Losing the shackles and all that jazz
Every imaginable variation of jazz is on the four-day programme which is set to bring music, merriment and mayhem to the streets of the southern capital over the bank holiday weekend from October 22-25th.
Dixie jazz, Detroit jazz and Dublin jazz mix with European, African and Australian versions in a line-up of acts that has performers and influences taken from every corner of the globe.
All tastes and moods are included in the package whether preferences are for swing, boogie, jive, edgy and new age, romantic and old style, frenetic and funky or soothing and soulful.
Details of this year’s programme were formally unveiled yesterday in what is widely seen as a final rehearsal for the festival to beat all when Cork takes over the job of European Capital of Culture in 2005.
Some of the highlights include performances from the highly regarded American outfit, the Terence Blanchard Sextet; contemporary Israeli musician, Avishai Cohen; digital beats masters, Cartoon, and the supersized Mingus Big Band.
Among the noted singers are Jane Monheit, Patricia Barber and Daryl Sherman, and well-known Irish contributors among the festival regulars include the Jim Doherty Trio, Honor Heffernan and Noel Kelehan.
Saturday night hears the first major airing of “South Facing”, a specially commissioned work by Irish composer Ronan Guilfoyle to mark Cork’s selection as 2005 City of Culture.
Fourteen venues have been chosen to host the main events but over 70 other pubs and clubs across the city are staging daytime and evening gigs as part of the Jazz Trail to coincide with the festival and admission is free to the vast majority of them.
The festival fringe programme has a number of musical workshops and master classes, special children’s shows and various other jazz inspired offerings.
In all, about 1,000 musicians and performers are set to take part in the 29th annual festival which is expected to draw a crowd of 40,000 and generate an estimated €20 million for local businesses.
For further details go to: www.corkjazzfestival.com.
Friday 22: Soul, jazz, blues and funk with the Jimmy Smith Band and Masters of the Groove, Everyman Palace, 8.30pm.
Saturday 23: Music, dance, strange instruments and theatrical capers at Stomp, a family-friendly matinee show, Cork Opera House, 2.30pm.
Sunday 24: Drum Crazy with Babatunde Lea and Celtic Bop jazz and trad blend - two free master classes at 2pm & 4pm, Firkin Crane Centre
Monday 25: Seven acts, six stages, one long day’s festival send-off, Guinness Festival Club, Metropole Hotel, from 1pm.
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