We first met the great Lol Coxhill when he played in a duo with Pat Thomas in the old Ramshorn in Glasgow’s Merchant City in 1997. We tentatively offered him one of our cds, and asked if he would like to play with our band. “I’ll give it a listen”, he said. “And if I like it, I’ll give you a call. If I don’t, you’ll never hear from me again.”
Fortunately for us he did, and for the next few years, he made an annual visit to Glasgow to play with us and do some recordings. Up till now, these have only been available at our gigs, so we’ve decided to make them more widely available. There are six in all, now available on Bandcamp:
The BMacD band: L to R: Alyn Cosker, drs: George Lyle, db: Nicola MacDonald, v & melodica; George Burt, gtr; Raymond MacDonald, saxophones.
In 2005, George & Raymond were commissioned by An Tobar, the Tobermory Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull to create new music to celebrate the centenary of Tobermory’s Town Clock.
The Clock commemorates a pioneering traveller of the Victorian era, Isabella Bird. Isabella’s sister Henrietta was the recipient of Isabella’s letters recounting her travels, which were later compiled into a series of bestselling travel books; “A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains”, “The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither” and many others. On the strength of these works and her indomitable spirit she became the first woman to become a member of the Royal Geographical Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird
The Tobermory Clock
When we started the Burt/MacDonald band, Raymond and I had a list of players we wanted to work with. High on the list was Keith Tippett. An astonishing musician, easily bestriding the seismic changes of sixties pop, the development of Rock music in all its forms (including a stint in the ferocious hothouse of early 70’s King Crimson) and being hand-picked by Stan Tracey to be the house-pianist of Ronnie Scott’s. In his later years, he wrote classical influenced works for string quartets and the BBC Singers.
Keith Tippett & George Lyle on the ferry to Mull
We read Isabella’s books and turned some of her words into song lyrics, and composed songs and instrumental pieces to illustrate some of her adventures. We recorded the music, did some workshops with local schoolchildren, and performed the new material at a sold-out concert on the Saturday night. Here’s an introduction to the project including some excerpts from the album:
We made two CDs of the material: A Day for a Reason featured the songs and jazz-flavoured material, Boohoo Fever, later released on the LEO label, featured the more abstract and impressionistic pieces.
The reviews in Jazzwise and Herald praised the folkish melodies, brief abstractions, and noted Keith’s integral place as a contributing member of the band, not just as a “special guest”.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the project, and to commemorate Isabella, Henrietta and Keith and they way they all enriched our lives, the band are proud to re-release these albums on Bandcamp. They will also be available from your favourite independent record shop and members of the band. Come and say hello!
A selection of reviews:
Jazzwise:
Records like this are just too few. It’s amazing how often a theme, idea or concept can lift material and musicians out of the ordinary through the simple expedient of telling a story. Commissioned by Tobermory on the Island of Mull to celebrate the centenary of the town clock, this is a thing of charm and delight. The album tells of two sisters, one who travelled widely and boldly and another who waited on her letters from afar and it succeeds in capturing both heart and imagination. With longer pieces punctuated by brief abstracted fragments, it’s never afraid to experiment whether in the displaced tones of Keith Tippett’s prepared piano or the spidery scrapings of George Burt’s guitar. Yet its soul lies in its beautiful folk-ish melodies. From the opening “Sisters” with just piano and melodica and the lovely “Isabella in 1873” with Nicola MacDonald’s captivating voice, this record hardly falters. Its emphasis lies in bebop, and there’s an almost pop feel to some of the tracks such as the jaunty “In Transit” and soft and tender “She’s Gone”. I can’t imagine that many Jazzwise readers won’t love this album, whether their starting point is Jamie Cullum or Kenny Wheeler.
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise February 2006
BMacD band featuring Keith Tippett: In Transit composed by George BurtBMacD band featuring Keith Tippett: Isabella in 1873 composed by Raymond MacDonald
LIST
The latest disc from this prolific group led by guitarist George Burt and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald features pianist Keith Tippett in a project commissioned buy An Tobar arts Centre on Mull, inspired by the town clock in Tobermory. Created and recorded in March [2005], the music features the group’s characteristic mix of tuneful, melody driven songs and instrumentals with no-holds barred free improvisation.
As in earlier live work in Glasgow, Tippett brings massive experience as well as artistic clout to the project, and it fits seamlessly into the group aesthetic. A strong contender for their best work yet on disc.
Kenny Mathieson, the List, 24 July -4 August 2005
THE HERALD
Even by their productive standards, Scotland’s own Burt – MacDonald team have been prolific lately in their work with British jazz luminaries.
A Day for a Reason resulting from a project with Keith Tippett at Tobermory’s progressive An Tobar arts centre, is almost a companion piece to their Hotel Dilettante album and continues their collaboration with saxophonist Lol Coxhill.
