Luminescence by Tommy Smith

Recorded Live - St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh 17th August 2023

The Scotsman described Luminescence in 2023 as “one of the most spectacular experiences of the Fringe,” Luminescence developed in front of the audience as Maria Rud responded to Smith’s solo saxophone improvisations, projecting her painted images onto the magnificent stained-glass window on the East Wall inside St Giles' Cathedral. This is the audio from that first meeting on 17 August 2023.

Smith's own reflections:

"Luminescence is a quartet featuring a solo tenor saxophone, the natural reverberation of St. Giles' Cathedral, an engaged audience, and live painting by Maria Rud.

It is a daring collaboration that offers a unique performance experience. We have performed six times in the 900-year-old St. Giles' Cathedral in the heart of Edinburgh, and every time is like the first kiss.

Our performances are not bound by rehearsals, set pieces, or direction. We thrive on improvisation in its truest sense, staying in the zone and not controlling it, feeding off each other's ideas and thematically developing them for 60 minutes.

This approach to complete creative interplay can be terrifying and filled with pressure and adrenaline, which you must thrive on. We are prepared to go in any direction. We have to trust each other implicitly. The audience is ready to follow our journey; the secret is to get out of your mental way and allow the ideas to flow. In a way, we are observers, too, watching and listening to the evolution of sounds and brush strokes.

The key is to develop the ideas that blossom out of the air, leaving space and light within the Cathedral's darkness. If you truly love improvisation, you must love the challenge of the moment—no distractions and absorbed in the storytelling process. We improvise, feeling that the outcome doesn't matter, fully believing in ourselves to create freely with decisiveness, commitment, and clarity.

For me, time goes by quickly, and before you know it, the applause echoes long before I feel the clock hit the hour mark. It's amazing what creative ideas appear if you focus and do not think of the path ahead; stay in the now and react.

I can't wait to do it again."

Born in 1967, Edinburgh. In 1983 Chick Corea recommended Tommy Smith to Gary Burton; he joined his group. Recording over 30 solo albums for Blue Note, Linn, ECM, Spartacus Records, touring 50+ countries, performing with Arild Andersen, Edwin Morgan, John Scofield, Jaco Pastorius, Trilok Gurtu, Dizzy Gillespie. In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for services to jazz from HRH Queen Elizabeth II.

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