We just got back late yester-day from a day and a night at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. What an exciting place to be at Festival time, for the regular International Festival of the Arts is on as well as the famous Fringe festival, the jazz and blues one, the book one, and as of last night, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo which is on during the evening at Edinburgh Castle.
The city is heaving with people from all countries, all ages, and all walks of life. Performers are out on the street doing "bits" to advertise or just busking for spare change. The African Drummers are back again and, as usual, have set up right next to the National Gallery of Art so that as you walk toward it on Princes St. from either direction you can hear the sound of wild drumming. To add to the colour, there is a Warhol exhibit on at the National Gallery and his Campbell Soup Cans are mocked up all over the front entrance. (It seems quite appropriate that in Scotland the soup cans are Campbells rather than Heinz.)
We drove to Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon after a morning of errands in Perth and lunch at the Gloagburn Farm Restaurant, one of our favourite spots. It is in a lovely setting right at the farm on the back road to Perth in the hamlet of Tibbermore. We arrived at our friends' place at around 4 and after a cup of tea and a freshen-up, we all 4 went into town by bus.
Their first gig of the evening was at 6 and ours was at 7. Then we were going to be sitting together for the late performance at 10. We did a bit of shopping on Princes St. (Thanks to Don's having spotted a big Clark's Shoes right on Princes St., I found the dressy beige sandals I had been looking for--and they were on sale.) We walked up to The Mound where our venue was and had a drink on their outdoor terrace. It was fun to people-watch as we were near the entrance to Edinburgh Castle and at the top end of The Royal Mile. We had a delicious Thai meal at the Thai Orchid across the road from The Hub (our venue for the evening and so named because it is the Festival headquarters). We were just in time for our first concert.
The band was the Temperance 7 Jazz Dance Band who have been together for over 50 years now. They dress outlandishly and each player adopts a persona which they exhibit throughout the show. They are consummate musicians and clowns to boot! The photo isn't great because we couldn't use flash photography but if you notice the big man in white sitting rather stiffly on the right, he was the emcee who kept us in stitches when we weren't clapping and foot-stomping to the music. It was a thoroughly enjoyable concert of traditional jazz tunes.
Our next gig was at the same location but we had about an hour to kill before Brian and Patricia joined us. We wandered outside for a while and watched people being checked in to walk up the hill to the Castle for the Military Tattoo dress rehearsal. (If you click on the link, wait a few seconds and you'll get a short clip from a previous tattoo.)
The 10 o'clock show featured Moishe's Bagel, a quasi-Klezmer/Balkan band which has shot to the top in popu-larity since it first hit the scene a few years ago. We had seen a bit of their performance at one of the Celtic Connections concerts from Glasgow when highlights were aired on the telly a few months ago. We had wanted to see their act then but they were in a standing-only venue and we just didn't think we were "up" for that. This group were highly energetic, frenetic almost, and incredibly facile musicians. Each instrument was pushed to its limit. The musicians were superb and highly inventive. What a show! (I managed to get a better photo of three them (there are a total of 5) than of the Temperance Seven, partially because our seats were right in front of the bandstand. We could only have been closer if we'd been in the band! Don spent a few minutes talking with the drummer after the concert. Among the drums he played were 2 cajones which is the type of drum Don wants to get. He asked Guy Nicolson where he got his and the answer was "Barcelona, just off Las Ramblas." Hmmm. Is there a return trip to Spain in our future?
We and the Roses split a taxi ride back to their place in Balerno, a suburb a few miles southwest of Edinburgh. After a good night's sleep, we were ready and raring to go. Our first gig, which the 4 of us were going to together, was at 12 noon on Princes Street. There was plenty of time for Don and me to walk across the road and up just a few hundred yards to a National Trust property which had open gardens. The gardens were amazing. They weren't large or very extensive but they were charming and the most wonderful mix of colours and textures. We had a most enjoyable and leisurely stroll through.
We took the bus (all of have free bus passes on the Scottish government now that we're over 60) back to the city only the bus couldn't go up Princes St. as usual because there had been an overnight fire in a knitwear shop down near Calton Hill. Princes St. was closed to all but foot traffic while recovery efforts were under way. It was amazing to see people strolling up and down the middle of Princes St. as though it were a pedestrianized area. All was eerily quiet with the constant rush and roar of taxis, buses, and cars.
The afternoon concert was a traditional Dixieland group we have seen before, The Spirits of Rhythm. They do what Don calls "straight-ahead trad jazz" and do it beautifully. Their leader is a woman, Violet Milne, who plays piano and keeps the men in line. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, very satisfying.
After the gig Brian went to work and Patricia and we took the bus back to their place. We soon got on the road for home, arriving back here after a short grocery stop in Dunblane. We feel fortunate indeed to have such opportunities for exciting events and good friends to share it with. The fact that they offered us home hospitality made it all the more special.
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