Multi-Story Karma was an epic multi-media show that Tom devised in 1996 with collaborators Ruby Worth (dance), David Greig (drama), and Walter McCrorie (animation) and with the support of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival director Derek Gorman and the Scottish Arts Council. The show was inspired by recent events in Bosnia and Serbia and featured the Tom Bancroft Orchestra – with jazz musicians like Phil Bancroft, Oren Marshall, Rick Taylor, and Gina Rae and Dutch musicians Mischa Kool, Jorrit Dijkstra and Joost Buis, plus traditional musicians Martyn Bennett and Charlie McKerron (Capercaillie) and singer-songwriter Michael Marra. The show featured audience participation, all the musicians dancing, animation, use of footage of the audience, surround sound, and Michael area performing a monologue penned by future theatre great David Greig – at that time an up and coming new writer recommended to Tom by the legendary Tom McGrath – a renowned playwright who was also a jazz pianist. This show was the first time Michael Marra and Martyn Bennett met and worked together – who went on to collaborate on the legendary Grit album. Sadly Michael Marra, Martyn Bennett, Tom McGrath, and Rick Taylor are no longer with us.
it is hard to believe now but there is almost no record of this show apart from this grainy piece of video. If you watch it you can see that Gina, Tom’s wife, is pregnant – their son Sam was born just over a month later, and a year later Tom started the record label Caber Music – both of which events distracted him from this kind of work for a long time…
Many people remember the performance though….
And the after-party was also legendary…. with a VAT of Irn Bru and whisky and a ladle involved…