Gogo Penguin have gone from the jazz club to the dance floor

With a contemporary sound that gives a large nod to electronica, Gogo Penguin could be one of the highlights of the jazz festival in Cork this weekend, writes Alan O’Riordan.

GOGO Penguin are pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner — three Manchester jazz musicians, but just don’t call them a trio. That’s not how they roll. Maybe the clue is in the name — unlike so many similar lineups, the T-word is missing from the name.

“We wanted to be a band,” says Illingworth. “We wanted to avoid calling it any genre or labelling it or thinking of it as a piano trio or any kind of trio. It’s a band. I think Radiohead are a great example. As much as Thom Yorke is the frontman and the name people know, it’s the combination of people in that band bringing what they can to the sound that makes Radiohead what they are.