The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra revisits George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in concerts featuring Japanese piano virtuoso Makoto Ozone from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 May. Feature by Rob Adams

The focus of the SNJO’s 2009 album, Rhapsody in Blue Live, Gershwin’s jazz age classic is being given a fresh re-orchestration by SNJO artistic director, saxophonist Tommy Smith to celebrate its centenary.

Two of the concerts will see the SNJO and Makoto Ozone perform Rhapsody in Blue with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, in Edinburgh (3^rd) and Glasgow (4^th), as part of the RSNO’s concert programme including the suites from West Side Story and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 cinema classic, Vertigo. The third concert, in Aberdeen (5^th), features the SNJO and Ozone playing Rhapsody in Blue, the suite from West Side Story and music by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and Robert Burns.

“The two concerts with the RSNO represent a milestone in the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s near thirty-year career,” says Smith. “To be invited to perform in collaboration with Scotland’s internationally respected symphony orchestra is an honour and a thrill. We’re very excited at the prospect of working with such an esteemed ensemble.”

Smith is also excited to be working again with Ozone, with whom he has kept in touch since the two musicians toured the world with vibes master Gary Burton’s ‘Whiz Kids’ group in the 1980s. A former child prodigy, Kobe-born Makoto Ozone had already played a piano recital at Carnegie Hall, New York when he was invited to join Burton.

Not yet a subscriber of our Wednesday Breakfast Headlines?
Join the mailing list for a weekly roundup of Jazz News.

“We’re delighted to be welcoming back Makoto, a real master and an old friend of the SNJO, to play on these concerts,” says Smith. “We’ve worked with him on several projects, including his jazz orchestration of Mozart’s Jeunehomme piano concerto and a tour of Japan when we performed Peter and the Wolf with Japanese screen actor Isao Hashizume in 2000-seat concert halls.”

After working with Burton, Ozone went on to become the first Japanese musician to sign exclusively to CBS Records and the first Japanese jazz pianist to join the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on tour. He has since recorded and toured with jazz luminaries including pianist Chick Corea, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and saxophonist Branford Marsalis and he leads his own trio and big band, the internationally acclaimed No Name Horses.

“No Name Horses is a particularly great example of Makoto’s fantastic imagination and bandleading qualities but it’s only one strand of his brilliance,” says Smith. “He has performed concertos by Mozart, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Leonard Bernstein with major orchestras in Japan and around the world. All while maintaining a career as an outstanding jazz pianist.”  

To the Japanese public, Ozone has developed from the seven-year-old organist who appeared with his father on national television into the respected figure who, in 2018, was presented with one of Japan’s greatest awards, the medal of honour known as Shiju-HouShyou.

“It’s been great to see Makoto’s already impressive career develop further over the forty years that I’ve known him,” says Smith. “I’m absolutely certain that his fantastic musicianship and pianistic skills will excite everyone who comes to hear him.”

Concert details:

Edinburgh: Usher Hall, Friday 3^rd May 7:30pm ticket info
Glasgow: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saturday 4^th May 7:30pm ticket info
Aberdeen: Music Hall, Sunday 5^th May 7:30pm ticket info