Brian Molley: ‘Tùs/Origin’

Controversially, the new album from Scottish sax player Brian Molley posits the premise that jazz was born in Scotland. Regardless of your conviction, you can just enjoy this fine music.

I suspect that Molley’s suggestion is somewhat tongue in cheek, but Tùs/Origin explores three elements in Gaelic psalm singing that are also found in jazz - church music, call and response, and improvisation. Travellers took these elements to the New World and there’s no doubt that jazz incorporates influences from around the world.

Tùs/Origin comes from a fine quartet. Alongside Molley himself, there’s his long-time collaborator Tom Gibbs (piano), joined by David Bowden (bass) and Stephen Henderson (drums), who you may have heard with both pianist Fergus McCreadie's trio and Modern Vikings.

The opening, brief track takes Gibbs’s piano alone before Molley’s solo sax is accompanied by backing of more saxes. Ode to Frederick Douglass, Parts One and Two is a beautiful start to the album and when it is reprised later, it brings more depth and perhaps sheds light on the links between Scotland, jazz and America.

Not solely intent on exploring jazz, the quartet takes on classical music, bringing Molley’s dextrous and sonorous soprano sax to rise above the piano intro on Dance of the Waves. Once returned to the tenor and a more familiar jazz quartet format, the tune barrels along nicely before returning to the soprano, which closes this gorgeous track.

Bowden’s bass sets the groove for the final track of Tùs/Origin: Storm, Whirlwind and Earthquake, which leaves us in doubt that Scotland owns jazz, even if its claims to have given birth to the genre are not entirely proven. What a gorgeous, lyrical end to this stunning album.

The Brian Molley Quartet releases Tùs/Origin on 20 March 2026.