Famous Fife chip shop becomes jazz venue for launch of new film

Rising star of the Scottish jazz scene, sax player Helena Kay and bass player Calum Gourlay turned Anstruther Fish Bar for their improvised musical reflections on the places, their sound and atmosphere. They also filmed at the town’s Dreel Hall, and Crail Airfield Cinasium, and all three performances were captured in a film which launches today (June 27) as part of the East Neuk Festival.

The performances were the culmination of Kay’s ENF Retreat residency during which she chose to try her hand at free improv, a new direction for her, under the mentorship of bass player, John Edwards.

The films are also part of the festival’s long standing practice of commissioning new work inspired by the history and landscape of the East Neuk.

On Saturday (July 1), it will stage the premiere of ‘A Door To The Past’ - a rare opportunity to explore a surviving building on Crail Airfield and the dramatic impact of World War II on the fishing village when it served as HMS Jackdaw, a base for training Royal Navy pilots to deploy torpedoes. Later, during the Cold War, it housed the Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL), a top secret Russian language school training code crackers and signal interceptors. At its busiest it accommodated around 2000 personnel. Now it is silent and mostly abandoned, though it remains one of the best preserved and complete airfields from its time.

The performances can be viewed online at www.eastneukfestival.com