Calum Gourlay

Lore & Background

Calum Gourlay grew up in Glasgow, the son of a music teacher. He began learning cello at age ten and switched to double bass four years later. He attended Saturday morning workshops taught by his father, where he heard Scottish jazz musicians. Gourlay moved from Glasgow to Dunfermline and participated in the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra. He played in a youth band led by Tommy Smith until 2004, when he traveled to London to attend the Royal Academy of Music. At the academy, he met Trish Clowes, Kit Downes, and Freddie Gavita, who would become his bandmates. Gourlay has taught at the Royal Academy and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Reader's Guide

Calum Gourlay's significance lies in his dual role as a leader and sideman in contemporary jazz. As a leader, he released Live at the Ridgeway (2015) and New Ears Quartet (2019). As a sideman, he contributed to albums by Kit Downes, Tommy Smith and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Arild Andersen, Richard Rodney Bennett, Kurt Elling, Makoto Ozone, Colin Steele, and Anthony Strong. His work spans multiple ensembles and styles, reflecting his versatility on double bass. Gourlay's teaching positions at the Royal Academy and Trinity Laban further extend his influence on the next generation of jazz musicians.

Did You Know?

• Gourlay began learning cello at age ten and switched to double bass four years later.
• He met future bandmates Trish Clowes, Kit Downes, and Freddie Gavita at the Royal Academy of Music.
• He has taught at the Royal Academy and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
• Gourlay played in a youth band led by Tommy Smith until 2004.

Roots in Glasgow

Calum Gourlay's musical journey began in the household of a music teacher in Glasgow, a setting that placed him in close proximity to both classical training and the wider world of Scottish jazz. At ten years old he picked up the cello, and four years later he transitioned to the double bass, the instrument that would define his professional identity. A formative influence came through the Saturday-morning workshops his father conducted, where young Calum absorbed the sound of Scottish jazz musicians performing in an intimate, educational setting. After relocating from Glasgow to Dunfermline, he immersed himself in the regional youth jazz scene, taking part in both the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra. He also played in a youth band under the direction of Tommy Smith, a Scottish jazz figure whose mentorship would prove significant. These early experiences—classical discipline, jazz exposure, and the camaraderie of ensemble playing—laid the groundwork for a career that would eventually span the United Kingdom and beyond.

The New Ears Quartet and London

In 2004, Gourlay left Scotland for London to study at the Royal Academy of Music, a move that proved transformative both educationally and personally. It was at the Academy that he encountered three musicians who would become his closest collaborators: Trish Clowes, Kit Downes, and Freddie Gavita. Together they formed the New Ears Quartet, a group that became the primary vehicle for Gourlay's work as a composer and bandleader. Their recorded output includes the live album Live at the Ridgeway, released in 2015, and the studio record New Ears Quartet on the Ubuntu Music label in 2019. The quartet's work reflects the classically informed, collectively improvised sensibility that Gourlay cultivated during his student years at the Academy. The group's recordings stand as a testament to the kind of creative chemistry that can emerge when like-minded musicians converge in an academic setting and choose to build a shared musical language beyond the classroom.

Sideman Collaborations

Beyond his own quartet, Gourlay has built a substantial body of work as a sideman, lending his bass to a diverse range of projects across the jazz and classical worlds. His most sustained partnership is with Kit Downes, for whom he contributed to three albums on the Basho label: Golden (2009), Quiet Tiger (2011), and Light from Old Stars (2013). He also played with Tommy Smith and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on three Spartacus releases spanning 2013 to 2018, including a suite based on Kenny Wheeler's music. His credits extend to Arild Andersen's Celebration on ECM (2012), Kurt Elling's Passion World on Concord Jazz (2015), and Makoto Ozone's Jeunehomme: Piano Concerto No. 9 (2017). He has also recorded with Richard Rodney Bennett for the BBC, Anthony Strong on Naive, and Colin Steele on Marina. This breadth of collaboration speaks to a bassist equally at home in intimate chamber settings and large-ensemble contexts, moving fluidly between composed and improvised material.

Teaching and the Next Generation

Gourlay's commitment to music extends well beyond performance. He has taken on teaching roles at the Royal Academy of Music, where he originally studied, and at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. This dual appointment allows him to shape the next generation of jazz musicians across two distinct pedagogical environments. The connection between his teaching and his own origins is particularly resonant: his father was a music teacher, and those Saturday-morning workshops in Glasgow were where young Calum first encountered Scottish jazz musicians. In passing on his knowledge to students at the Academy and at Trinity Laban, Gourlay continues a lineage of mentorship that began in his own household. His earlier involvement in the Scottish youth jazz scene—through the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra, the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra, and Tommy Smith's youth band—further underscores a career that has always valued the transmission of musical knowledge as much as its expression on stage.