Saxophonist appears at venue as performer and music fan

For the second in the series of four concerts that Kay has been invited to curate at the venue the saxophonist’s quartet will revisit Golden Sands, Kay’s second album. It’s the opening act, improvising folk duo Norman&Corrie, however, that has the music fan in Kay excited.

Kay chose the duo after hearing Shetland-born saxophonist Norman Willmore’s debut album, Alive and Well at the Muckle Roe Hall.

“I loved Norman’s approach to improvising and the way his group worked with the Shetland tradition and other folk influences on that album,” says Kay.

Helena Kay: have sax will travel

Willmore, a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s jazz course, has since joined forces with drummer-percussionist Corrie Dick, who, like Kay, is a former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year and a former member of the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Norman&Corrie launched their debut album, Twa Double Doubles, to an enthusiastic reception at EFG London Jazz Festival in November and have since won more admirers at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

“I’ve been listening to their album a lot,” says Kay. “I love the way they interact spontaneously and create music that’s daring but also very melodic, again with that Shetland influence. I’m looking forward so much to hearing them live.”

Kay’s own group features an especially familiar rhythm section as pianist Peter Johnstone, bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer Alyn Cosker all play with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, as does Kay. They arrive at the Queen’s Hall fresh from the SNJO’s latest project, Nu-Age Sounds: Planet World, a suite for which Kay composed one of the movements.

Helena Kay looks ahead to the Queen's Hall concert

“We’ve played in the Queen’s Hall often with the SNJO and it’s a fantastic venue but this is the first time we’ll have played there as a quartet,” says Kay. “It’ll feel quite different having just the four of us onstage instead of being part of a sixteen-piece ensemble. We’ll have so much room to work in!”