Albarn and Flea get jazz party jumping

MAYBE it wasn’t too surprising that it took a British pop star and an American rocker to jazz things up in Cork last night.

The 2011 Guinness Jazz Festival had a subdued launch earlier at the Bodega Bar in the city centre, with the queue for free food longer than the line for free drink, perhaps reflecting worries by invited guests over the new zero tolerance drink driving laws that came into force on Thursday.

“This is like night of the living dead, boy,” one jazzer remarked, demonstrably immune from the new strictures.