Galway Jazz Festival
There'll be a charge in the air this November as the Galway Jazz Festival fires up the city's musical life with four nights of glorious music making. This fifth edition might still be a boutique, but its more than doubled in size since last year, and jazz admirers will have plenty to choose from in a line up that includes artists from Norway, The US, Germany, The UK and Italy as well as the highest achievers in Irish jazz.
It opens with a gala concert in St Nicholas Church with music that might have have been tailor made for such a resonant environment, when saxophonist Trygve Seim leads a band that reads like a who's who of Norway's extraordinarily fertile jazz scene. Rebecca Martin performs with the peerless bassist Larry Grenadier, here on a brief timeout from touring with piano great Brad Mehldau.
London's Mercury nominated quintet Polar Bear meld clever jazz composition with electronica, turning from delicate to abrasive compositions in a heartbeat. Ronan Guilfoyle's Métier are just back from London, where they shared a double bill with Polish legend Tomasz Stanko in the prestigious QEH. Métier are made up of five of the strongest musicians in Ireland today, and this is a quintet that positively bristles with creative energy.
A brace of European pianists adorn this year's festival. Turin born Francesco Turrisi draws inspiration from early music and Italian folk melodies. Francesco's trio make music imbued with the reflective aesthetic of the great German label ECM and its further evidence of the abundant creativity at work from this open minded and lyrical pianist. Julia Hülsmann has just made her ECM recording debut, the critically acclaimed End Of Summer, but the Bonn pianist has been a stellar figure of the German jazz scene for well over a decade, making rhythmically insistent music that is both poetic and approachable, and with the fine detail that is a hallmark of great piano trios.
Dubliner Hugh Buckley is back at the festival, with some impressive friends in tow for an exploration of the guitar world from both jazz and classical perspectives. The former is brought by John Stowell, the American guitarist whose career spans three decades and includes historic tours to the Soviet Union with flautist Paul Horn, the latter from Ballinasloe born John Feeley, Ireland's premier classical guitarist. Memorable solo, duo and trio encounters are in store. Rounding off proceedings nightly is Headford saxophonist Matthew Berrill, taking time out from studies in The Hague to lead a specially convened festival group that features the best of emerging Galway voices like guitarist Aengus Hackett and trumpeter Conor Cantrell.
Exploring the musical spectrum from established international performers to the brightest local talent, the beat goes on at the 5th Galway Jazz Festival.
November 19th - 22nd 2009
