The Glasgow Jazz Pictures

“In Paris in 2016 after work I fancied doing something different from going out for a bite at the local bistro. I had been listening to ‘Chet Plays Paris' so I decided a jazz club. I had never been to a jazz club, I wasn’t even an aficionado of jazz at the time.

So when I went downstairs to the  basement and the Sunset room it was everything I could have hoped for. Small dark and intimate, so when Henri Texier performed with his quartet I had an epiphany. Okay so Paris is a world centre, a city renowned for jazz, it couldn’t happen in Glasgow right? Wrong.

Tommy Smith established the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2009 since then former students have stayed in Glasgow forming bands writing music and performing.

Since 2016, Alan Donaldson has been photographing the vibrant and expanding jazz scene in Glasgow. Since jazz is a complex form requiring good technique but also the ability to improvise Alan mirrors this with his photographic technique. Using continuous lighting with flash, incorporating coloured gels and improvising with movement and a slow shutter speed, these live performances, captured in the studio and in the camera document the dazzling energy in full colour of the Jazz performers of this city.