Nominated for the 2022 Mercury Prize, pianist and composer Fergus McCreadie is one of the most exciting young talents out of Glasgow and out of the new UK jazz scene. His music is an innovative blend of jazz and Scottish traditional music, with compositions designed to take the listener on an auditory journey of Scotland. Depicting scenes from the Western Isles to the East Neuk of Fife, the music evokes the landscapes from which it takes its inspiration. Fergus is a complete and well-rounded musician, a passionate communicator and consummate performer, a composer of elegant, nuanced and captivating music as well as a pianist and improviser of exceptional ability and originality.
Fergus McCreadie burst onto the national scene with his self-released debut album ‘Turas’ in 2018. Rooted in a Scottish folk tradition and expressing advanced rhythmical flair, the album sparked a wake of interest from global promoters and industry, collecting Album of the Year at the Parliamentary and Scottish Jazz Awards and shortlisted for the cross-genre Scottish Album of the Year Award 2019. In 2018 he was a BBC Jazz Musician of the Year Finalist.
With his trio, featuring long term cohorts David Bowden and Stephen Henderson, he encompasses a rare freshness of sound in this well-trodden format reminiscent of the originality and personality with which the likes of The Bad Plus and EST emerged almost two decades ago. In a vastly changed era since then, Fergus and his trio, with their profoundly mesmerising and compelling music, look set to evoke similar trajectories in developing a global audience. They certainly have the necessary instrumental command, communication and originality.
His Mercury-nominated new album ‘Forest Floor’ is out now on Edition Records.
Lineup:
Fergus McCreadie (piano)
Stephen Henderson (drums)
David Bowden (double bass)
Presented by Music-Net. Music-Net is a partnership between producer and promoter Root Music and Inner City Music owners and operators of iconic Manchester venue Band on the Wall, funded by Arts Council England.
A trio capable of rivalling EST or The Bad Plus for sheer excitement.”
MOJO