The Mirrors Tour featuring The Lauren Kinsella Quintet playing the Music of Kenny Wheeler with Choirs under the direction of Pete Churchill kicked off last night in Kilkenny. They were supported by Kilkenny College Chamber Choir. If you would like to get along to one of our other dates in Dun Laoghaire or Ballina click here for details on how to book your tickets. See you there!
Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland
Due to circumstances beyond our control and all that jazz the Waterford leg of the upcoming “Mirrors” tour has been cancelled. This concert was due to take place on Saturday 5th March at the Theatre Royal,The Mall, Waterford.
The tour will go ahead at all other venues in Kilkenny, Dun Laoghaire, and Ballina. Find out more about all dates here.
See you there!
As you may have guessed from Allen’s post earlier this week we are all about the piano in February. We are delighted to present not one but TWO piano trio gigs at the Bello Bar on Friday February 20th and 27th. More details will follow but we just wanted to take this opportunity to thank our kind sponsors, Pianos Plus. We couldn’t do this series without their generosity. Check out their gorgeous ebonies and ivories in this lovely video.
Here at Jazz on the Terrace I had an idea to put on a series of Jazz Piano Trio Concerts in Dublin. I approached Shane Masterson and Anna Gallagher of the BelloBar in Portobello, Dublin 6 to join with me in presenting the concerts.
The concept was simple but exciting, “Trio Trio Piano”, two jazz piano trios in a jazz club setting with an acoustic piano. Four excellent jazz piano trios bringing their artistry to new audiences.
This two concert series of “Trio Trio Piano” has received a very generous sponsorship from PIANOS PLUS.
There are four trios. These are the Cian Boylan Trio, the Johnny Taylor Trio, the Carole Nelson Trio and CEO, led by Leopoldo Osio.
The concerts will take place in the BelloBar, 1 Portobello Harbour on Friday 20th and Friday 27th of February.
More details to follow, watch this space or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
“It was good to see a full house in the National Concert Hall for the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra last Sunday night. The DCJO lived up to expectations. The programme included original compositions by band members and in the case of Hugh Buckley’s ‘When Wes Was’, the arrangement was by fellow-guitarist Dave O’Rourke, Dublin’s major gift to the New York jazz scene. ‘God Bless The Child’ featured a moving solo by Karl Ronan. In the up-tempo ‘Tall Cotton’ Jim Clarke’s plunger mute was a delight.”
Grainne Farren, Jazz, Sunday Independent, 3 April 2011.
David O’Rourke, guitarist
Another concert at the Sligo Jazz Festival on Friday 19 July featuring Marshall Gilkes, Jean Toussaint and Ian Shaw with David O’Rourke’s music.
In one night you can experience excitement, delicacy, humour, a rhythmic big noise, beautiful melodic small sounds and go home with a bounce in your step.
David O’Rourke returns from USA to Ireland to tour with friend, Ciaran Wilde and Dublin City Jazz Orchestra. bringing all he learnt and developed, a prophet in his own land.
David O’Rourke left Ireland in 1989, departing from his own land in pursuit of a dream that he had, to become a part of New York’s jazz scene. Twenty-three years later he is an established member of that scene. He believed that he had much to learn. However he had something to bring to that great city and the Mecca of jazz for many, both American and foreign.
And so it has proved to be. He developed as a performer, but also as an arranger for large ensembles and a composer for them as well. As part of a youth development programme he formed a big band for young musicians in New York, the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra, JSYO. He has his own jazz orchestra, The O’Rourkestra, a twenty piece ensemble. This gives him the opportunity to write his own compositions and arrangements for this big band with its ten strong brass section. It is the intention to augment the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra to enable these arrangements to be performed for the Irish audiences.
Not only is this an amazing opportunity for people all over Ireland to experience the power and grace of a full jazz orchestra but to perform in an enlarged ensemble is an important opportunity for the development of the orchestra members. The DCJO will be performing a repertoire new or freshly interpreted to its audiences.
Jazz on the Terrace grasps this opportunity with a high quality artistic project that allows it to demonstrate its strong and imaginative curatorial approach devising occasions for a collaborative creative process. This is an ambitious project, with originality expressed in bringing David O’Rourke, this prophet to his own land. He is a friend and musical associate of Ciaran Wilde, leader of the DCJO who with Jazz on the Terrace, looks forward to this fabulous opportunity to bring fresh music to diehard jazz fans and newbies all over Ireland.
David O’Rourke is the prophet in his own land.
Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland
This tour is funded by The Arts Council’s Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme 2013.
Leader: Ciaran Wilde.
David O’Rourke (guitar), Musical Director.
Saxophones
Ciaran Wilde(baritone), Brendan Doyle(alto), Mark Wilde(tenor), Derek O’Connor(tenor), Nick Roth(alto).
Flute
Elizabeth Petcu.
Trumpets
Raymond Martin, Danny Healy, Eamon Nolan, Mark Adams (also vocals).
Trombones
Paul Frost(bass and vocals), Karl Ronan, Barry McBrien, Jim Clarke.
