Moishe's Bagel, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

A five piece band on fiddle, piano, accordion, bass and percussion, playing a mish mash of musical styles.  There's flavours of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, influences from Russia and North Africa, high quality jazz solos and even a bit of a Geordie folk tune.  The results of this mixture are heart stoppingly astonishing.

Quite unlike anything I've seen before, this is a band playing with awareness, intricacy, collaboration, imagination, fascination and passion.  Melody and tempo are constantly changing throughout numbers, each piece a new mood, a new story.  The musicianship is as good as you'll see, and it always feels like they are prepared to take risks to procure the end result.  The fiddler is flamboyant, full of fervour and feeling, there was a stunning passage of jazz piano and an amazing bass solo.  But my eyes were constantly drawn back to the percussionist, who added so much to the complexity of the overall sound.

Although their styles differ greatly, the density of the arrangements and readiness to head off in different directions frequently reminded me of the mighty Lau - and from me there is no higher praise.  Moishe's Bagel have a new fan.  Here's a bit of what they deliver.

Rose Room, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

A gypsy swing band based on the oft-imitated model of the Hot Club de France.  A solid guitar and bass rhythm section, a top class lead guitarist and occasional vocals, and wonderful Seonaid Aitken on fiddle and lead vocal.  Seonaid is an incredibly talented musician performing across classical, folk and jazz genres, and this was the first time I'd had the chance to see her leading her own band.

Mixing thirties standards with their own compositions the band delivers a top quality exposition on the art of gypsy jazz.  The instrumental solos are luminously imaginative and often of dizzying speed, whilst the interplay between the two lead instruments was at times delightful.  My favourite moment featured a pizzicato exchange between fiddle and guitar in which it became increasingly difficult to determine where one ended and the other began.

On top of this Aitken sings with a voice of surprising purity, a wide range matched by perfect articulation (even, it seemed, in French).

If you have any love at all for the music of the great Grappelli and Reinhardt then Rose Room will not disappoint.  Here's a bit of what they can do.  Sublime.

Footnote to festival organisers.  Put the start and finish times for ALL gigs into the programme.  If your customers want to pack a few gigs inTO an evening they need this information to avoid becoming double booked....

King Louis and the Primas, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

A tribute band of sorts?  The blurb said this was an act dedicated to the music of Louis Prima, but that wasn't really the case.  No trumpeter for a start!  Nevertheless this is a band showcasing the mainstream jazz of the era when Prima was in his prime, the nineteen forties and fifties, and as such offers predictable and kinda comforting fare.

So we got jazz standards like Fever and That Ol' Black Magic, songs that are both old fashioned and perennial.  Musically the band is highly competent, if largely uninspired.  But there were some decent solos, especially from piano and harmonica (played by the wonderful Fraser Spiers, a man we've seen before playing with the late and incomparably great Tam White).  The three front men, who played sax, trombone and that harmonica, took turns to deliver lead vocals.  It was a shame that the singer who took on the role most frequently was also the poorest of the three voices.

But enough carping.  This was more for fun than serious music, and that's what we got.  The band got the audience involved in the singing and clapping along and the tunes were infectiously foot tapping.  An enjoyable hour that did what it said on the tin.

Orkestra del Sol, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

A nine piece Edinburgh band with a wide range of musical influences and a strong emphasis on everyone having a good time.  The Festival programme says they mix 'ska, porro, calypso, klezmer and funk'. And maybe they do, but as I had to look up a couple of those I'm not the person to say yay or nay.  However I did spot a bit of classical influence in there, some real old Dixieland jazz and a bit of swing.  In other words, OdS have developed a distinctively OdS style.

What they've also developed is truly great live act.  In an eclectic mix of black and red costumes they make use of the entire stage with choreographed movement and sequences of physical comedy.  Ever seen a man pull an iced biscuit from his sousaphone and have a swift snack?

The music is joyous, raucous, infectious and frequently unpredictable.  A mixture of brass, reed, accordion, fiddle and percussion, everyone is given their chance to deliver solos and demonstrate their talents, a fine bit of trad jazz trumpet being one highlight, and some amazing sounds from the aforementioned sousaphone shone out.  The fiddler doubles as lead vocalist on the few songs, as well as becoming lead clown and master of ceremonies.

Led on by the onstage antics, the crowd were encouraged to sing and dance and just generally have the best time they possibly could.  If there was the odd moment when the standard of the music slipped a bit this could be easily forgiven for the sheer joy and fun and energy the performance punched out.  It often reminded me of a de-folkified Bellowhead, but with a far greater sense of theatricality.

