One Day

It's titled One Day because it took just that for the remarkable fiddle player Jenna Reid to record this exquisite set. Joined on piano by her longstanding musical companion Harris Playfair – who also comes from the little village of Quarff in Shetland – she demonstrates her fresh, varied and emotional style on an album dominated by her own compositions. She may be best known for her super-slick rapid-fire treatment of jigs and reels in Blazin’ Fiddles, those rousing Scottish favourites who have been together for 25 years, and also for her playing in the ‘chamber-folk’ quartet RANT and her appearances on The Transatlantic Sessions, but she has now recorded six solo albums of her own. This latest selection includes a Norwegian fiddle piece, her arrangement of a traditional Shetland tune, and two charming compositions by Playfair (one of them a piano solo). Then there are Reid's own compositions, which range from the thoughtful to the upbeat, with Playfair sometimes adding minimal backing but occasionally branching out into unexpected jazz flurries, with Reid joining in. The finest track is the final ‘Findhorn Bay’, an emotional and atmospheric piece on which the duo are joined by a six-piece string section.