French Horns
Feargal O’Ceallacháin, TBA.
Tuba
Conor O’Riordan
Rhythm Section
Phil Ware(piano), Hugh Buckley(guitar),
Cormac O’Brien(double bass), Shane O’Donovan(drums).
Vocals
Honor Heffernan.
Paris based trombone player, Paddy Sherlock
On Thursday 16th May trombonist Paddy Sherlock will perform live in Dublin’s premiere jazz venue, JJ Smyth’s on Aungier St. with the Buckley/ Ware Quartet.
This is the second in a series of gigs that we have organised called the Gallic Gaelic Entente supported by the Arts Council
Performing in the Buckley/ Ware Quartet are:
Hugh Buckley (guitar), Phil Ware (piano), Neil O’Loghlen (double bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums).
Doors 8.30pm, Music at 9.00pm. Admission €8.00.
JJ Smyth’s,DUBLIN’S PREMIER LIVE JAZZ AND BLUES VENUE.
12 Aungier Street, Dublin 2. Telephone: 01 475 2565.
On Wednesday 12th December 2012 the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra with A Kinda Monkish Singer – Sara Lazarus (vocalist) special Franco/American guest vocalist from Paris. Winner of the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition in 1994.
In The Loft at The Grand Social, 35 Liffey Street Lower, Dublin 1. Doors open at 8.30pm. Concert at 9pm. Admission €10. Book online: www. entertainment.ie
Ciaran Wilde and Ray Martin founded the Dublin City Big Band in 2007. It became Dublin City Jazz Orchestra for a performance at the Electric Picnic in 2008. Allen Smith of Jazz on the Terrace and Ciaran Wilde in collaboration create opportunities for the DCJO to perform throughout Ireland.
In 2010 and 2011 the DCJO played 24 concerts including in 2010 the dlr Festival of World Cultures, TBCT’s Culture Night, the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival. In 2011 the orchestra performed an outstanding concert in the National Concert Hall with singers Mary Coughlan, Christine Tobin and David Linx, at the Sligo Jazz Festival with guests, trombonist Marshall Gilkes and drummer John Riley, and at “Made in Temple Bar”. In 2012 a concert in November to honour the memory of Noel Kelehan, Jazz Artist and the first concert in this series with French singer Cyrille Aimee. Always very good, many times brilliant.
This concert by the DCJO is the second in a series called “A Kinda Monkish Singer”. The Kinda Monkish Singer in this concert is Franco/American jazz singer Sara Lazarus.
Sara Lazarus was born on 1st April 1962 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. She studied classical piano from the age of eight, four years later Lazarus joined her school band in which she played tenor saxophone. At 16 she played in The American Youth Jazz Band, visiting Europe on a tour that included an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
After school, she studied English literature at Harvard University where she played saxophone and also sang with bands. During this period, she was heard by Artist in Residence Illinois Jacquet who encouraged her to follow music as a career. She was awarded the best vocal jazz soloist prize (university standard) by the American Downbeat jazz magazine. Upon graduating from Harvard in 1984, she relocated to France where she re-encountered Illinois Jacquet who included her in a band he led for a tour.
She was now concentrating on singing and gradually built a following at French clubs and concert venues. She led her own group and also worked with Franck Ansellem, Patrice Caratini, Riccardo del Fra and Jacky Terrasson. She takes part in numerous European festivals like Marciac, Crest Jazz Vocal, Montlouis, Braga and the JVC Paris Jazz Festival. She has been given the opportunity to sing with such musicians as Alain Jean-Marie, Jacky Terrasson, Manuel Rocheman, Frank Amsallem, Riccardo del Fra, Gilles Naturel and Andrea Michelluti.
In 1994, Lazarus made a return visit to the USA where she entered the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition, winning first prize. thus following in the steps of Joshua Redman and Jacky Terrasson.
She returned to France where she and her husband, French saxophonist Eric Breton, raised their sons. In November 2000, she sings in Patrice Caratini Jazz Ensemble for his project centring on Cole Porter music and takes part in his record “Anything Goes”. Her regular French trio in the 2000s was Alain Jean-Marie (piano), Gilles Naturel (bass) and Andrea Michelutti (drums). Other musicians with whom she worked, and some of which guested on her 2005 debut album, included guitarists Biréli Lagrène and Hono Winterstein, bass player Diego Imbert and drummers André Céccarelli and Winard Harper.
Lazarus sings songs drawn from the classic pop repertoire, such as ‘Get Out Of Town’, ‘Give Me The Simple Life’, ‘Taking A Chance On Love’, ‘Embraceable You’, ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, ‘This Can’t Be Love’ and ‘He Was Too Good To Me’, and jazz works, including Clare Fischer’s ‘Morning’.
Sara Lazarus' debut recording, Give Me The Simple Life, shows her to be a gifted jazz vocalist with a real ability to swing. The dozen selections on the recording are well balanced, including ballads, blues and bossa. Lazarus brings a natural jazz sensibility to these songs and there is no hint of artificiality in her vocals.
Michael Gladstone, All About Jazz website.
