Guinness Cork Jazz Festival: Line-up revealed for 2021 event

After last year's cancellation, this year's festival is back with a roster that includes Mos Def, Kit Downes and Matthew Halsall

Thu, 30 Sep, 2021 - 12:00

Des O’Driscoll

The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival has announced a programme that ensures the city will resound with music over the October bank holiday weekend.

After last year's cancellation, the relaxation of Covid measures has come just in time for the 2021 event (October 22–25), and organisers have even managed to include several international acts on this year's roster.

The event has always been one that attracts both serious music fans and those whose main priority is a bit of fun for the weekend. This year's festival caters for both.

For the jazz buffs, top of the bill is Matthew Halsall, the Manchester-based musician who has been part of a huge jazz revival in Britain in recent years. Playing at the Everyman, his style draws on masters like Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, but like many of his UK contemporaries, he has also plugged into modern club culture and other sounds.

New York rap legend Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def.

Hip hop fans will be excited at the presence of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) at Cork Opera House, sharing a bill with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The Brooklyn rapper has popped up at Irish festivals in the past, but this will be his first appearance in Ireland with a live band.

Other acts at Cork Opera House lean towards electronic dance music from the likes of radio DJs Dec Pierce and Jenny Greene, as well as Waterford band King Kong Company. Mick Flannery and Susan O'Neill will also be back from the US – and a stint supporting Phoebe Bridgers – to play at the Opera House on the Friday of the weekend.

Jenny Greene does her DJ thing at Cork Opera House. Picture: Miki Barlok

Hypnotic Brass, meanwhile, are also part of an event titled MåsExödus at the Everyman, which promises an exploration of modern contemporary jazz sounds.

Cork jazz heroes Paul Dunlea and Cormac McCarthy are part of the roster at Triskel Christchurch, while Xenia Pestova Bennett and Ed Bennett perform a reinterpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the same venue. Mercury Prize-nominated British pianist Kit Downes also plays Triskel on the Sunday.

The Metropole Hotel on MacCurtain Street was where the festival began back in 1978, and they will have their usual array of acts and late-night partying.