John Rae (born 8 June 1966) is a jazz drummer, composer, and band leader.
Early life and career
John Rae was born in Edinburgh on 8 June 1966 to Scottish parents Margaret and Ronnie Rae. Rae was brought up in the Sighthill area of the city before moving to Livingston as a teenager. He attended St. Kentigern's Academy, Blackburn in West Lothian. John and his other five siblings were encouraged by their father and mother, both jazz musicians and educators, to pursue a career in music from an early age. When he was fourteen he attended a weekly jazz workshop under the drumming tutelage of Bill Kyle and Mike Travis. There he met saxophonist Tommy Smith. Under Smith, they won the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival Best Group award in 1981 and a year later Rae won Best Group under his own name. Rae was soon performing around Edinburgh and Scotland in a quartet with Tommy Smith. In 1982 he recorded for the first time on Smith's debut recording Giant Strides[1] in a trio format featuring Rae, Smith and bassist Alan Taylor. Rae then went on to tour and perform around Europe with a group under the musical direction of Johnny Keating and spent the next three years living and playing around the world in a variety of musical settings that included Soviet and American cruise liners, before moving to New York in 1984.
On his return to Scotland, Rae began the seminal Scottish jazz group The John Rae Collective.[2] As its leader, the ensemble went on to contest Smith's dominance of the Scottish jazz world in the late 1980s and the sextet was a key breeding ground for musicians who subsequently came to prominence in their own right, including pianist Brian Kellock, saxophonist Phil Bancroft, trumpeter Colin Steele, bassist Kenny Ellis and guitarist Kevin Mackenzie, all of whom are active in multiple projects both as leaders and sidemen. Another of Rae's early ventures alongside Dundee musician and composer Kevin Murray, was the Giant Stepping Stanes, who broke new ground in combining elements of modern jazz with Scottish folk music, an area of cross-fertilization that has since expanded steadily and fruitfully, not least through the early work of Rae.
Leaving Scotland again, Rae spent the next five years living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. There, along with Venezuela musician Julio Pacheco he formed the group Sex and Violence that included musicians from the US, Cuba, Sweden, Gran Canaria, Scotland and Venezuela and recorded the album Ten Wasted Years. Returning once more to his native Scotland, Rae formed Celtic Feet in 1998, a group that incorporated Scotland's jazz and traditional musicians around original compositions by Rae. Again with Brian Kellock and Phil Bancroft along with Eilidh Shaw fiddle, Mario Lima Caribe bass and Simon Thoumire concertina, the ensemble recorded two critically acclaimed albums for the Scottish label Caber Music and performed at festivals throughout Europe. Other notable works by Rae at this time included Big Feet & the Islay Pipe Band.
John Rae with Bea Palya, Dongó Szokolay and Martin Lubenov
During this time Rae was also collaborating with European musicians in the groups 'Magic Feet' with Hungarian violinist Robert Farkas, and the Balkan all star group 'Miraculous Meetings' alongside Bea Palya, Dongó Szokolay and Martin Lubenovas as well as touring and recording with the award-winning Brian Kellock Trio and Colin Steele Quintet.[3]
Rae reunited with Tommy Smith as the drummer for the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra[4] from 2000 to 2003, recording Miles Ahead featuring Canadian trumpet player Ingrid Jensen and was awarded a Herald Angel Award at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He was the music director and composer for the modern dance piece by the national centre for dance in Scotland, Dance Base, entitled 'Off Kilter'.
In 2008 Rae moved country again. This time to New Zealand and in 2010 was the first ever jazz Composer-in-Residence at Victoria University, New Zealand.[5].[6] Now a New Zealand citizen, Rae is the leader and composer for the New Zealand jazz group The Troubles.[7]
