Music

Love and All That Jazz: This week’s must-see jazz highlights

Plus: 12 Points Festival ends; Richie Buckley’s top-drawer talent; real Latin-flavoured jazz

The Rite of Trio from Porto play the final night of the 12 Points festival at the Sugar Club in Dublin on Saturday night

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Sep 8 2018 - 05:00

12 Points Festival

The Sugar Club, Dublin Saturday September 8th From 8pm €20/€18 12points.ie

The brilliant 12 Points Festival of new European jazz concludes on Saturday night in the Sugar Club, so here’s one last chance to experience the unique atmosphere of this wandering Irish showcase for creative music that challenges listeners to check their preconceptions about the J-word at the door. Tonight features three 50-minute sets from three fresh-as-a-daisy trios from around Europe: an acoustic piano trio from Trondheim (8pm), a “skronky” guitar trio from Porto (9.05pm) and a jazz-meets-hip-hop trio from Amsterdam (10.10pm). Take your ears on an adventure.

Richie Buckley Quintet

Arthurs, Dublin Saturday September 8th 9.30pm €10 arthurspub.ie

Saxophonist Richie Buckley’s versatility is such that everyone from Bob Dylan to Barry Manilow has been able to call on his talent and his unerring sense of what is appropriate, whatever the setting. But the best setting in which to hear the mercurial Buckley is in a club when has only himself to please. Coming out of Coltrane via Stan Getz, Joe Henderson and Hank Mobley, Buckley is a free-blowing saxophonist of the old school, and here he leads a top-drawer Dublin group that includes guitarist John Moriarty, pianist Myles Drennan, bassist Dave Redmond and drummer Kevin Brady.

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Felton/Evans/Del Val Trio

Workman's Club, Dublin Sunday September 9th 7.30pm €10 facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop

The latest in the musician-run Dublin Jazz Co-Op series features an exploratory trio led by Dublin pianist Greg Felton. Felton’s rhythmic adventure, influenced by Monk, Herbie Hancock and Vijay Iyer, finds a perfect foil in the surefooted bass playing of Australian bassist Damian Evans and star Spanish drummer Gonzalo Del Val, who currently divides his time between Dublin and Barcelona where he teaches at L’AULA de Música Moderna y Jazz – Conservatori del Liceu.

Miguel Siso & Orlando Molina

Arthurs, Dublin Wednesday September 12th 9pm €10 arthurspub.ie

The “Spanish tinge” has been an important ingredient in jazz since the beginning, but there is something special about hearing native Latin American musicians who have grown up steeped in those very particular rhythmic and melodic flavours. Here Venezuelan duo Miguel Siso (Cuatro) and Orlando Molina (guitar) explore the folk music of their native land, as well as the wider Latin American repertoire, alongside original compositions written for the duo.

Love and All That Jazz

Arthurs, Dublin Thursday September 13th 9pm €10 arthurspub.ie

The formula for Love and All That Jazz is simple: two vastly experienced singers, one talented pianist/arranger and some of the greatest songs of the last 100 years. But what Flo McSweeney and Carmel McCreagh are doing with the songs they have chosen – the repertoire runs from Gershwin to Joni Mitchell to Tom Waits – takes more than just talent. There is real emotion and pathos in this warm, good-natured revue-style show, and pianist Fiachra Trench's sparely supportive accompaniments are all that you would expect of the man who provided the string arrangement for The Pogues' Fairytale of New York.