Brilliant Brits, busy streets, musical melting-pot: 10 highlights of Cork Jazz Festival
Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026: On left, Sheila Maurice-Grey of Koroko at the Everyman; right, stylish youngsters queue for admission to a bar. Pictures: Darragh O'Kane, Noel Sweeney
The dozens of top-class musicians who play in Cork and the thousands of people who go to see them are only half the story of the jazz weekend. A phenomenon of recent years has been the cohort of younger punters (late teens to early 20s) who use the festival as a fine excuse to just get dressed up and hit the town. The music is largely incidental for the glammed-up girls and besuited blokes that give Oliver Plunkett Street a catwalk feel by Saturday afternoon.
They are often the same people who, by 7pm on Sunday, are willing to queue for an hour in the rain to pay a tenner into a bar they could just stroll into any other weekend. It doesn’t matter – they’re going to have fun anyway. They also add plenty to the buzz (and the economy) of the city for the weekend. “You’d never see anything like this in Dublin,” one visitor told this writer. And that is a victory in itself. (Des O’Driscoll)
Yes, you read that correctly. There was plenty across the weekend for early-risers, or those who wanted to bring the kids to see some music. Indeed, one of the most uplifting moments across the weekend was to be in a packed Cork School of Music auditorium to see the spritely Cormac McCarthy directing the school’s big band through a set of beautifully arranged standards.
The young pianist Tom O’Donovan, hailing from Castletownbere, was a standout out on piano, playing in a long overcoat, ready to run out into the rain for his next set – for the lucky brunchers of Good Day Deli. Moving the jazz fringe stage to Elizabeth Fort proved an inspired idea (albeit forced by the work being done on Crawford Art Gallery in Emmet Place) on a sunny Sunday afternoon, stretching the festival footprint up Barrack Street and creating a perfect venue within those old walls. (Alan O’Riordan)
Well, they’ve given us some great music. The scene across the Irish Sea is thriving at the moment, as a generation of 30-somethings breathe life into UK jazz. Immigration + decent education network + deeprooted jazz tradition + urban nightlife scene = brilliant new music.
At the Everyman on Sunday, Kokoroko spoke of “honouring the music of our parents’ homelands”, as they mixed elements of afrobeat and highlife with their sweet vocal harmonies. Earlier in the evening at St Luke’s, Joe Armon-Jones’ keyboard excursions were accompanied by the reggae basslines of the imperious Mutale Chashi. On Thursday, jazz had even returned to the Opera House main stage when the impressive Yussef Dayes had showed what could be done with a drumkit in centre stage. Flight hiccups aside, the ever-evolving event in Cork is well-positioned to plug into our near-neighbour's new energy. Win-win situation. (Des O’Driscoll)
There was no shortage of great piano music across the weekend, beginning in earnest when Jason Moran delivered a classic take on Duke Ellington at Triskel. Bill Laurance, of Snarky Puppy fame, brought his solo show to the table at the same venue for a superb afternoon concert. He took his place on stage between an upright piano, with plenty of felt dampers, and a grand, set up for sparsely used delay effects.
The opening improvisation, which Laurence describes as “terrifying”, is, he says, his way of letting the instruments tell him what to play. His goal, he admits, is a life’s work: total freedom on the instrument. That might not be attainable, but watching the attempt was inspiring. (Alan O’Riordan)
Bob Geldof reminded people of his Cork connections during his band’s gig at City Hall. His mother Evelyn was from the city, worked at the Savoy cinema on Patrick’s Street, and in later years the family regularly made the trip from Dublin to holiday in the Rebel County.
But the 75-year-old’s fine pedigree is only part of the reason the crowd responded so well on Saturday. With three original members on stage, the band rolled out their impressive repertoire of hits, including R and Geldof is still a great frontman, and threw at least one punkish high kick for old times' sake, as well as drawing a cheer with mention of support for Palestine. (Des O’Driscoll)
It’s a sign of a healthy festival: wanting, and needing, to be in two places at once. An opening night torn between Yussef Dayes’s drumming spectacular and the Keyon Harrold-led Davis-Coltrane tribute merely set the tone. On Saturday, Okonski gave their modern take on the piano trio, channeling Abdullah Ibrahim at his most lyrical, or Esbjorn Svensson in a certain mood. Yet, meanwhile, the Greek singer Σtella (pronounced Stella) and her guitarist gave an enthralled audience at St Luke’s a taste of her brilliant album as well as some enchanting new material.
On Sunday at the same venue, you could sip on your BYOB beer while the aisles filled with dancers for a raucous set by Joe Armon-Jones. But you knew you were missing something special, and entirely different, at the Triskel, where the Polish sax player Maciej Obara and his quartet welcomed trumpeter Mathias Eick. Ah, well – long may the torture continue. (Alan O’Riordan)
When you’ve attained the status of ‘Little’ Louis Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzales, you don’t need to embrace the showbiz antics of some of the other DJs on the dance circuit. There was never a chance the New York duo would be throwing Thompson’s cakes into the Opera House crowd – instead it was largely heads down for a mix of solid house music. Proceedings chugged along nicely for the first hour, but a take-off moment came half-way through when they dropped two of their self-made classics, (under the Hardrive moniker) and (Bucketheads).
A switch from the four-to-the-floor material came at the end with Jamiroquai’s their own take on and a drum’n’bass remix of by The Fugees. One gripe is that a two-hour set finishing at 10pm felt a bit short. Cork Opera House has a later gig taking place throughout the weekend, so a turnaround on the venue is needed, but after MAW have come all this way, and presumably are being paid a decent rate for doing so (admission approximately €50), could they start earlier and dip into their extensive collection across three to four hours?
Another decent DJ at the Opera House was Berlioz on Sunday, introducing a younger generation to quality house and jazz-tinged sounds. (Des O’Driscoll)
Stormy weather played havoc with artists` travel plans across the weekend, leading to a delayed start for Greek duo Sokratis Sinopoulos and Yann Keerim. But boy, was it worth it. With Sinopoulos on lyra, a bowed instrument dating to the Byzantine era, and Keerim at the piano, they set off in dialogue across Bela Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances. The empathy between the players, and for the source material, was exquisite, as Balkan and Greek folk influences were taken to the prism of chamber jazz.
The effects could be strikingly dramatic, almost Stravinsky-like, but then so hushed that the lyra sounded almost like something breathing softly. There was a riveting, poignant beauty to what was being created before us, vanishing forever into the eaves, and leaving one wishing this duo could just turn around and start all over again. (Alan O’Riordan)
Perhaps the beard-strokers raised an eyebrow at the booking of the disco-era pop group, but Boney M packed out two shows at the Opera House on Saturday. It’s exactly the type of show that’d get your uncle and aunty along to the festival. and featured among the singalongs as the current version of the group – featuring original vocalist Maizie Williams – belted out the hits. Again there were a few gripes about the shortish set, at the early show at least. (Des O’Driscoll)
It’s good to talk. A few words from a musician or band leader can add a lot to an audience’s experience. Jason Moran offered insights into the music of Duke Ellington that spoke to his deep study of the subject, and opened up the man and his world in a fascinating way. At the other end of the spectrum, there was Steve Okonski, whose droll, deadpan delivery from the piano would have got nodding recognition from the late comic Norm MacDonald. But mostly, it’s just good for the soul to hear from dedicated people.
As Bill Laurance put it, being inspired is up to you – just keep looking. That, he said, “is the significance of persistence”. Who needs self-help books when you have the Cork Jazz? Maybe Jason Moran put it best: a festival like this one, he said, is all about “what it means to be an improviser in a society that doesn’t want you to improvise.” (Alan O’Riordan)
