New Focus Quartet

Konrad Wiszniewski and Euan Stevenson’s New Focus is one of the most appealing, most beautifully realised projects to emerge on the UK jazz scene in recent years.

Originally conceived as a fiftieth anniversary tribute to saxophone giant Stan Getz’s 1961 classic album, Focus, the group has developed a style all of its own, showcasing Scottish National Jazz Orchestra saxophone star Wiszniewski’s ravishing tone and inventive, soulfully communicative playing on tenor and soprano and Stevenson’s elegant, coolly considered pianism in compositions that ooze melodic richness and possess a flowing, cinematic quality.

The quartet is completed by a rhythm section of conspicuous assurance in former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year Andrew Robb on double bass and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s drums and percussion dynamo, Alyn Cosker, and with a recently released second album, On Song, carrying the spirit of its Scottish Album of the Year-shortlisted predecessor, New Focus is creating superbly accessible, hauntingly memorable jazz for the 21st century.