Music

The best jazz this week: The Savage Five perform in Belfast and Dublin

Also, DCU students put on the Jazz Grad International Festival in Dublin

The Savage Five bring their unique conflation of classical, jazz and avant-pop to Belfast (Saturday) and Dublin (Sunday) this weekend.

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat May 12 2018 - 05:00

Saturday

The Savage Five

First Presbyterian Church, Belfast, 1.30pm, £10 (also Sunday, St. Finian's Church, Adelaide road, Dublin, 7.30pm, €15)facebook.com/thesavagefive

Belfast vocalist Suzanne Savage has been principal soloist with Riverdance and sung backing vocals with Paul Brady and Van Morrison, but she is at her best when she’s doing her own thing. The Savage Five, nominated for the prestigious German Record Critics’ Awards in 2016, is a voice and string quartet group resulting from song-writing collaborations with New Zealand cellist Hugo Smit. Imagine Bartok, Cole Porter, Bjork, Kate Bush and Prince meet in an abandoned studio and you’re close.

Sunday

The Long Way Round

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The Workmans Club, Dublin, 8pm, €10, facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop

Bassist Ronan Guilfoyle has been a rhythmic pioneer of international standing since – along with his brother Conor on drums and guitarist Mike Nielsen – he began dismantling the standard repertoire and reassembling it in unfamiliar meters back in the early 90s.

Over the last decade, a new generation of Irish jazz musicians has emerged, nourished by that legacy, not least Guilfoyle’s own son, guitarist Chris Guilfoyle, who has vanquished whatever charges of nepotism that might have been levelled against him by becoming one of the most important new voices on the Irish jazz scene. The appropriately titled Long Way Round trio also features rhythmic adventurist Matthew Jacobson (see Friday) on drums. Faint hearts should make alternate arrangements.

Monday

Jazz Grad International Festival

Arthur’s, Dublin, from 3pm, No CC, arthurspub.ie (continues till Thursday)

In order to graduate, students at DCU’s internationally renowned BA in jazz performance are required to put an ensemble together and give a public performance. As usual, this year’s fourth-years hail from the four corners of the globe, so the air in Arthur’s is likely to be filled with strange and wonderful noises all day and all night for the four days of this mini-festival.

Performances are on the hour with three in the afternoon starting at 3pm (4pm on Monday) and three in the evening starting at 7pm. The students will need to be prepared, they’ll need to show what they’ve learned, and they’ll need to be brave. But most of all, they’ll need an audience to provide the vital energy that turns a course requirement into a proper gig. It’s free in, so do them a favour. You just might end up hearing things you’ve never heard before, which isn’t bad for a mid-week afternoon.

Wednesday

Ralph Alessi Quintet ft. Ravi Coltrane

Black Box, Belfast, 8pm, £15/10, movingonmusic.com

Ralph Alessi is the guy the good guys call when they want a trumpeter who can play anything.

Pianists Jason Moran, Fred Hersch and Uri Caine – not to mention much-imitated saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman – have all got Alessi’s number, which means the 55-year-old from California has spent a lot of time playing with, and learning from, some of the most influential band leaders of the contemporary US scene, and when he gets the time to lead his own groups, he’s brimming with ideas.

His current quintet is a skim off the top of the New York scene, with pianist Andy Milne, bassist Jon Hébert, drummer Mark Ferber and in the saxophone chair, Ravi Coltrane, whose father would be proud.

Friday

ReDiviDeR + Silver Kites

Ergodos HQ, MART Creative Hub, Portobello Harbour, Dublin, 8pm, €10, ergodos.ie

New music record label and promoters Ergodos open the doors of their headquarters in Portobello for a bring-your-own-bottle house party with two groups pushing at the sonic envelope. Silver Kites is a vocal trio featuring Judith Ring, Fionnuala Conway and Lenka Dobai, performing delicate new music that flies past the genre nets, connecting the ancient to the avant-garde. Then drummer Matthew Jacobson’s ReDiviDeR quartet with saxophonist Nick Roth, trombonist Colm O’Hara and bassist Derek Whyte, will blast the doors off with their rhythmic martial arts. So a perfect date night then.