Edinburgh-born, Glasgow-based bassist Ewan Hastie has received the 2022 BBC Younger Jazz Musician competitors. The BBC’s press launch is reproduced in full under.
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Double bassist Ewan Hastie wins BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022
Twenty-year outdated Scottish double bassist Ewan Hastie has received BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022. The announcement was made in the course of the broadcast of the Competitors’s Last on BBC 4 on Sunday 20 November at 8PM, offered by Jamz Supernova and Huw Stephens, each DJs and broadcasters.
Born in Edinburgh, and raised in Kirkcaldy, Ewan Hastie began enjoying the bass guitar on the age of 12, and through his time with the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra he took up the double bass. With the Nationwide Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland, he gained touring expertise, visiting Skye, Glasgow, Belfast, and Sligo Jazz Pageant, lastly enrolling into the Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow, the place he’s at the moment in his fourth and remaining yr. Ewan has beforehand obtained the Mark McKergow Prize for Jazz Improvisation, which was awarded for laborious work, diligence, and creativity, and was chosen to go to Nuremberg, Germany, for a European Jazz workshop.
Ewan Hastie impressed the judging panel (together with among the most celebrated British performers on the present worldwide jazz scene: saxophonist and composer Camilla George; pianist, composer and producer Invoice Laurance, additionally a member of worldwide phenomenon Snarky Pet; vocalist Claire Martin, OBE; multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer Emma-Jean Thackray; and composer, singer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson) with an eclectic efficiency that includes his personal composition Impulse, and preparations of Tricotism by bebop trailblazer Oscar Pettiford, and Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty – from 1978 idea album The Mad Hatter.
For the ultimate all the musicians had the possibility to work with and had been backed by Nikki Yeoh’s Infinitum. Led by British jazz composer and pianist Nikki Yeoh, the trio additionally options siblings Michael Mondesir (bass) and Mark Mondesir (drums).
The BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022 Last was held on Saturday 19 November at London’s Queen Elizabeth Corridor, Southbank Centre, in collaboration with the EFG London Jazz Pageant. Every of the competitors’s 5 finalists offered a 14-minute set together with their very own variations of music from the usual jazz repertoire, and at the least one piece of their very own association or composition.
Ewan Hastie mentioned: “The opposite finalists had been incredible and I actually didn’t anticipate to win. I’m overwhelmed with feelings. I’m simply so grateful to be a part of the present and to have the ability to carry the trophy house to Scotland.”
Decide Claire Martin, OBE mentioned: “We had been so impressed with the best way Ewan picked three contrasting tunes that he performed brilliantly. He has incredible harmonic information, nice chops, and we liked his soulful feeling on the bass. We thought he was daring selecting Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty on the bass – that’s simply courageous. We appreciated his vitality, we appreciated the best way he communicated with the opposite musicians – all in all he had all the things for us. But it surely was very powerful to resolve: everyone was nice and it was actually laborious, however in a contest there’s at all times a winner, and we felt that Ewan was very deserving.”
The BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022 Finalists are: pianist Luke Bacchus (21) from London, in his remaining yr as a jazz piano scholar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance; Birmingham Conservatoire scholar pianist Nick Manz (21), born in Durham; Guildhall Faculty of Music and Drama graduate, guitarist Ralph Porrett (23) from Shropshire, at the moment based mostly in London; and saxophonist Emma Rawicz-Szczerbo (20), born in Devon and a present scholar on the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Suzy Klein, BBC Head of Arts and Classical Music TV, mentioned: “It was thrilling to see the distinctive performances by these rising stars of the UK jazz scene, and to share them with audiences stay at Southbank Centre and at house. BBC Younger Jazz Musician is an actual alternative to witness the following era of jazz stars as they take their first steps into the business. Congratulations to Ewan Hastie and I can’t wait to see what comes subsequent for all our proficient finalists”.
Ewan Hastie follows within the footsteps of pianist Deschanel Gordon, who received the Competitors in 2020 and is constructing a profitable profession performing within the UK and past, working with the likes of Mark Kavuma, Cassie Kinoshi’s SEED Ensemble and US-born singer Judi Jackson on levels at London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Jazz Café, and Barbican Centre, and at jazz festivals in Europe and the USA, together with Moods in Zurich, New York’s Winter Jazz Pageant, Jazz TM in Romania and Fasching in Sweden.
Deschanel carried out on the BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022 Last, accompanied by the Mondesir brothers on the rhythm part. He offered his personal composition I Know a Place.
Earlier winners of BBC Younger Jazz Musician embrace: saxophonist and composer Xhosa Cole, who received the Competitors in 2018 and went on to win Breakthrough Act of the 12 months on the 2020 Jazz FM Awards and Jazz Newcomer of the 12 months within the 2019 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, with a performing schedule that has taken him to essentially the most prestigious venues throughout the UK; trumpeter Alexandra Ridout, who was the 2016 BBC Younger Jazz Musician, was nominated for the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in 2020 and was a British Jazz Awards “Rising Star” in 2018; and 2014 Winner saxophonist Alexander Bone, who went on to win the British Jazz Awards “Rising Star” in 2016, and frequently performs together with his personal bands at venues and festivals throughout the UK and Europe.
Along with the tv protection on BBC 4, now obtainable on iPlayer for 12 months, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast highlights from the occasion on Saturday 3 December as a part of J to Z (additionally on BBC Sounds).
BBC Younger Jazz Musician 2022 is managed and produced by BBC Studios Music Cardiff.
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