Music

Best jazz concerts this week: Comet is Coming, Ben Castle and Sue Rynhart

Signal Series kicks off; Scott Flanigan of Van Morrison’s band plays Workman’s Club

London trio The Comet is Coming play the Future Jazz series at the Sugar Club, Dublin, Friday, March 1st

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Feb 23 2019 - 05:00

Saturday February 23rd

Bottlenote Festival
Studio 10, Wicklow Street, Dublin (continues till Sunday)

Those of the open of ear and mind might want to get along to what’s left of the 10th annual Bottlenote Festival to have those particular items opened a little wider. Still to come in this expedition to the frontiers of music is a flute and drum duo from Lina Andonovska and Matthew Jacobson (Saturday, 8pm) and an exploration of analogue Moog synthesisers from renowned UK keyboardist Matthew Bourne (Saturday, 10pm); a solo set from Woven Skull guitarist Aonghus McEvoy (Sunday, 3pm); and a performance from Dublin experimental vocal ensemble Silver Kites (Sunday, 5pm).

Sunday February 24th

Scott Flanigan
Workman's Club, Dublin 7.30pm €10 facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop

Keyboardist Scott Flanigan is building reputations of equal lustre for his piano and his organ playing. He has plied the latter with Van Morrison and Scottish guitar legend Jim Mullen, as well as Tommy Halferty's incendiary Lifetime group, but the piano has been where the Belfast man has generally channelled his own creative energies, including his powerful 2015 debut, Point of Departure. This new trio with bassist Dave Redmond and drummer Kevin Brady – performing as part of the weekly Dublin Jazz Co-Op series, currently curated by drummer Matthew Jacobson – is set up to work hard, play hard, and swing hard.

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Vocalist Sue Rynhart performs at the debut of the Signal Series at new Dublin venue Wild Duck on Tuesday 26th

Tuesday February 26th

Signal Series: Ben Castle/Sue Rynhart
Wild Duck, Dame Street, Dublin 8.30pm €12/10 improvisedmusic.ie

This month sees the launch of a new series, curated and funded by the Improvised Music Company at Gary Whelan’s funky new venue off Dublin’s Dame Street. Creative music scenes need nights like this, where musicians can present forward-looking music without worrying whether it sells beer or not. Son of the late trumpeter and record-breaker Roy, Ben Castle has a list of sideman credits that includes Radiohead, Sting and Aretha Franklin, and he fronts a band of other heavyweight sidemen including star Belfast drummer Darren Beckett (Brandon Flowers, Ambulance), with pianist Cian Boylan and bassist Dave Redmond. Vocalist Sue Rynhart’s blend of folk, jazz and the avant garde is finely wrought and utterly original, and she has recently added keyboardist Darragh O’Kelly to her long-running collaboration with bassist Dan Bodwell. Anyone interested in where creative music is headed in Ireland should make the Signal Series their new monthly check-in.

Thursday February 28th

Conor Guilfoyle Octet
Arthurs, Dublin 9pm €12 arthurspub.ie

Drummer Conor Guifoyle’s latest project is like Ireland’s Jazz Messengers: a hothouse of rising talent, whipped into shape by a strong-minded band leader with vast experience pulling these kind of little big bands together. The repertoire covers the hard-bop to cool-jazz axis with a cast that includes trumpeter Bill Blackmore, trombonist Paul Front, saxophonists Yuzuha O’Halloran, Peter Dobai and Kelan Walsh, pianist Luke Howard and bassist Barry Rycraft.

Friday March 1st

The Comet Is Coming
Sugar Club, Dublin 7.30pm €20 thesugarclub.com

The Future Jazz series from Choice Cuts fills a void in the city’s creative music programming, importing the sounds and the vibes that will entice the dancers and the romancers without alienating the chancers. London trio The Comet is Coming call their music the “soundtrack to an imagined apocalypse”, but there’s no need to wait for impact before checking out their visceral blend of Sun Ra, Orbital and Maceo Parker. “King” Shabaka Hutchings, one of the rising stars of the London scene, joins forces with keyboardist Danalogue the Conqueror and drummer Betamax Ohm – the duo formerly known as Soccer 96 – to create a powerful, psychedelic, post-apocalyptic sound about which it is wisest not to ask too many questions. Support from electro-krautrockers Ssmmütt.