Anyone wanting (further) evidence of how many good young players there are around in the UK at the moment should have a listen to the 2012 Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year final, broadcast last night on Radio Scotland, repeated on Sunday at 8pm, and available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lh7z8
It's obviously a fairly artificial set-up: how do you compare 21-year-olds with several years' serious gigging under their belts with 18-year-olds just out of secondary school, or saxophonists with drummers? And yes, they're still mainly displaying competence rather than originality, but I'm sure that will come. If nothing else, it's a chance to find out what Thelonious Monk played on a clarsach sounds like. It's maybe also worth noting that two of the five finalists were women.
There's also an interval set from last year's winner and recent JLU guest Ru Pattison.
It's obviously a fairly artificial set-up: how do you compare 21-year-olds with several years' serious gigging under their belts with 18-year-olds just out of secondary school, or saxophonists with drummers? And yes, they're still mainly displaying competence rather than originality, but I'm sure that will come. If nothing else, it's a chance to find out what Thelonious Monk played on a clarsach sounds like. It's maybe also worth noting that two of the five finalists were women.
There's also an interval set from last year's winner and recent JLU guest Ru Pattison.
, having to be replaced by Kit Downes, who brought along bassist Tom Farmer. Josh Blackmore, from Curios, was on drums, and we were entertained to a succession of beautifully crafted standards, blues (including a terrific version of Ornette's When Will The Blues Leave), and Downes originals, finishing with a tribute to Skip James. 
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