Swing 2016, St Andrew Square Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

A Festival perennial since 1981, there's been a Swing xxxx, with varying lineups, for all those years.  The one constant factor is Edinburgh rhythm guitarist and singer John Russell.  For this year's incarnation he's joined by some of the best known jazz musicians in Scotland - Roy Percy on double bass, Martin McColl on lead guitar and Martin Foster on sax and clarinet.

There are a lot of forties and fifties standards, and the tunes, and gig, had a familiar feeling format.  The sax/clarinet introduces the melody, there are improvised solos from guitar, reeds and bass, with a couple of songs thrown in.  Most of the tunes are mid tempo, with a few faster or slower.

All of which makes this sound a bit bland.  Which it is, but much like a warm bath, what it lacks in excitement it compensates for with a feeling that's familiar and pleasant.  (With apologies to anyone who does get up to exciting things in the bath.)   And what fireworks there were came from the playing of Foster.  His long clarinet solos on a soaring klezmer piece were enthralling, and the big baritone sax delivers a wonderful down in the boots sound.  The gig ended ended with that sax providing an enchanting version of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

It might not have been especially memorable, but the Swing 2016 experience still manages to leave a warm feeling behind.