Artist of the month: Colin Steele
Biography
Stramash
Colin Steele’s 'Stramash' is one of three tours taking place in April on the Tune Up bill, a Scottish Arts Council initiative to tour music across Scotland.
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Trumpeter Colin Steele has been playing music professionally since 1987. He completed three tours with Hue and Cry, appearing on TV shows such as Top of the Pops and Wogan, before deciding pop music was not for him. After two years in France, Colin studied jazz at the Guildhall School of Music, visiting Scotland every so often to work with The John Rae Collective. In 1996 he returned to Edinburgh, after four years of travel in Europe. |
Steele’s contribution to music has extended through many idioms, from traditional jazz to funk to Latin to dance music. For two and a half years he ran the successful Midnight Blue live music club at Edinburgh’s Café Graffiti. He collaborated with singer Cathie Rae on a tribute to Chet Baker and his most recent projects include Melting Pot, a six-piece jazz funk band and Mas Que Nada, a six-eight piece latin jazz band. His discography includes a growing output of solo and collaborative works.
Stramash is a new band born out of Colin Steele's realisation that the music he was composing for conventional jazz line-ups needed a new way to acknowledge its source of inspiration: traditional Scottish folk music. Previously, he had been composing jazz music which drew from folk melodies and sounds. Now the instruments themselves - three fiddles, bagpipes, whistles, and a cello - are added, bringing the process of inspiration and creation full-circle.
| The Stramash line-up consists of Colin Steele (trumpet), Phil Bancroft (sax), David Milliagan (piano), Aidan O’Donnell (bass), Stu Ritchie (drums), Aidan O’Rourke, Charlie McKerron and Chris Stout (fiddles), Su-a Lee (cello) and Rory Campbell (bagpipes and whistle). The programme will be toured to six different venues across Scotland: |
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Stramash is touring:
The tour is produced by Assembly Direct.
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For more information visit Colin Steele's website.
For more information on Tune Up, visit the Tune Up website. | |