Jo Mango is the stage name of a British alternative folk and acoustic singer and songwriter from Glasgow, otherwise known as Jo Collinson Scott, a lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland. Jo Mango has also been the name of her band.
Career Born in Yorkshire,'A Giant On The Bridge: Music project aims to explore attitudes towards punishment and justice', Sunday Post (3 November 2021). Scott grew up in rural north-east Scotland. As a teenager she became involved in Aberdeen's music scene; her first band was called The Mangomen and included her twin brother.Anna Millar, 'No ordinary Jo: Mango's eclectic efforts bear fruit', Scotland on Sunday (26 February 2006). In 1999 or 2000, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Glasgow to study music and psychology, aiming to become a music therapist.Mickey McConagle, 'Mailmusic: R. E. M. Star Popped in for Music Lessons', Sunday Mail (17 June 2007), p. 30. There she also developed her skills via open mic nights at the Glasgow bar Nice 'n' Sleazy's, and by playing in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and a folk band named The Old Blind Dogs.
Scott's first album, Paperclips and Sand, emerged in 2006. 2006–7 saw Scott touring internationally as a member of Vashti Bunyan's band, and in the UK on the Zero Degrees of Separation tour alongside Bunyan, David Byrne, Adem, Juana Molina, and Vetiver.Nicola Meighan, 'Interview: Jo Mango', The Herald (2 November 2012). At this time, Scott named key influences as 'Emiliana Torrini, Stina Nordestam, Bright Eyes, Ben Folds, Bjork, Kate Rusby, quirky indie acoustica'.'Local Spotlight: Jo Mango', Glasgow Evening Times (16 March 2006).See also 'Singer Jo Mango shares her top five musical moments', Scotland on Sunday (20 May 2007). Other collaborations in the years around 2010 included work with Teenage Fanclub and Admiral Fallow.
The Scotland Herald described Scott's 2013 EP When We Lived in The Crook of a Tree as "[a voice] so hushed and precise, that it sounds as if it were recorded inside your own head".Fiona Shepherd, Ken Walton And Jim Gilchrist, "Album reviews: Siobhan Wilson | Beyoncé | The Pearlfishers | Jo Mango & Friends", The Scotsman (7 May 2019).
In 2012, Scott completed a PhD in musicology, with the thesis "Experiments in schizoanalysis: a new approach to analysis of conceptual music".Jo Collinson Scott, "Experiments in schizoanalysis: a new approach to analysis of conceptual music" (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012). By 2015, she had become a lecturer in commercial music at the University of the West of Scotland.'Notes on Contributors', in Writing Creative Non-Fiction: Determining the Form, ed. by Laura Tansley and Micaela and Maftei (Canterbury: Gylphi, 2015), . She has also taught at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
In the mid-2010s, Scott's work focused on promoting ecological sustainability in music festivals, leading to her EP Wrack Lines, and a project called When Tomorrow Becomes Yesterday.
In the years around 2020, Scott was undertaking creative work relating to prisoners' rehabilitation, leading to her EP System Hold,'Criminologist and songwriter re-imagine an alternative to prison system', Herald Scotland (24 November 2018). characterised in The Scotsman as 'featherlight piano balladry with subtle electronic beats' providing 'a chill-out meditation on themes of incarceration, monitoring and suspension of liberty'.Fiona Shepherd, Ken Walton And Jim Gilchrist, "Album reviews: Siobhan Wilson | Beyoncé | The Pearlfishers | Jo Mango & Friends", The Scotsman (7 May 2019). The work also involved Scott in a music festival called Distant Voices highlighting the music of people who had experienced the criminal justice system, and her composition of a multimedia piece named A Giant on the Bridge.
Jo Mango band members At the time of the release of the 2012 album Murmuration, the band named Jo Mango comprised:Rob Lavender, "Sweet as a Songbird", Metro [Scotland edition] (2 November 2012), p. 55. Jo Mango: lead vocals, rhythm guitar, kalimba, toy piano, concertina Jim Mango: bass player, backing vocals Alan Peacock: backing vocals, guitar Katherine Waumsley: flute, piano, kalimba and concertina Calum Scott: percussion
Discography EPs Antidote (2003) Fluffy Brain (2004) The Moth and the Moon / Black Sun (2010) Wrack Lines (2016 – Jo Mango & Friends) System Hold (2019 – Jo Mango & Friends)
Studio albums Paperclips and Sand (2006) Murmuration (2012) Transformuration (2014 - Remixes of Murmuration)
Singles "My Lung" (2007 - Download Only)
References
External links The official Jo Mango website (archived 2008) Myspace page (archived 2009) anotherday.co.uk - Vashti Bunyan Official Site