Recording of the Week, Fergus McCreadie - Cairn

Some of the most personal music can come from one’s reflection on their past and their origins, and it’s from the tradition and geography of his native Scotland that pianist, composer and bandleader Fergus McCreadie draws inspiration for his sophomore studio album, Cairn. After being awarded ‘Best Instrumentalist’ at the 2020 Scottish Jazz Awards at only twenty years old, the young pianist seems keen to further establish himself as a compositional force to be reckoned with. His second release comes shortly after signing with Edition Records, and as the title suggests the pieces pull heavily from his Scottish background, inspired by the beautiful landscapes and folk traditions of the composer’s home country - similar ideas were explored on his 2018 debut Turas, and were met with great praise, and Cairn delves further into this ancestral theme. One only has to look at track titles like ‘The Stones of Brodgar’, which takes its name from a neolithic stone circle found in the Orkney Islands, or the less specific but still evocative ‘Across Flatlands’ and ‘Cliffside’ referencing the awesome countryside, to understand where McCreadie’s inspirations lie.

The title itself, Cairn, has its origins in the Scots Gaelic word ‘càrn’, a man-made pile of stones historically serving many functions, but nowadays often connoting the image of neolithic historical sites. Even the record packaging - as pictured below - includes photographs of these ancient moss-engraved stones. Rather fittingly, McCreadie’s style is less engaged in the modern, metropolitan air of traditional jazz - though there is an obvious appreciation for the American sound - rather the more cinematic tones of classical-crossover jazz and the traditional folk music of Scotland. McCreadie has described the sound of the trio as ”the approach is jazz, but the music is folk”, and while Cairn as a whole may evoke imagery of the wide and vast Scottish highlands, tunes like ‘Jig’ and ‘Across Flatlands’ could just as well have been re-interpretations of folk songs from hundreds of years ago, equally danceable and melodic. Combining the fluidity of jazz with the raw angle of folk music is not exactly unheard of, but through McCreadie’s lens the sound makes for some great narratively-driven pieces.The tune ‘Tide’, for instance, feels heavily based around the ebb and flow of the trio’s dynamics, the washy drums crashing and retreating as the piece goes on.

One doesn’t necessarily have to think of Cairn as a purely cinematic work, however, as there’s plenty to be enjoyed in McCreadie and co.’s synergy - McCreadie proves why he’s all too deserving of his ‘Best Instrumentalist’ accolade, while sticking with the same rhythm section from Turas (both bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson return for his second studio outing). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. As previously mentioned, the dynamism of the trio makes each atmospheric tone piece, each jazzy shuffle, each jig-inspired crescendo brilliantly executed. ‘An Old Friend’ in the latter half of the record also makes for an intimate pace-breaker, primarily a piano ballad with Henderson taking things down a notch with light cymbals and brushes and Bowden taking a short solo during the middle section, before the trio crescendos into a celebratory racket. Indeed, many of the tunes here have this cinematic rise to a glorious payoff, a massive amount of power coming from just the three players. The opening track ‘North’, too, begins with this contemplative solo piano motif, McCreadie progressively opening up as his bandmates make their cautious entrances, ultimately coming together for the more uproarious title track.

As expected from an album with such diverse influences and personal inspiration, Cairn makes for a continually engaging record even on repeated listens. Many listeners will no doubt appreciate the variety in the tunes, with the incorporation of folk influences filtered through the jazz sound without sounding like a tacked-on novelty, feeling comfortably part of the music. In a genre that often looks to the past as much as to the future, Cairn’s traditional sounds prove it doesn’t hurt to look a little further back.