After this successful first opus, Sara Lazarus recorded a second studio album with a new group. Surrounded by Biréli Lagrène, with his Gipsy Project, Sara Lazarus set her delicate and temperate voice on the 12 standards on the album “It’s All Right With Me” in2006. Exuding a compelling swing rhythm and entrancing ballads, this second album highlights the obvious gift of this Franco/American artist and was set to place her as one of the outstanding jazz voices.
The members of the DCJO are:
Trumpets: Danny Healy, Mark Adams, Eamonn Nolan Ray Martin.
Trombones: Jim Clarke, Karl Ronan, Barry McBrien, Paul Frost.
Reeds: Mark Wilde, Derek O’Connor, Brendan Doyle, Nick Roth, Ciaran Wilde.
Rhythm Section: Phil Ware(kybrds), Hugh Buckley(gtr), Cormac O’Brien(dbl bs), Shane O’Donovan(drms)
This concert is presented by Jazz on the Terrace and funded by Arts Council Small Festivals and Events Award 2012.
Don't miss this unique tribute concert on Sunday November 25 2012 inthe National Concert Hall. With special guest performances from Ellister Van der Molen on trumpet and Laura MacDonald on saxophone accompanying the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra this promises to be a night to remember.
Universally regarded as one of Ireland's greatest jazz pianists, composers, big band leaders and arrangers, this concert plays tribute to Noel Kelehan's contribution to the jazz music scene with a specially commissioned piece by Ronan Guilfoyle for Dublin City Jazz Orchestra. Formerly known as Dublin City Big Band, founded by Ciaran Wilde and Ray Martin in 2007, the band was established to encourage students at the Bally,un Wind Project in their musical studies. They later became known as the DublinCity Jazz Orchestra for a performance at Electric Picnic in 2008.
Click here to book your ticket now directly from the National Concert Hall.
Cyrille Aimee sings with the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra.
The Grand Social, 35 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1
Wednesday 24 October 2012.
On Wednesday 24 October at 9pm in The Grand Social, 35 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1 in what promises to be a jazz highlight in October, French jazz singer Cyrille Aimee, Third placed Finalist in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Contest 2010 will perform with The Dublin City Jazz Orchestra
Cyrille Aimee in performance
In Autumn 2010 Cyrille Aimée became one of the three finalists at the renowned Thelonious Monk voice competition. The Washington Post celebrated her “…voice like fine whiskey – oaky and smooth, with a hint of smokiness…” The New York Times caught up a few weeks later and presented a great review of Cyrille when she sang at Smalls, the famous New York jazz club, where she completed a live recording “Cyrille Aimée + Friends Live at Smalls” featuring the accomplished Roy Hargrove and Joel Frahm for the label SmallsLIVE.
Cyrille was born in 1984 in Fontainebleau, France, with a French father and a Dominican mother. Her village, Samois-sur-Seine hosted the yearly jazz festival organized to honour the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt who lived there. She discovered jazz at these festivals.
At nineteen, Cyrille decided not to go with her family as it moved to Singapore. Cyrille stayed in Paris and attended the American School of Modern Music. She subsequently went to Santo Domingo becoming part of the local scene and was then accepted for the Purchase School of Jazz in New York. During the winter breaks she went to Santo Domingo to perform with her friends. During the summer of 2006 she organised a backpacking tour with her musician friends playing and singing their way through Italy, France and Spain. In 2007 the group targeted the Perugia Jazz Festival and Cyrille went to partiipate in the competition in the Montreux Jazz Festival where she won both first prize and the special public prize.
In 2009 she graduated from Purchase and decided to remain in Brooklyn. She made two recordings with the Brazilian guitarist, Diego Figueiredo, that she had met in Montreux. Since her success in 2010 she has been continuing her rise. She has performed with musicians such as Joel Frahm, Steve Davis, Spike Wilner, Tom Kennedy and Anat Cohen and the Chicago City Jazz Orchestra and toured with the Hot Club of Detroit.
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 “Kinda Monkish Singers” series affords an exceptional opportunity for The Dublin City Jazz Orchestra to perform with this young French rising artist.
The desire and the enthusiasm of Ciaran Wilde, Ray Martin and Mark Adams in working so hard to bring this jazz orchestra together, to seek out arrangements of the classic jazz big band repertoire will see the vocalist scores played.
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.
This concert is presented with grant aid funding from The Arts Council’s Small Festivals and Events.
If the plans of the social media bird behind Jazz on the Terrace come to fruition and Allen starts to share the wealth of his knowledge about jazz with you on this blog. the latest service I have added will be a must have. To the left you will see a box. Enter your email address and you will receive updates by email every time Allen posts about upcoming gigs, the latest records to which he is listening, anecdotes about the many and varied artists that he has met over his years promoting jazz in Ireland. He might even share his extra special Cork Jazz Festival timetable with you next year. So subscribe now and never miss a beat!
Alternatively if you think email is like the technology equivalent of Dixieland and you’ve moved beyond to using a reader to keep track of your favourite sites, well then you can subscribe here too.
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