The big gig today before Enda's launching of the festival this evening is the lunchtime gig at the Granary theatre on the Mardyke. POD Fusion will perform for FREE at 1pm ahead of their big support gig with Rudresh Manthappa on Sunday night at Triskel....
Niwel Tsumbu fans who have been missing him since his move to Dublin last year will be especially happy to catch up with the maestro....
Check him out this Sunday at the Guinness Jazz Festival - 2pm at the Everyman Palace, McCurtain St., Cork
Tigran Hamasyan - What the waves brought
This weekend our @CecilExplorer is off to the Cork Jazz Festival. Will have a few pieces on what she sees next week.
Set up for the #GuinnessCorkJazz is well under way at the @CorkOperaHouse
Hi Guys, I’m going to blog this weekend about the fringe side of things. I want to get to some of the events in the city which may not have been as prominently promoted and meet up with some local talent; Producers, DJ’s, Musicians, Chefs and Venue Managers. The Jazz Fringe Festival launched on Thursday at Cork airport with the unveiling of a gift to the Cork people from the Voluntary Committee—a painting called ‘The Cork Jazz Audience’ by artist Mia Funk.
First stop this afternoon was to The Rory Gallagher Music Library where a spirited group from The Netherlands called ‘Dixieland Crackerjacks’ played a free gig at 2pm. I arrived just as ‘When the Saints go marching in’ was striking up. Wonderful Old School Swing! Spontaneously, the female trombone player, Selina, jumped off stage and moved through the library—delighting the front two rows that were occupied by 5th year girls from St. Aloyesis secondary school!
Next I decided to interview a young restaurateur who is on a mission to delight the palates of jazzing visitors with delicious locally produced brunches at No.5 Fenns Quay. Kate Lawlor, who recently bagged a Michelin Guide listing, said she is even throwing in free mimosas this weekend! Check out the video I’m going to upload of Kate describing the fabulous sounding ‘Cork on a fork’!
Couldn't resist dipping into The Oliver Plunkett to crowd surf for a minute or two. The Roaring Forties really know how to work a crowd. It's a mixture of jazz, rock'n'roll & swing. They were bantering with the crowd about Roy Keane in between songs.
I swung by The Pavilion- if you 'll pardon the pun! The charming saxophone player Gary Baus told me he's gigging all over the city this weekend but right now he's playing a selection of 1930's & 40's American Big Band swing. Catch Gary later at Camden Palace Hotel, Camden Quay if you really fancy going 'off the grid'. From 11pm.
Just arrived at Gulp'd Cafe at The Triskel. It's candle lit and warm. Especially welcoming considering it's a freezing night! Julien Colarossi Trio are so mellow! It's lovely here.
Ok! I'm heading into Gulp'd Cafe in The Triskel followed by The Pavillion. Talk to you from there!
That's it from me for tonight. I'll leave the late night stuff to the younger bloggers! Join me tomorrow at The Goldie Fish Jazz Food Fair, Ronan Leonard at Electric Bar, Jazz on the Plaza and Jazz at The Hayfield Manor. I'll sign off with an upload of my favourite act tonight, Julien Collarossi Trio. Ahhh!
Ok, Last stop. Hot 8 Brass Band at The Bodega. Let's face it, The Bodega does the Jazz. These guys are from New Orleans and are the real thing. Not that I'd know --I'm not really a hep cat but they do sound great. Plus they appeared in a Spike Lee film. Street cred!
Great to hear the amazing Taraf de Hadouks at the Opera House - pity not to see a well filled house but the opening gig is traditionally hard to sell I'm told - in fact a little bird told me he remembers Ella F herself had a hard time selling out the first gig of CJF in her day!
Considering the relative lack of chattering voices in there we might have expected a fuller sound, too, but did they rock the House? They did! Did we dance? Yeyeyeeeeee we did!!
Fantastic night! started out with the awesome bluegrass old time swing (err is that even a genre?) of Pokey La Farge. The Crane Lane was packed to the rafters in high anticipation of this Missouri quartet, and had us slapping knees and dancing hot hokey's til our feet were raw. then it was a quick dash across the Lee to the stunning venue off the Camden Palace for one of the festivals hidden fringe events...the inaugural Cork Jazz Dance Exchange. Two amazing bands, the Inner City Blues Band, followed by the Dark Town Strutters, had the floor of this beautiful old dancehall filled with swing stompers..really superb night, and a very welcome and unique element to the jazz experience this year. In fact the dance exchange runs all weekend with a great line up Saturday night also, check out corkjazzdx.com for more details.
A great night at the Opera House in Cork, we opened the festival at 5.30 and played the late night set at 11pm. Some amazing musicians dropped in; Jason Rebello, Natalie Williams, Jean Toussant, Jeremy Brown. We are playing at the Metropole with Rosanna Brandi and the Niall Marron Trio at 3pm, hope you can make it down
Great to hear local musicians are really busy all weekend , drop by on Saturday and Sunday from 11pm for a play!
Was great to experience a standing gig at the Opera House last night for the first time, the set up in there is great. They have kind of rails to lean on every six feet or so but there's space to dance and there's a bar actually inside the auditorium at the back so it really feels more like a club than a theatre.