“I was astounded, as you can see from my reaction,” says double bassist Ewan Hastie of his BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022 win in November.
“It didn’t seem real. Especially when my name was announced Ewan ‘Haz-tey’, it took me a few seconds to realise, ‘oh, actually, that’s me!’”
Born in Edinburgh and raised in Kirkcaldy, 20-year-old Hastie is in his final year of a Bachelor of Music (BMus) course in Jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
A Jazzy Christmas
Live listeners on home territory will get their first chance to enjoy his playing since the win this week, when he appears at the A Jazzy Christmas event as part of Dunfermline Winter Festival.
“It was such a great experience being able to meet all the other amazing finalists, who were such lovely musicians and lovely people,” says Hastie.
“I think the judges liked the way I presented myself and the confidence that came across in my playing. The music in my set was varied, which I think helped.”
Held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre on Sunday November 20, and broadcast on BBC Four, Hastie’s mandatory 14-minute set as one of five finalists featured his own compilation Impulse and tunes by Chick Corea and Oscar Pettiford.
Like all the finalists, he was backed on the day by acclaimed jazz pianist Nikki Yeoh and her group Infinitum.
Hastie’s earliest musical inspiration was his father Alan, a fan of music, including jazz, who plays drums and sings with the Fife-based Police tribute band the Polis.
“I listened to jazz music from a young age, which inspired me,” says Hastie. His older brother was also a drummer, but when he was 10 years old Hastie asked for an electric bass for Christmas.
‘I was always drawn to the bass’
“From watching YouTube and stuff on the telly, I was always drawn to the bass,” he says. “There was something about it, I wanted to see what it was.
“For the first year of playing I was self-taught, doing everything by ear, then when I was 12, I got a bass teacher.”
A pupil at Balwearie High School, Hastie joined Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra (FYJO), where he met the musician and tutor Richard Michael, an early influence.
“I started off with a bass guitar, then when I was around 14 I was at a Thursday evening rehearsal with FYJO at Lochgelly Centre,” he says.
“There was a basement where they had spare instruments that weren’t being used, and I decided to have a wee look and see what was all there. I stumbled across a big double bass, and was instantly drawn towards it and decided to give it a go.
Playing ‘upside down’
“The only problem was, it was right-handed and I’m left-handed, but that didn’t stop me. For a few weeks, I was playing this bass right-handed, essentially upside down.”
At a workshop organised by Richard Michael, he was introduced to renowned bassist Andy Hamill.
“I told him about the right-handed double bass and he told me to change the strings and switch the bridge round. That’s exactly what I did, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Now I have a specially-made left-handed bass.”
Hastie attended the Junior Conservatoire in Glasgow during his teens, going through every Saturday for two years.
“I met everyone, all the tutors and some other guys around my age, all musicians who love jazz as well,” he says. “So it made sense to continue my studies on the full time BMus course at the RCS.”
The jazz scene in Glasgow has been good for his development, allowing him to play alongside people who play electronic, hip hop, R&B and Latin music.
A new generation
He’s part of a new generation of acclaimed jazz players in the city, including recent Scottish Album of the Year Award-winner Fergus McCreadie, Matthew Carmichael (Hastie’s flatmate) and Stephen Henderson.
It was McCreadie’s previous shortlisting for the BBC award which convinced Hastie to go for it, first with a video entry and then a live selection heat with his own band in Cardiff, where one of his strings snapped and his progress was nearly halted.
“It exploded mid-performance, but I still carried on playing,” he remembers. “I think the judges were astounded I continued to play after that happened. It was memorable for them and for me, and I think they liked that.”
Ewan Hastie plays Dunfermline Winter Festival’s A Jazzy Christmas at Fire Station Creative, Dunfermline, on Wednesday December 14. The festival itself runs at various venues until Wednesday December 21.
See www.facebook.com/dunfwinfest for details.
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