Irish jazz stars line-up for online Sligo Jazz Project week

As last year, Sligo’s six-day concert series was comprised of specially recorded videos, some of them by musicians who, in other circumstances, would have been tutors in the annual summer school. While they and several others were able to contribute remote educational “microsessions”, the performance videos were notably longer than those in 2020 and, instead of a single night focussing on Irish musicians, this year they were the main story all week. And what a story it was – with no fewer than 15 sets and 60 musicians (none of them appearing more than twice), there’s only space to mention some highlights.

Of the two re-creation projects, drummer Conor Guilfoyle led his octet through nine of the published Birth Of The Cool charts and, thanks to the trumpet lead of Bill Blackmore, found the necessary tension between a laid-back ensemble and the driving rhythm-section; some exceptional solos were contributed by Colm O’Hara (trombone) and Tom Caraher (tenor). Trombonist Paul Frost’s septet found the requisite roughness in his own arrangements of favourite tunes by Charles Mingus (plus the lesser-known ‘Us Is Two’), with saxists Michael Buckley and Ciaran Wilde setting the stage alight. Buckley shone separately via movingly original music in duo with Mike Neilsen’s semi-acoustic guitar, while Phil Robson, who currently lives in Ireland, impressed in a duo format with drummer David Lyttle.

Lyttle also played with two Sligo Jazz alumni, the Murray Brothers (bassist Conor and altoist Micheal) who’ve just released a debut CD, and another virtuoso guitarist Joe O’Callaghan led his adventurous trio Sankhara with longtime Irish resident Izumi Kimura on piano. There was also alluring pianism from Belfast’s Scott Flanigan playing material from his own forthcoming CD, whereas Irish-bassman-in-London Dermot McNeill’s quartet had some tasty piano from Rob Brockway. Also recorded for Sligo Jazz in London, Ireland’s Lauren Kinsella led through some fascinating wordscapes with her group Snowpoet, including six of the week’s 22 non-Irish performers. There was even a segment filmed in NYC by singer Ashley Pezzotti, who sounds on-track to become the next Jane Monheit.

Finally for this roundup, Peru-born drummer-composer Cote Calmet, who used to live in Ireland, delighted with the latest version of his sextet Phisqa, based in Granada, Spain. A varied and original selection of Latin tinges ended with a Peruvian cumbia – Mingus would have approved.

N.B. All of this music remains permanently accessible Sligo Jazz’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/sligojazz