Music

The best jazz gigs this week

Snowpoet, Brad Mehldau, Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas, plus marking Ronan Guilfoyle’s big birthday

Godfather of the contemporary Irish jazz scene: bassist and composer Ronan Guilfoyle celebrates his 60th birthday with a two-night residency at Arthur’s, Dublin

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat May 5 2018 - 05:00

SATURDAY 5

Snowpoet The Model (Calry Church), Sligo, 8pm, €16/14, themodel.ie

(Also Sunday: Coastguard Cultural Centre, Tramore, 8pm, €15, coastguardculturalcentre.ie) – Dublin-born vocalist Lauren Kinsella is one of the freshest voices on the London jazz scene and is garnering well-deserved praise for her latest project, Snowpoet, a powerful sextet of leading London jazz musicians. The music blends grooves and improv with Kinsella's disarmingly wise words, transcending genre and artfully avoiding the sort of worthiness that can often attend such "literary" projects. The band's periodic tour of Ireland – interrupted by snow earlier this year – continues this week.

Bray Jazz Festival Concludes Sunday, details at brayjazz.com – Ireland's leading contemporary jazz festival ends tomorrow with a bill that is required listening for anyone who wants to hear what's happening in improvised music on both sides of the Atlantic. Tonight, US stars Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas are in the Mermaid, with Brooklyn saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock's group (see Sunday) and Norwegian tubist Daniel Herskadal elsewhere in the seaside town. Sunday has elegiac Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson's trio and explosive New York drummer Jim Black, as well as a full roster of domestic acts over both days.

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SUNDAY 6

Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-House 4 The Mac, Belfast, 8pm, £14/10, movingonmusic.com – Downtown is a term often applied to the experimental end of the New York jazz scene, but in fact that scene has mostly migrated across the river to Brooklyn, and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock's group is just about as good as it gets as far as the Brooklyn vibe is concerned. The Anti-House quartet, with much-admired guitarist Mary Halvorson, rising Canadian pianist Kris Davis and hugely inventive drummer Tom Rainey, is a open-minded, democratic unit, taking the leader's compositions and turning them into a four-cornered conversation about where music is headed in the 21st century.

MONDAY 7

Jazz for Palestine Arthurs, Dublin, 7.30pm, €10, arthurspub.ie – Vocalist Honor Heffernan raises her much-loved voice in support of the people of Palestine tonight, hosting of benefit to raise money and awareness for Palfest Ireland. Quite apart from the worthiness of the cause, nights like these are rare opportunities for musicians to congregate, and there is always a special energy in the air when the room – as well as the stage – is full of jazz musicians who don't often see one another. The starry bill includes Heffernan herself as well as vocalists Carmel McCreagh and Flo McSweeney, pianists Phil Ware, Fiachra Trench and Myles Drennan, flautist Brian Dunning, saxophonist Brendan Doyle and guitarist Hugh Buckley.

THURSDAY 8

Brad Mehldau Trio National Concert Hall, Dublin, 8pm, €40/34.50/27.50, nch.ie – You know a jazz musician has created something original when their sound starts turning up in the playing of their fellow instrumentalists. By that standard, Brad Mehldau is one of the new century's most influential piano voices. Listen to most keyboard players under 50 today, and you will hear at least some of Mehldau's approach: the dense contrapuntal explorations, the taste for a contemporary rock repertoire, the collision of classical harmony and jazz grooves. The Connecticut pianist has been a regular and welcome visitor to Ireland since the earliest days of his career, coming first to play for Trinity Jazz Society in the early 1990s, and his ongoing relationship with the National Concert Hall has borne many fruits, including last year's marvellous After Bach, a joint commission by the NCH, Carnegie Hall and others. The 47-year-old keyboard master returns this week with his long-standing trio, featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Groups that stay together and play so many gigs together are rare in jazz today, and this is an opportunity to hear what happens when musicians have the time develop a common approach and a shared language, one that can carry them – and their audience – into the unknown.

WEDNESDAY 9

Ronan Guilfoyle 60: Things We Like & Divisions Arthurs, Dublin, 8pm, €20, improvisedmusic.ie – Ronan Guilfoyle, bassist, composer, educator, and godfather of the contemporary Irish jazz scene, turns 60 this year, and to mark that milestone, a whole raft of concerts and projects are planned throughout 2018, excavating Guilfoyle's extraordinarily productive four decades in music and renewing many of the musical acquaintances – both foreign and domestic – he has made over that time. Already this year, there has been the premier of a duo for violin and piano, and the autumn will see a new concerto for jazz flute and chamber orchestra, as well as a tour with a quartet featuring New York drum demi-god Jim Black.

This week, Guilfoyle takes up residency in Arthurs, presenting four projects over two nights: on Wednesday it's Things We Like, Guilfoyle's reimagining of the music of bassist Jack Bruce, with a group that includes Danish saxophonist Lars Moeller and guitarist Joe O'Callaghan; and his Divisions trio with Moeller and drummer Jonas Johansen plus the addition of Guilfoyle's son Chris, one of the must-hears of the current Irish scene; then on Thursday, Flyin' Hi sees the bassist reunited with his old friend Tommy Halferty to play music arranged by the tireless Guilfoyle for the guitarist's 70th birthday last year; and Always Now, a three horn septet playing music inspired by Thelonious Monk with Sean Carpio, one of Guifoyle's most talented students, in the drum chair.

THURSDAY 10

Ronan Guilfoyle 60: Flyin' Hi & Always Know Arthurs, Dublin, 8pm, €20, improvisedmusic.ie – See Wednesday