What Is This Thing Called Love? - Seonaid Aitken and the Scottish Session Orchestra

What Is This Thing Called Love?

Seonaid Aitken and the Scottish Session Orchestra

Two-time Scottish Jazz Award-winning vocalist (Best Vocalist 2017 & 2018), virtuoso violinist, orchestral arranger and BBC broadcaster Seonaid Aitken launches her debut solo jazz album ‘What Is This Thing Called Love?’ with the Scottish Session Orchestra. The Jazz world meets the Classical world as this hand-picked ensemble made up of the top orchestral players from Scottish orchestras - including many leaders and section principals from RSNO, BBC SSO, SCO - join together to play Seonaid’s cinematic orchestrations of Great American Songbook favourites, Jazz standards, Scottish songs and popular classics. 

Well known on the Scottish Jazz scene with her award-winning band Rose Room (Best Band 2018 at the Scottish Jazz Awards), Seonaid has also sung and played with jazz greats Martin Taylor MBE and the Tim Kliphuis Sextet as well as being a regular with the orchestra of Scottish Opera for 18 years. As an arranger she has been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC/Richard Curtis’s film ‘Esio Trot’ and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers among others.

Seonaid has been inspired by this unique collaboration with Scotland’s finest musicians - a 26-piece string orchestra including harp - and her styles of orchestration will include flavours of the 1930s Golden Era, MGM musicals, Cinematic soundtracks, Broadway pizzazz, Argentine Tango and a novel piece in pizzicato! Songs will include: ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’, ‘Misty’, ‘The Man I Love’, ‘Ae Fond Kiss’, ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’, Songbird’ and ‘What Is This Thing Called Love?’.

Seonaid’s special guest for this evening will be Young Scottish Jazz Musician 2018 guitarist Joe Williamson.