Award-winning vocalist Georgia Cécile plays a special Valentine’s Day concert at the world-famous Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London before coming north to appear at the Queen’s Hall with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on Friday 24 February.
Now based in London, the Glasgow-born Cécile won both the UK Jazz Act of the Year and Vocalist of the Year titles at the Jazz FM Awards last October. Her debut album, Only the Lover Sings was voted Album of the Year at the Scottish Jazz awards in 2021.
“I love performing at Ronnie’s because there’s so much history within the walls of the club,” says Cécile, who has also appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, where she opened four sold-out nights for American singing star Gregory Porter. “I can’t wait to be back on that famous stage but I’m also really looking forward to be back singing in the Queen’s Hall, another venue with a great jazz history.”
The Queen’s Hall is part of a four-date tour that will showcase a new project, This Is a Communion.
Described as “a thoughtful concept that presents original music as a shared experience and songwriting as a healing process,” This Is a Communion has been commissioned by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. It continues Cécile’s partnership with pianist and composer Euan Stevenson, who co-wrote and arranged Only the Lover Sings.
The idea behind the new work came after Cécile guested with the SNJO on their Christmas concert in Edinburgh in 2021.
“The audience loved her,” says SNJO founder-director, saxophonist Tommy Smith. “Georgia is a gifted singer for our times and rather than have her singing songs from the standard jazz repertoire, we thought it would be great to present her with new, specially written material.”
Euan Stevenson has been working on This Is a Communion since before Christmas. He has pronounced himself satisfied with the results and is now eager to hear how the orchestra bring his notes from the page.
For Smith, working with Cécile and Stevenson is another example of the current strength of jazz in Scotland.
“We’re really pleased to be working with them on this concert series,” Smith says. “Their creative partnership is based on the mutual sharing of thoughts, ideas, and feelings, all of which are the salient features of great orchestral jazz. I think, with all the ingredients involved, it will work well and will give audiences a really enjoyable experience.”
