Jazz festival preview: Kit Downes ready to get down in Cork at the weekend

His boundary-pushing sounds gave Kit Downes a nomination for the Mercury Prize, and the British musician is looking forward to getting reacquainted with Triskel's magnificent organ this weekend 

Kit Downes is one of the headliners at Triskel for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. 

When English pianist and composer Kit Downes was ten and a chorister at Norwich Cathedral he was encouraged to start playing the church’s pipe organ, one of the largest in the country.

He was taught technique and some organ repertoire for hymns and psalms, but he was also nudged into experimenting with the magnificent instrument, playing with its many keyboards, pedals and stops, and exploring its infinite range of sounds.