A musical portrait of two Victorian sisters who lived on and travelled far beyond Mull, A Day for a Reason succeeds admirably in conveying a sense of place and of personalities. It features a variety of moods, including straight-ahead jazz, Burt’s attractive melancholia, Nicola MacDonald’s atmospheric songs and brother Ray’s freewheeling saxophone improvisations, with Tippett making an inspired contribution as an integral member rather than simply a guest.
Rob Adams The Herald, 16.07.05
Boohoo Fever continues the story of our visit to the beautiful Isle of Mull and the creation of our music in celebration of the centenary of the Tobermory Town Clock.
Our previous album (A DAY FOR A REASON, also on Bandcamp) told the story of the pioneering Victorian traveller and writer Isabella Bird, and her sister Henrietta.
This album is a more introspective and abstract work, with less emphasis on describing Isabella’s adventures and is more concerned with evoking the atmosphere of Tobermory and Mull, its seascapes, mountains and silences.
BMacD band with Keith Tippett: The Gallery, composed by Raymond MacDonald
The line-up is the same as before, Raymond MacDonald (saxophones), George Burt (guitar), Nicola MacDonald (voice & melodica), George Lyle (bass) and Alyn Cosker (drums), with our special guest, the great Keith Tippett on his first visit to the Western Isles.
In 2022, a month-long residency at the Jane Street Art Center in Saugerties NY, provided space, time, and support for an experimental workshop enabling musicians and visual artists to collaborate in creating new work which is visual and aural.
The CD (inc. full colour booklet) is available from Bandcamp:
at Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, 7pm, Friday 28th October
FERLIE LEED were invited to perform at Glasgow’s unique Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, a bizarre, hilarious, and disturbing collection of automata and kinetic sculpture housed at the city’s 103 Trongate.
FERLIE LEED’s usual constituents Una MacGlone and Gerry Rossi can’t make this one, so Tam Dean Burn and George Burt have asked Jessica Argo to bring the ethereal magic of the Theremin from its homeland of Russia to the heart of Glasgow in a Futurist celebration of love, loss and the power of Radio…
There will also be a VERY SPECIAL GUEST…. the wonderful MAGGIE NICOLS!
For this special occasion we have re-named the band for this event- we will be THE FUTURISTICOS, and we will convey some of the power and magic of Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov and HM Enzensberger in Edwin Morgan’s outstanding translations into Scots and English.
The FUTURISTICOS are:
Jessica Argo- Theremin
George Burt- guitar
Tam Dean Burn- voice
Programme:
The Radio of the Future– V. Khlebnikov; music by The Futuristicos
Forfairn’s ma Hert– A. v. Platen; music G. Burt
Drowsing– HM Enzensberger; music G.Burt
Duo
Ha-Oo!– V. Khlebnikov; music by The Futuristicos
Gaffin Cantrip– V. Khlebnikov; music by The Futuristicos
I’ll be performing at the PLAYTIME sessions with Tom Bancroft (drs), Martin Kershaw (ss & as) and Sue Mackenzie (bari & ss),on Thursday 6th October.
Playtime is a fabulous gig in a fine venue, and I’m looking forward to it. Sue MacKenzie is a wonderful player and we haven’t really worked together outside of GIO.
I’ve always been a great fan of Tom Bancroft’s projects, and the PLAYTIME online sessions from Pathhead Village Hall were one of the few regular gigs that kept going during the lockdown. Clíona Cassidy and I did our RAIN SHADOW songs there, and you can see the gig here:
It was a strange experience! Although it magically looks like a conventional gig, we were all carefully isolated and we could only move in tightly prescribed areas. Tom bought us some fish & chips, and he had to place our orders carefully in the middle of the hall. The we all had to file forward one at a time to pick them up.
I was living in Falkirk at the time, and drove past Clíona’s place to pick her up and drive round the Edinburgh Bypass to Pathhead. The weather was wet & windy. Following the Govt coronavirus guidance, Clíona was in the back seat wrapped up in scarf, woolly hat and gloves while I drove through the wind and rain with the car windows wide open.
The music went pretty well: some of the songs are quite tricky to play, and Graeme, Tom, Mario and Martin played them beautifully, despite my scrappy parts and diffident leadership style. I played the guitar part to Clíona’s song THE LIGHTHOUSE on electric guitar, instead of the classical, and made a hash of it. The free stuff was nice though. A bit subdued, but none the worse for that…
The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra will be performing a new piece of mine at GIOfest VIII on 27th November. It will feature Marilyn Crispell and Keith Tippett on pianos. I think this is the first time that they have played together… More details (including bits of the score!) soon…
George Burt 