Fergus McCreadie on the 10 things that changed his life

But I do have really nice memories of just sitting noodling at the piano before I started taking piano lessons properly. I think those would have been my first kind of improvisations.

A girl practicing piano (Image: Archive)

I got a keyboard in the end because it was driving the neighbour a bit mental with the practice that I was doing, and then we threw out that piano. Looking back, it’s kind of a shame because it would be a cool thing to still have.

2. Summer jazz school

I HAD about five years of piano lessons, and when I was doing graded exams, you’d have to play three pieces, and usually a jazzy piece was an option. That was always the piece that I seemed to gravitate to the most and play the best.

My piano teacher had a flyer for the Richard Michael Summer Jazz Course and he said I should go to see if I liked it. It was kind of a crazy thing to do because I was about 12, and it was all older teenagers and adults who could already play jazz and I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t even say I was any good at piano at that point. But I remember watching Richard Michael, who was kind of my first mentor and listening to him talk about jazz.

I was nervous beforehand, but I came out so happy because I felt like I’d found my unique thing. It was like a light bulb moment.

I went on to play in his Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra, which he still runs and just celebrated its 50th anniversary. He’s an absolutely amazing person.

I definitely wouldn’t be here as a jazz pianist if it were not for him.

3. Night train

AT the jazz course Richard said if we wanted to get better at any music, particularly jazz, we should listen to as much of it as possible.

My mum bought me a few different albums, and I had a real light bulb moment again with one called Night Train by Oscar Peterson.

I would go to bed every night, put my headphones in and just listen to it going to sleep and it would be the first thing that I listened to in the morning.

I was absolutely obsessed with that album, and it was very formative. Suddenly, I’d found a record that I absolutely fell in love with and it sort of crystallised that all I really wanted to do was to be able to play like that with a bassist and drummer and sound that good.

4. My first gig

I WAS actually quite young, and it was at Edinburgh Jazz Festival, in a studio at the Festival Theatre.

It was part of a triple bill, and it was a result of a mistake my mum made. She was keen for me to do a gig, although I didn’t think I was ready. I think she tried to email the Fringe Festival about busking, but accidentally emailed Edinburgh Jazz Festival. They got back and said I could do a gig.

I had been in the BBC’s Young Musician competition by that point so they were maybe ready to take a chance. It was me, this Italian piano player called Enrico Zanisi, and this really great Scottish piano player called Alan Benzie.

I remember thinking I didn’t play that well. I was really nervous because it was a big deal, but it then opened a lot of doors for me. I’ve played at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival every year since then, as well as at other various jazz festivals.

It was a really big first moment for me. I was sharing the bill with those great piano players, and I played solo as well which, for a jazz pianist, is the scariest thing to do. It was quite cool to get it out of the way immediately.

5. Moving to Glasgow

THAT was when I was 17. I’m from Dollar, which is a tiny town and there’s not loads going on.

This is quite a cheesy thing to recount, but I used to walk up this hill in Dollar every day because we had a dog, and that was kind of my chore.

From the hill, you could see all the city lights on the horizon and when I was listening to whatever album at that time, I used to dream of getting to be in those city lights, playing clubs, playing concerts and being a musician.

Getting to go to Glasgow when I was 17, starting to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and starting to play gigs was a really amazing experience. I went from playing in my bedroom with my headphones on to playing with people all the time. It completely changed how I thought about music and how I played.

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on Renfield Street in Glasgow (Image: NQ)

There was this weekly jazz session at a pub called The Butterfly and Pig, and on my second day at the Conservatoire, someone asked me to fill in for the jazz pianist who had just pulled out of the gig.

It was with a bass player called David Bowden and a drummer called Stephen Henderson, and that’s who I play with now.

It was strange because it felt like I had been waiting for so long, and then suddenly everything all just clicked into place that week.

6. Duke's Bar

THEY used to run a jazz jam session every Thursday night and it was a sort of epicentre for all that was going on. It was run by an amazing woman called Cheryl.

Everyone would be there, and it would go on way later than it was supposed to, and Cheryl was getting noise complaints and stuff like that.

You’d finish the gig, and there would be a lock-in afterwards when you would just hang, play music and talk.

It was a really amazing time. It’s such a shame that the jazz had to stop, I think in large part because of the noise complaints.

Those two years were a kind of golden era. Cheryl was amazing because she was very up for the music just being whatever it wanted to be. I played all types of gigs there, from straight-ahead jazz to playing really free improvised jazz. It was always buzzing, and I look back on that with really fond memories as it changed a lot for me, for sure.

7. The Peter Whittingham Jazz Award

THE auditions were all the way down in London and because I was a student and I was absolutely broke, I couldn’t pay for accommodation for my friends who came down to play with me.

They were a drummer called Graham Costello and a bass player called Mark Hendry. The three of us took the train down in the morning really early, went to the audition, which was a very scary experience, and then because I was broke, we got the night bus back to Glasgow.

Before the bus, we were just cutting about in London when one of the panel called and said I had won the award.

It was a very sweet moment, and I’m super grateful to Graham and Mark for doing that horrible journey to help me out, as it really changed my life.

I’d always wanted to make an album, and the award meant I was able to bring out my first album, Turas.

8. Ben Vorlich and Stuc A' Chroin

CLIMBING mountains is my big passion outside music, but it’s kind of bled into a lot of my music-making. I always had a bit of interest in doing it, but never had the catalyst to really do it a lot. Then I did Ben Lomond with my friend Dave and his now wife, Emma.

A view of Ben Lomond from Luss (Image: Archive)

It was rubbish weather all the way up to the top, and we couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t a very inspiring experience, but for some reason, me and Dave went back a few weeks later and did Ben Vorlich and Stùc a’ Chròin, and it was a proper blue-sky day where the clouds were below us in an inversion. That absolutely blew my mind.

Once you get up there, your mind’s clear, and that is super important for me because being a musician is such a crazy, hectic job. I do love it, but I need that space to let my mind empty.

That day was the start of a big obsession for me. I hope to do all the Munros, and so far I am on 159.

9. The Manchester Collective

I DID a tour with this classical music group called the Manchester Collective in 2024, and it was the first time that I’d done something that wasn’t straight-ahead jazz.

It was me and David and Stephen, my bassist and drummer, a string quartet, and we did a bunch of music that was a real crossover. We did a lot of playing that opened up my eyes to a whole new world.

It was an eye-opener in terms of trying to do new things musically and it’s something I want to explore a lot more.

10. Spike Lee

IN November 2024, I went over to New York and did some recording for the score of the new Spike Lee film, Highest 2 Lowest. The way it came about is that Spike saw something on Instagram that was using my music, so he decided he wanted to get in touch and figure out how it was going to be in his new film.

It still feels like a fever dream to say it now, but he phoned me, and I saw I’d had a call from a New York number and thought it must be spam. Then he sent me an email saying, “I’m Spike Lee, call me back” or something like that. Then he followed me on Instagram so I thought I should phone back, just in case it wasn’t a wind-up.

I couldn’t believe it when he answered the phone and said he wanted to use my music, which has been woven into the score. I was still in disbelief on the plane home – hanging out with Spike Lee was mental, and I didn’t quite get over it in the time I was there. It was really cool.

Fergus McCreadie will be joined by Su-a Lee and Donald Grant for the Opening Concert at this year’s East Neuk Festival (July 1-5).

www.eastneukfestival.com