Unusual Suspects
- Genre
- Celtic | Dance
- Country
- Scotland
biography
The Unusual Suspects, created in 2003, is a folk big band drawing on many of the top players on the Scottish folk and jazz scene, and appeared at Celtic Connections, Glasgow in January 2005 in a 30-strong International version with guests from Canada and Denmark augmenting the ranks. In 2005 they showcased at WOMEX, in Gateshead, to rapturous applause and a standing ovation.
"Corrina Hewat and I had been talking about doing this for maybe the last ten years or so," as pianist David Milligan explains. "As you know, we met while we were studying on the jazz course at Leeds, and big band concept was part of what we were working on at that time. We both had the idea of trying to introduce the same format into the folk or traditional side of things, but we never had the opportunity until Colin Hynd took it on for the 10th anniversary of Celtic Connections - as you can understand, it`s not the kind of thing where you just get a few people together and thrash it out."
"The Unusual Suspects name came from the fact that we wanted to put these musicians together on a very different scale to the usual folk band, and that is also why it ended up so big," David explained. "You can`t really realise the idea on a smaller scale. Ultimately it could even be three or four times that number, but I don`t think anyone is ever going to take that on!"
"The idea was always that it would be a folk-oriented affair, and Corrina was maybe more the driving force behind that, but the way we both like to hear things and to arrange things demanded the inclusion of the horn section. We both wanted that sound as part of the whole thing, and it was always going to happen that way".
forthcoming dates
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