Music

Jazz gigs of the week, from Izumi Kimura to Peter Brötzmann

Plus: Devil’s Spine Band in Dublin and ‘Hunger Games’ composer Ólafur Arnalds

German free saxophonist Peter Brötzmann

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Sep 29 2018 - 05:00

SATURDAY 29

Devil’s Spine Band

Leeson Lounge, Dublin, 9pm, No CC (donation €5)

Pianist and composer Trevor Knight has been following his own wayward muse since the 1970s, from the heady days of Auto Da Fé (remember November November?) to his recent theatrical collaborations with jazz diva Honor Heffernan. The Devil's Spine Band is a surreal wild west show, inspired by the unlikely visit of Oscar Wilde in 1881 to the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. It features Knight with long-time collaborators guitarist Ed Deane, bassist Garvan Gallagher, drummer Tom Jamieson and a special appearance from Heffernan.

SUNDAY 30

Izumi Kimura

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Workman’s Club, Dublin, 8pm, €10, facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop

Japanese-born pianist Izumi Kimura is one of the more intrepid musicians on the Irish scene, a fearless explorer of the contemporary music landscape with projects ranging from John Cage’s challenging Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano to her recent Illuminated Silence tour with free jazz eminences Barry Guy and Gerry Hemingway. Finger Painting is a new electric trio with two of Ireland’s most respected improvisers, bassist Ronan Guilfoyle and drummer Matthew Jacobson, which promises to add another line to Kimura’s impressive resumé – part of the excellent artist-curated series from the Dublin Jazz Co-Op.

Tal Cohen Trio

Arthurs, Dublin, 5pm, €12, arthurspub.ie

Pianist Tal Cohen – hailing from Israel, via Australia and Florida – is one of the rising stars of the US scene, winning the Barry Harris Piano Competition in 2014 and performing with trumpeter Terence Blanchard. With praise for his recent release Gentle Giants (from Blanchard and various other senior US musicians) still ringing in his ears, the pianist arrives in Dublin to perform with two rising stars of the Irish scene, bassist Barry Donohue and drummer Shane O'Donovan.

TUESDAY 2 

Terry Riley feat Gyan Riley

Sugar Club, Dublin (also Wednesday 03)

California-born composer Terry Riley is bona-fide avant-garde royalty, a giant of 20th-century music whose In C is one of the foundation texts of the minimalist movement. Drawing on the European classical avant garde, modal jazz and Indian ragas, Riley became one of the patron saints of experimental music in the 1960s, and he has been steadily composing and performing ever since. Proving that perhaps the best way to find long-term collaborators is to breed them yourself, Riley has recently taken to performing and touring with his son, guitarist Gyan Riley, and the Rileys' arrival in Dublin for two concerts at the Sugar Club – alongside the appearance in Belfast on Thursday of German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (see below) – make this a red letter week for the adventurous of ear.

Ólafur Arnalds

Cork Opera House, Cork, 8pm, €31/26, triskelartscentre.ie

Ólafur Arnalds probably isn't jazz, but he isn't anything else either, so just leave your genre distinctions at the door of Opera House and take your ears on an adventure. The Icelandic pianist and composer has spent the last two years developing self-playing "semi-generative" pianos, which accompany him on stage, along with a live string quartet and a percussionist. A former hardcore heavy metal drummer who has toured with Sigur Rós and composed music for The Hunger Games, Arnalds has crossed over to the light, crafting softly insistent ear balm that ignores the frontiers between improv, classical, electronica and ambient.

THURSDAY 04

Peter Brötzmann’s ‘Full Blast’

Black Box, Belfast, 8pm, £14/10, movingonmusic.com

Since the release in 1968 of Machine Gun, one of the seminal texts of European free jazz, Peter Brötzmann has been storming the citadels of musical form with an intensity that is as riveting as it is alarming. As the name of his current trio suggests, the German saxophonist, now approaching his 80th year, is not going to go quietly and the chance to hear him in all his furious pomp, with regular collaborators bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmüller will be like a pilgrimage for those of sufficiently stern constitution.