It’s hard to characterise Colin Steele. Depending on where you stand he’s either a jazzman who is far too folky or a folk-influenced composer who plays too much jazz. Stramash is the name of his band and also the title of their first album recorded in 2008. It was a short-lived project but now Colin has put the old band back together for a one-off gig at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival and recorded Stramash II.
Colin plays trumpet with Dave Milligan, Phil Bancroft, Calum Gourlay and Alyn Cosker completing the jazz quintet. Add to them the string quartet: Seonaid Aitken, Chris Stout, Patsy Reid and Su-A Lee and then the whistles and pipes of Rory Campbell and you have Stramash. I’m not an afficionado of jazz – I used to joke with a friend who was that at least with folk music I knew where the tune started – but even I can appreciate the musical fusion that Colin has put together.
Colin has written all nine tracks beginning with the magnificent ‘Declaration Of Arbroath’ – I’ll leave you to look up the history – which starts with Milligan’s piano, then some drones, Lee’s cello and fiddles. They hand over to percussion and pizzicato fiddle leading into a trumpet-led melody that definitely has its roots in the folk tradition until the improvisation begins. Milligan returns with Cosker’s drums until Colin finds the melody again to play out the piece. ‘Elgin Laddie’ is next; a set of five reels crammed into five minutes and rather than have me describe it you can listen to it below.
You can apply these observations to the rest of the tracks. Some begin in the folk style others are definitely jazz based but all move to a fusion (or should that be confusion) of instruments with everyone getting a turn in the spotlight. I might single out the lovely whistle on ‘Covesea Bay’, ‘Benromach’, which is dedicated to the whisky and features Campbell’s pipes and the jokey ‘Bangers And Stramash’ which brings the album to a close in something of a free-for-all.
You may think that jazz isn’t your thing but if you can’t enjoy Stramash II then I fear that music may have passed you by.
Dai Jeffries
Artist’s website: https://www.colinsteele.com/
‘Elgin Laddie’ – live:
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