Director: Joe Temperley

The inaugural concert for the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra and a homecoming for one of Scotland’s most celebrated jazz musicians. In his 80th year, the saxophonist is busier than ever, as a member of New York’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and as a small group soloist and leader.

He left Lochgelly to go via Humphrey Lyttelton’s Band to New York where he replaced the renowned Harry Carney in Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. When Wynton Marsalis formed the band widely regarded as the best in the world, there was only one non-American in it – Joe Temperley. And for 20 years, Temperley has travelled the world, recorded and performed thousands of concerts in New York as an informal jazz ambassador for Scotland. Tonight, he’s back with a handpicked programme of Duke Ellington favourites and a specially assembled Big Band, packed with star soloists.

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