Glasgow-based saxophonist Brian Molley releases his quartet’s latest album, Tùs/Origin, on Friday 20th March.
One of the Scottish jazz scene’s most travelled groups, the quartet has recently made its first trip to Brazil and took a long-haul flight to New Zealand to fulfil a one-night stand at Auckland Arts Festival in 2024.
Tùs/Origin is its sixth album and following two releases that featured collaborations with Indian musicians - Tùs/Origin’s predecessor, Journeys was recorded in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan – this new album celebrates connections much closer to home.
“The first Scottish immigrants to travel to Canada and America took their culture with them, including a uniquely Scottish musical tradition known as call-and-response line-singing,” says Molley.
“This way of making music, which is especially prevalent in Gaelic psalm singing, would become a core element in the development of jazz and popular music.”
Molley’s celebration of jazz’s Scottish roots also draws on the work of prominent 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a frequent visitor to Scottish shores to whom Molley pays tribute in a musical ode and a lament in the through-composed suite that makes up Tùs/Origin.
“We wanted to incorporate traditions including influences from the Outer Hebrides, so the album incorporates those as well as a Louisiana gospel stomp, a jig and a hoedown,” says Molley. “It’s respectful while maintaining contemporary jazz’s sense of adventure and exhilaration.”
The first Scottish immigrants to travel to Canada and America took their culture with them, including a uniquely Scottish musical tradition known as call-and-response line-singing - Brian Molley
Formed in 2012, Molley’s quartet brings together some of the finest musicians from the UK’s jazz scene, with pianist Tom Gibbs, double bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson joining Molley, who was recognised as ‘One to Watch’ by leading jazz magazine Jazzwise following the release of the group’s first album, Clock, in 2013.
Subsequent albums, including Colour and Movement (2017) and Modern Traditions (2021), have earned praise internationally and the quartet was chosen to represent the cutting edge in UK jazz at Rochester International Jazz Festival in New York as part of Made in the UK 2015.
Appearances at leading European jazz venues including Sunset in Paris and The Jazz Station in Brussels, as well as at Harmonia Jazz Festival in Brazil, at Jarasum Jazz Festival in South Korea and Rajasthan International Folk Festival, have consolidated the group’s reputation.
“After two albums that found us involved successfully with leading Indian musicians and concerts that paid homage to top composers, including Henry Mancini and Antonio Carlos Jobim, we wanted to highlight our Scottish roots,” says Molley.
“We ‘road-tested’ the music from Tùs/Origin during the Edinburgh Fringe before going into the studio and the audiences’ responses were really positive.
“We’re looking forward to sending the album out into the world as early feedback from radio presenters internationally has been great.”
- For more information visit https://brianmolley.co.uk