If you want a music experience that leaves you feeling just a little bit more alive then Orkestra del Sol is as fine a choice as you could find.

Stefan Grossman, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Considering the high quality of the music on offer, and the amusing content of the tales which accompanied it, this was a curiously flat occasion, lacking any real passion or excitement.

Grossman has a sky high reputation as one of the world's great blues guitarists, as well as being an accomplished music teacher.  From the off he acknowledged the portion of his audience who were to study his technique and see what they could learn for their own playing - and that most of these would be men in their sixties and seventies!  He then proceeded to, affectionately, take the piss out of them for the remainder of the gig.

He talks to the audience a lot, even over his own playing at times, in a quiet, calm, chatty style that draws you in.  Stories from his own musical past, illustrations of the varying guitar styles he was exposed to in early life, and frequent explanations of what he was doing and why.  The latter mostly aimed at the nerds of course, but put across in simple enough terms that even a musical ignoramus like me could follow most of it.

It was impossible not to be impressed with the technical ability of Grossman's playing.  To get bass, rhythm and melody simultaneously from just those six strings, and to make it look so easy, is a mark of musical genius.  And although his singing voice lacks range, he delivers lyrics in a conversational style that is very distinctive.  But the music was just a bit too one-tempo throughout, apart from an excellent sixties medley as the final number, and for the ordinary punter it could sometimes get a bit dull.  I saw a few yawns around the room.  Grossman is more of a musician's musician than an entertainer.

One for the afficianados.

Mike Whellans, Tron Kirk, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

I wonder what it's like to realise that you have vastly superior physical coordination skills to those of other human beings?  That's not something I'll ever know, but I'm guessing it must have dawned on Mike Whellans at some time or other.  The phrase 'one man band' paints pictures of clown-like characters with cymbals strapped to their knees and a cacophony of sound.  But this man is the real thing, delivering a great sound and an incredible visual experience.  Even several hours after the event I still find it hard to believe what I saw.

The right foot hammering out a rhythm on bass drum, the left working a hi-hat, hands on the guitar, mouth blowing harmonica and belting out vocals.  Whellans is truly, as the publicity blurb says, a one man blues band of startling quality.  His voice might not be especially distinctive, but it has enough grit in it to be an effective blues vehicle.  While his harmonica playing is top notch and full of imagination.

Mike plays drums with dance bands and produced a magnificent tribute to some of his favourite jazz drummers.  With only a harmonica, a microphone and some unbelievable vocal dexterity.  Quite where he managed to breath during this number was hard to spot.

The music is linked by the skills of a natural raconteur and the audience were given plenty of laughs to enjoy.  For a couple of numbers Whellans was joined on stage by an old friend playing electric mandolin and he added some fine solos on top of the complexity being laid down by the man of many parts, as well as leading the audience in providing some backing vocals.

It would be easy to have listened to, and watched, Whellans for at least twice as long as the hour we got.  Genial, admirable and superbly accomplished, if you get the chance to see him do grab it.  And get close up to the stage, just to be able to watch the technique and energy of the man at work.  He's 71 now, but looks to have many, many years of performing still ahead of him.

We emerged from the Kirk with one thought in our heads.

Wow.  Just wow.

Here's a sample of what he can do.

Bandakadabra, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Zany is an adjective that seems to have fallen into disuse, but is also the best word to describe the band we went to see today.  Bandakadabra are an eight piece outfit from Turin playing swing type jazz.  Trumpet, alto sax, trombone, tuba and two tenor sax, plus a couple of percussionists with snare and bass drums, and cymbals.

Unusually, they line up the drummers up centre front and the others in a semi circle behind them.  Perhaps because they are both highly entertaining to watch, and that the wee man with the big drum does most of the talking.

Entertaining is the key here, and these guys are as much showmen and comedians as they are musicians.  From the first moments they build up a strong rapport with the crowd had a packed Spiegeltent with them throughout.  Facial expressions, body language, mime, play acting, a broad range of physical comedy techniques are deployed both between and during numbers.  And their posing for photographs routine, which drags in audience members, is hilarious.  Towards the end they have us singing, and up on our feet dancing (even me....).  Fun is the key to a Bandakadabra gig.

Whilst the musicianship is of a very good standard, the mix of material majors on the upbeat, and there were some excellent solos, I left without buying the proffered CD.  For all that the playing is tight and the interplay effective, the arrangements aren't sufficiently memorable or musically imaginative to make me feel that this was something I'd want to play again and again.

But as a live act?  Unmissable.