Jazz revellers’ custom is sweet music for business

Music fans are this morning gearing themselves for one last toot on the trumpet as the Guinness Cork Jazz festival enters its final day.

In a weekend of more variations on jazz than you could shake a saxophone at, Cork City has enjoyed the kind of influx bartenders and hoteliers nowadays usually only dream of.

An opportune clear spell meant plenty of sunshine and resultant good humour. Revellers spent with an abandon not seen since before the recession. Tills rang with the fervour of the bells of Shandon and Guinness flowed as freely as the wine at the Wedding Feast of Cana.

Whether it was Miles Smiles, an all-star group named after the maestro’s album, or New York hip hop trio De La Soul, or double Grammy winner Roy Hargrove, or the Dixieland Crackerjacks marching down Pana, the festival had something for everyone.

Stretching the definition of jazz to breaking point, indie duo The Beach House went down a storm in the Opera House, and Prince Fatty and Hollie Cook laid on soulful reggae and dub at the Pavilion.

In Emmet Place, performers took to a giant stage outside the Opera House, giving shoppers an earful of swinging melodies.

They included the Old Fish Jazz Band, whose members travelled from five different countries.

As an early Hallowe’en treat, a New Orleans-style jazz funeral wound its way past the many stalls on the streets of Cork, stopping traffic and gathering passers-by in its wake.

In the Metropole Hotel, Italian jazz singer Roberta Gambarini thrilled with a secret Saturday afternoon gig sultry enough for any smoky late-night club, while saxophonists Dave Binny and Julian Argüelles raised the roof of the Triskel Christchurch.

For those who prefer a more hands-on approach, the festival included jazz workshops from artists such as Jason Rebello, who taught those taking part techniques from the Jazz Rainbow Project.

The project transforms movie and television soundtracks into original jazz and funk pieces.

For Ella Fitzgerald wannabes, the Cork School of Music hosted choral workshops for amateur jazz singers.

World-renowned jazz tutor Lee Gibson facilitated the workshops, which were free of charge and open to the public.

With more than 1,000 musicians from 22 countries performing over 400 gigs throughout the city, including more gigs today, there was no sign of any scaling-back of the festival, despite the economic circumstances.

It’s hard to believe the original festival in 1978 was only a last-minute filler for a cancelled bridge tournament.