Fergus McCreadie

Fergus McCreadie (born 12 July 1997, Jamestown, Easter Ross) is a Scottish jazz pianist and composer based in Glasgow. His style revolves around a fusion of contemporary jazz with Scottish folk music. He has released four albums as leader of a piano trio and one solo EP to date. His third album, Forest Floor, was shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize, and won the Scottish Album of the Year Award and the Scottish Jazz Award for Best Album.

Early life
Fergus McCreadie was born 12 July 1997 in Jamestown, Easter Ross, Scotland, and grew up in Dollar, Clackmannanshire. McCreadie's first experience playing music was on the bagpipes, though he concedes he "was not good at that at all." He saw a jazz piano performance around age 12, and said it "changed my life. It looked so fun, so free and so creative in the way that everyone interacted with each other." McCreadie's parents paid £20 for a broken-down piano; however, he mostly practiced with a Yamaha electric piano through headphones in his bedroom after noise complaints from a neighbor.

McCreadie attended Dollar Academy as a teen, then studied jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Tommy Smith, where he also played in Smith's Youth Jazz Orchestra. At the conservatoire, he met bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson, the other two players in McCreadie's trio. He graduated from the conservatoire in 2018.

Career
On 6 November 2023, McCreadie announced a 5-track solo piano EP titled Sketches, which was released by Edition Records on 26 November. The project was recorded on 21 August at Solas Sound in Glasgow, with Gus Stirrat as recording and mixing engineer.

In January 2024, McCreadie announced his fourth album Stream, which was released on 3 May by Edition.

Style and influences
McCreadie is known for combining contemporary jazz with Scottish folk music inspired by his homeland's natural landscape. McCreadie describes this genre crossover by saying "jazz is kind of a folk music in itself. It has a lot of the characteristics, and it's grown up in a lot of the same ways." McCreadie says he is most inspired by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, and notes his music taste as also including Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and Mick O'Brien.

In a concert review from 2024, The Skinny's Zoë White described McCreadie as sitting forward facing his audience and speaking candidly about his music in between songs. White noted the "endearing contrast between his down-to-earth anecdotes about hill walks, mountain streams and Scottish weather, and the hypnotic beauty of the music itself."

Accolades
McCreadie has also won the Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year's under-17 category in 2013 and 2014, the Linda Trahan Memorial Prize University of St Andrews, and the Guy Barker Award at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. McCreadie was selected for BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists, becoming the first non-classical musician chosen for the recognition.

Personal life
McCreadie lives in Glasgow.

Albums

 * Turas (as Fergus McCreadie Trio, self-release, 2018)
 * Cairn (Edition, 2021)
 * Forest Floor (Edition, 2022)
 * Stream (Edition, 2024)

EPs

 * Sketches (Edition, 2023)