Kevin Henderson and Matthew Kilner
Usher Hall 29/9/25
Matthew Kilner (tenor saxophone) Kevin Henderson (electric guitar)
Matthew Kilner and Kevin Henderson have been working together with Live Music Now Scotland for a year and each of them also plays in larger jazz ensembles. While the participants in the Emerging Artists Series often arrange their own music, today’s concert is unusual in featuring five compositions by the two instrumentalists.
The first four works have titles which are Scottish placenames. ‘Ebrie Lodge’ and ‘Pet Hotel’ are in Aberdeenshire where Kevin spent his holidays, both hotels run by his aunties, and places where he could find somewhere remote to play the guitar without disturbance. Their instruments sound wonderful in the Usher Hall, as the tentative quiet openings of these pieces broaden out to enable elaborate variations. In ‘Pet Hotel’, the initial plucked descending motif on the guitar is picked up gently and in unison by the saxophone’s lower notes before, as the tempo increases, they swap solos, the saxophonist exploring the higher and lower notes of the instrument.
It’s astonishing that most of these pieces seem be recent compositions as they say they’ve enjoyed hearing them played in public for the first time. Matthew Kilner’s ‘The South Bank of Loch Tay’ is very new, as it commemorates a day this August when with temperatures in the high 20s he and his partner decided that swimming in Loch Tay was preferable to climbing Munros! Kevin’s delicately amplified guitar reverberations and high plucked notes provide the shimmering heat as the back drop to Matthew’s atmospheric melody which captures the flavour of a traditional folk song or slow air on the fiddle. The music changes tack in its second section where Matthew conjures another singable tune, this time in the style of a Latin American ballad, paying tribute to one of duo’s favourite jazz styles. Both sections provide ample opportunity in their variations for virtuosity. but for me the key to Matthew’s success as a composer (a CD with seven of his compositions came out a few months ago) are these apparently effortless melodies, which sound like a tune you’ve always known with the words just on the tip of your tongue.
Kevin is from Moss End not far from Glasgow, and his ‘Moss End Melody’, he assures us, has the “vibe” of the place. The upward and downward slithery introduction introduces a cheeky saxophone part with a stop-start feel and hooted interventions. Matthew’s short piece ‘The Lighthouse’ ends the concert, a lovely jazzy number with simple accompaniment.
Both players show a relaxed style in their introductions, and speak with humour about the experiences which shaped their music. I don’t hear a great deal of jazz but found these pieces very accessible. This is the last of this series of four Emerging Artists concerts, and this year the musicians have sometimes used the 45 minutes in the Usher Hall to play longer pieces. Mostly this works well, as it did for me today. However I’d suggest that the inclusion of some shorter “crowd-pleasers” is always welcome as contrast to complex music!
The Emerging Artists Series is supported by Live Music Now Scotland, the Usher Hall and the Kimie Trust.
