In 1985 the Fife village of Freuchie played in and won the final of the national village cricket championship at Lords.  Many years before I had slept (I think at Hogmanay) in their pavilion, which at that time was being used by the family of a schoolfriend of mine as a holiday home.

Perhaps the club bolstered their finances by renting the place out in the off season.  I never knew the details of the arrangement and I never stayed there again.  Since Freuchie bestrides a main road I've passed through many times but I don't believe I had tarried until Sunday past when I attended a Fife Jazz Festival gig there.

The festival has produced a great weekend of jazz these past few years that I've been going.  They have always put together an attractive programme of excellent musicians from both home and abroad.  What did I see this year?

From the home of jazz a blues band featuring the son of the legendary Muddy Waters, a quartet headed by a tall saxophonist and a short trumpeter and in Freuchie a charming pianist and singer from Oklahoma in company with a wizard on sax and clarinet plus an interloper from Australia on guitar. 

From the frozen north an accomplished big band set the feet tapping with an evening of Mingus compositions and a lively lady gave it laldy on a number of sparky electric guitars.

From much closer to home The Inverkeithing Community Big Band filled the ballroom of the Bay Hotel in Kinghorn on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with the swinging sounds of Porter, Gershwin and the like.  They were led by one of the organisers of the World Saxophone Congress that took place in St Andrews in July and two more of the WSC executive committee played as guest artists so they didn't lack for a professional helping hand instrumentally.  One of the tenor players did some singing but the vocal star was a glamorous lady of a certain age from Kirkcaldy.  Where was she when I lived there? 

It was not only the jazz festival that lit up my week musically.  The SCO gave a great concert with James Macmillan's Oboe Concerto sandwiched between Stravinsky and Mendelssohn.  Modern classical music is not everyone's cup of tea and it's not always mine but this energetic piece has a sparkle and a liveliness to delight the ear of the least receptive.