Tune Up Podcast

Guitarist Graeme Stephen joins with some of the most creative and in-demand players on the UK folk and jazz scenes for this Tune Up tour. Born in Aberdeen and based in Edinburgh, Stephen is a sensitive and inventive player, influenced by the pre-bop guitar style of Charlie Christian as well as contemporary masters like Bill Frisell. He has won a number of awards including the Jazz Services Promoters Choice Award. In 2008 he was chosen for the Serious/PRS Take 5 initiative. Stephen currently performs with his own Trio, as well the free-improvisation outfit Newt, and is a regular guest with the eclectic Fraser Fifield band. His Sextet was selected for the Jazz Services Promoters' Choice Award 2006 and played at the London Jazz Festival and the Manchester Jazz Festival. It has since expanded to a Septet with the addition of London based cellist Ben Davis of Mercury Music Prize nominees Basquiat Strings. They are joined by saxophonist Phil Bancroft, violinist Chris Stout, Brazillian bassist Mario Caribe and Scottish Jazz Drummer of the Year Stuart Ritchie. Alto saxophonist Martin Kershaw joins the group on the dates between 25th and 27th of March and Fraser Fifield takes over on soprano saxophone and Bulgarian kaval from 1st to the 7th of March.

"The trio of Arild Andersen, Tommy Smith and Paolo Vinaccia is one of the most exciting new groups to appear on the European jazz scene in years. Anchored by the massively sonorous, muscular double bass playing of Andersen, who has been one of the major figures in Scandinavian jazz since his early 1970s work with Jan Garbarek, the group marries melodic invention with crisp rhythms and rich colouring. Scottish saxophonist Smith's tough yet tender tenor playing and Italian-born, Norwegian-based Vinaccia's creative, imaginative drumming combine with Andersen's remarkable flexibility and use of multi-layered lines to create a sound that's orchestral in scope and yet superbly mobile."

First premiered at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2007 this Tune Up sponsored tour utilizes the myriad of styles currently within folk music and features instrumental arrangements, folk-rock ballads and a new Gaelic lament from Julie Fowlis, who lends her pure precise voice to the Scottish leg of the tour. The Under One Sky line-up also includes Idlewild front man Roddy Woomble, Iain MacDonald on bagpipes, flute and whistles, guitarist Ian Carr, award-winning musician of the year accordionist Andy Cutting, bassist Ewen Vernal, percussionist James Mackintosh, and Teenage Fanclub member Norman Blake.

Catriona Macdonald is a proud bearer of one of the world's great fiddle traditions, that of the Shetland Isles, and widely respected as both a member of Blazin Fiddles, founder of String Sisters and a gifted fiddler in her own right. This Tune Up tour brings a rare chance for Catriona to play many of the traditional venues which support the vibrant folk scene in Scotland. The concerts will be based around the new material found on Catriona`s long awaited new album Over the Moon with David Milligan (piano) , Conrad Ivitsky (double bass) and James Mackintosh (drums/percussion) comprising the all star band who play on both record and tour.

Injuns (originally from Skye) have an illustrious history of doing it for themselves: having self-released three singles and an album, joined up with the Kopparberg Collective for a vinyl release, and written and performed a musical based the love of a ghost for a still living woman, they now embark on a tour of the towns and islands that gave birth to their remarkable and inventive sound. They will be taking with them an equally outstanding emerging talent from Denmark. Claes Cem is a songwriter, guitarist and lyrical storyteller who has played extensively to wide acclaim in Copenhagen, wider Denmark as well as the States and the U.K. over the last couple of years. The Tune Up podcast is produced by Inner Ear for Tune Up.