Norman and Corrie
Twa Double Doubles
by Howard Lawes
The late 1950s were a significant time in Scotland due to the popularity of Scottish jazz musicians such as Sandy Brown, the Clyde Valley Stompers, Alex Welsh, and others playing the 'traditional' jazz that was very popular across the country at the time. In 1957, Sandy Brown and trumpeter Al Fairweather released an album called McJazz, in which they introduced their own compositions and began to move away from the tradional jazz repertoire. Despite being Scottish most of these musicians only found widespread fame after travelling south to London, highlighting a lack of prestigious jazz venues north of the border. Any aspiring Scottish jazz musician at the time also discovered there was a complete absence of formal jazz education.
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As time went on interest in jazz in Scotland increased and in 1978 the EdinburghJazz and Blues Festival was founded followed by the Glasgow Jazz Festival in 1987. In 1981, a teenage tenor saxophone player called Tommy Smith was voted best soloist at the Edinburgh festival and his band also won the prize for best group. Two years later Tommy had released his first album called Giant Strides (1983), no doubt inspired by John Coltrane. Tommy travelled to America to learn jazz at the Berklee College of Music. The list of Tommy Smith’s achievements, album releases and awards is a long one and should be revisited in a further article but two of his projects are of particular importance to the young people in Scotland. These are the creation of the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra (TSYJO) in 2002 and the establishment of a jazz music course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in 2009.
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Saxophonist Norman Willmore and drummer Corrie Dick first met at a TSYJO jazz summer school when they were both teenagers. However, as undergraduates, Norman studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff and Corrie at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While neither Norman or Corrie graduated from the RCS the success of Tommy Smith’s course is that it has provided a vehicle for younger, Scottish jazz musicians to achieve a respected qualification and to raise the profile of contemporary jazz in Scotland where jazz is now enjoying a new golden age. The difference between this golden age and the 1960s is that Scottish jazz musicians now play jazz that is unmistakably Scottish and are attracting a whole new audience for Scottish music and culture.
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Norman and Corrie’s album Twa Double Doubles (2024) is riding on the crest of this golden wave and provides a fascinating blend of Shetland folk music and improvisation enhanced with electronics. Talking to Corrie via Zoom we agreed that Scottish jazz is buzzing and, along with some outstanding young jazz musicians, Tommy Smith has been instrumental in making it happen. Listen to Robbie Tampson's Smiddie from the album:
Listening to Twa Double Doubles one is struck by the expanse of the sound. It is difficult to believe that only two musicians, Norman Willmore on saxophones and Corrie Dick on drums are involved. The added dimension is, as Corrie explained, that elecronics are used as extra instruments in a spontaneous way. Norman’s saxophone sound is modified using organ pedals while Corrie uses drum triggers to extend the range of his playing.
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The track titles are:
Da Full-Rigged Ship / Jenny Nettles.
Hjogravylta / Twa Double Doubles and a Len o' Eunson's Saa
West Side Bride's March
Robbie Tampson's Smiddie
Haltadans
Forefit O Da Ship
John O Voe / Da Oyster
Da Maut Man
Minnie O Shirva's Cradle Song / Da Forehead O Da Sixareen
Several of the titles refer to real or historical characters from Shetland folk law. Haltadans is a stone circle on the island of Fetlar in Shetland. Legend has that it was a circle of dancing trolls (or trows); Jenny Nettles was a highland maiden who was deserted by her lover and committed suicide. Hjogravylta and other tunes refer to traditional occupations in the Shetland Isles such as fishing and boat building. In an interview for Quietus, it is pointed out that "The duo have even decided to retain some of the quirks from the original sound recordings. Track three is ‘West Side Bride’s March’, an already-known wedding tune in Shetland. Their interpretation of it starts a beat early, staying true to a surfaced recording where a fiddler’s mistake was documented in perpetuity. It’s a somewhat reverential treatment of the source material, and the research process in itself, which seems important to the pair". Norman Willmore was born in Shetland and grew up with these tunes. The long, dark nights of northern winters are made more cheerful with music that may encourage dancing but is sometimes just listened or sung to. Here is Minnie O Shiva's Cradle Song and Da Forehead O Da Sixareen:
Twa Double Doubles was featured at the EFG London Jazz Festival this last year and will also be performed at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow in January. In Glasgow the concert will include the premier of a film by burgeoning Scottish film-maker Douglas Tyrrell-Bunge. The film not only documents the making of the album but also dramatises some of the folklore from Shetland and also the stories of the melodies themselves.
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Norman and Corrie hope to tour in Europe with the album and will be at Jazz Ahead in Germany in 2025. Norman’s other projects include the hugely popular Scottish band called the Peatbog Fairies and his own quartet that plays jazz and traditional music from Shetland and the Appalachians. Both Norman and Corrie join Cahalen Morrison in his Ramshakle Band at Celtic Connections. Corrie’s numerous projects include the band Glasshopper, and he continues his longstanding collaborations with jazz stars such as Rob Luft, Laura Jurd, Elliot Galvin, Jasper Høiby and others.
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The album Twa Double Doubles was released on the 15th November 2024 and is available here with details and samples. As the album notes by Norman and Corrie say: "405 miles later, Corrie met Norman in Glasgow. they drove a further 145 miles to Aberdeen to board the 14-hour ferry across the North Sea to the Shetland Islands, Norman’s childhood home. Three weeks were spent learning traditional tunes from people in person and from the ghosts of archival tapes. these melodies were then worked like clay from the banks of the burn, shaped into the album we present to you. Enjoy, Norman&Corrie’:
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