Good morning! Another superb video found to show some more great work from our imminently arriving guest, Rick Margitza. This time it’s The Big Time Jazz Orchestra from Duluth, MN performing “Widows Walk” by Rick Margitza, arranged by Dan Gailey at the 2004 Jazz Scholarship Benefit Concert.
After its successful concert in the Bank of Ireland Plaza in September 2010 as part of the Culture Night for Temple Bar Cultural Trust, grant aided by the Music Network Performance and Touring Award, the dynamic Dublin City Jazz Orchestra takes to the streets again.
Ray Martin with his trumpet, on the left and Ciaran Wilde with his alto-saxophone on the right, musical co-leaders of the DCJO lead the sprint across Meeting House Square in an early training session for their concert on Sunday 24 July in Temple Bar Square. That’s the stratospheric trumpeter Danny Healy in the sunglasses.
So, for this second time for Temple Bar Cultural Trust and as part of its Celebrations for the Summer the DCJO will be in Temple Bar Square on the afternoon of Sunday 24 July. Get along and be there for the big blast from the best big band in Dublin.
The DCJO made its home in the Button Factory in the heart of Temple Bar on the Curved Street for the last year or so up to this April. Its members are happy to be back in town as part of the enjoyment that is Dublin City and in particular this quarter and the centre of it, Temple Bar Square.
In the photograph above, you can see the DCJO performing on Monday 4 April in the Button Factory, with tenor saxophonist Brendan Doyle taking a solo.
One of the nine compositions performed last night by the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra as part of the world premiere of 9 new Irish compositions for Big Band was composed by Abigail Smith, my sister and Allen’s daughter. As I know her (!) I had no qualms asking her if I could record and broadcast her composition online using Audioboo on my iPhone. It’s quick and dirty but gives a real sense of the energy that was in the room last night.
Don’t forget that you can hear the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra play these nine compositions and many other kicking jazz tunes on Saturday 6th November in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray as part of the Improvised Music Regional Touring Scheme and on Wednesday 15th November for the Limerick Jazz Society in Dolans Warehouse, another concert in the Music Network series.
World Premiere of the Music of Nine Irish Jazz Composers written for the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra.
On Monday 1 November 2011 at 9pm in The Button Factory, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 in what was one of the jazz highlights of the year, the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra presented the world premiere of the music of nine Irish jazz composers.
Three of the composers are based in America, Brian Byrne, Fintan O’Neill and Dave O’Rourke. Three of the composers are regular members of the orchestra, Alex Mathias, Karl Ronan and Nick Roth. John Moriarty and Brian Wynne have occasionally performed with the orchestra. Pamela Keeley, the lyricist for Karl Ronan and Abigail Smith have not written for a jazz orchestra before.
Allen Smith and Ciaran Wilde, the co-founder with Ray Martin and the leader of the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra discussed the possibility of Jazz on the Terrace commissioning Irish jazz composers to write original compositions for the Orchestra to add to its repertoire for its current series of concerts. Allen Smith proposed making an application for grant aid under the Arts Council’s Music Commissions Award for a Jazz on the Terrace commission commencing in 2010. This was successfully done and the music has been included in the Music Network Performance and Touring Award Series of concerts. The world premiere took place on Monday 1st November in the Button Factory, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
There were two further performances of these new works on Saturday 6th November 2010 in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray as part of the Improvised Music Regional Touring Scheme and on Wednesday 15th November 2011 for the Limerick Jazz Society in Dolans Warehouse, another concert in the Music Network series.
One of the aims of Jazz on the Terrace since its inception has been to expose Irish musicians to new ventures in jazz music and this project afforded an exceptional opportunity for Irish composers to create music for an Irish jazz orchestra.
The desire and the enthusiasm of Ciaran Wilde and Ray Martin in working so hard to bring this jazz orchestra together, to seek out arrangements of the classic jazz big band repertoire and then to ask some of the Irish arrangers in America to help them by sending what they could, deserves to have the added dimension of new work performed throughout the country and recorded. Jazz on the Terrace also made a successful application to the Music Network/Arts Council Music Recording Scheme 2010 to make a permanent archive of this music.
The members of the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra are: Ciaran Wilde, Alex Mathias, Derek O’Connor, Nick Roth, Robert Geraghty – saxophones; Danny Healy, Ray Martin, Mark Adams, Eamon Nolan – trumpets; Jim Clarke, Karl Ronan, Barry McBrien, Paul Frost – trombones; Phil Ware – piano, Hugh Buckley – guitar, Cormac O’Brien – double bass, Shane O’Sullivan – drums.
