Music

This week’s best jazz gigs

Honor Heffernan Quartet, Street Improv and Galleries

Vocalist Honor Heffernan is with pianist Phil Ware at Arthur’s in Dublin.

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Jan 5 2019 - 05:00

SATURDAY 5TH

Honor Heffernan Quartet
Arthur's, Dublin, 9pm, €10, arthurspub.ie
Jazz singer Honor Heffernan has been playing away of late, most notably touring nationally and internationally with Whistling Girl, the Dorothy Parker-inspired show she co-wrote with pianist and composer Trevor Knight, but here's a rare chance to hear the peerless vocalist in a pure jazz context. A consummate performer who combines a riveting stage presence with the note-perfect sensibilities of a jazz musician, Heffernan is backed here by a heavyweight rhythm section led by silky English-born pianist Phil Ware, with talented Australian bassist Damian Evans and top Dublin session drummer Kevin Brady supplying the grooves.

SUNDAY 6TH

Swedish vocalist Miran Aïda offers sophisticated bossa nova versions of classic Bowie in the Sugar Club.

Galleries
Workman's Club, Dublin, 8pm, €10, facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop
The artist-curated series upstairs at the Workman's Club, brought to you by the Dublin Jazz Co-Op, is a chance to check out what's happening on the fast-changing improv, jazz, avant-rock and whatever-you're-having-yourself scene. Current artistic director, guitarist Chris Guilfoyle, is out to prove what a broad church "jazz" is with his first programming decision of the new year, Galleries, a electronic trio delving into IDM, ambient, jazz and contemporary classical, led by promising young guitarist Patrick Keegan with Alex Keogan on guitar and synths and Johnny McDowell on bass and synths.

THURSDAY 10th

Loving the Alien – Miriam Aïda & Bossa Nova Band
Sugar Club, Dublin, 8pm, €12, dublinbowiefestival.ie
David Bowie's jazz-tinged farewell album, Blackstar, raised tantalising questions about where the great musician's wayward muse might have been headed if he had lived. Respected Swedish vocalist Miriam Aïda's 2018 album, Loving the Alien, offered one possible answer with jazzed-up versions of Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, The Man Who Sold the World and more. Her Bossa Nova band includes acoustic guitarist Mats Andersson with percussionists Ola Bothzén and Finn Björnulfson – part of the Dublin Bowie festival which runs from January 7th to 13th.

Street Improv
Arthur's, Dublin, 9pm, €10, arthurspub.ie
Kilkenny saxophonist Adam Nolan cut his improv teeth on the Parade outside Kilkenny Castle, developing a street-wise sound that combines Coltrane and free jazz with hip-hop, funk and psychedelia. The young tenorist's Street Improv quartet also features drummer Lorcan Byrne, bassist Cillian Byrne and guitarist Chris Colloton.