the SNJO’s concerts with San Francisco-based singer Kenny Washington and New
York vibraphone master Joe Locke, due to take place in April, were postponed
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the repertoire selected for a programme of
pop, rock and soul hits was A Change is
Gonna Come, which Sam Cooke wrote in response to several experiences
including his entourage being turned away by a whites-only motel while on tour
in Louisiana.
With everyone in lockdown,
SNJO director Tommy Smith sent all the musicians their parts for the song and
asked them to record videos of them playing in isolation. Smith then collated
the results into one performance, which will receive its first airing on radio
on Jazz FM’s Breakfast at the Weekend programme at 8am on Saturday. The video
will go live on the SNJO website two hours later.
“Initially we were just going
to make the video available to view for free as our tribute on International
Nelson Mandela Day,” says Smith. “But we then had the idea of adding a donate
button alongside it so that people can watch and hopefully make a financial
contribution, with all proceeds going to the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial
Foundation.”
Smith has had a long
association with the Foundation. In his early twenties he took part in a
concert the Foundation promoted in Mandela’s honour during Glasgow’s European
City of Culture celebrations in 1990 and he has kept in touch with it since
then.
“I was lucky enough to
perform with the Association of South African Students Choir, The Scottish
Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Philharmonic Singers on what was a really
moving and inspiring day. The Foundation has had a long-term aim of creating a
statue of Nelson Mandela in Nelson Mandela Place, in Glasgow’s city centre, and
if we can contribute towards that with this video single, it would be a
suitable reward for Kenny and all the instrumentalists’ efforts.
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