Dublin City Jazz Orchestra

Its summer in the city, and the former Temple Bar Music Centre, The Button Factory know how to bring in that summer feeling in style as they host the first residency of the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, a 17 piece band formed in 2007.

Then called the Dublin City Big Band, the group was formed by Ciarán Wilde and Raymond Martin to showcase to children in the Ballymun Wind Project the full experience of a Big Band sound to inspire their own musical projects. After this, they went on to play the Electric Picnic 2008 at the IMC World Music Stage, the reaction for which has spurred this residency into being, which is good news for Dubliners who want to have a great time dancing whilst appreciating fine musicianship.

The orchestra features 5 saxes, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, Piano, bass, drums and guitar all from professional full-time musicians who represent some of the finest in Europe including the likes of Sketches of Now guitarist Hugh Buckley, leader of his piano trio, Phil Ware and Nick Roth, band leader of Klezmer group Yurodny as well as band leader Ciarán Wilde who has been working in recent times with the likes of Josh Ritter. All musicians are prominent in both Irish and international scenes.

As individual session musicians members have performed and recorded with the likes of U2, Oasis, Van Morrison, The Symphony and Concert Orchestra, Movie soundtracks and top visiting artists like Dave Liebman, John Faddis, and Bobby Watson.

On Monday night in the Button Factory you can here the band play music the musicians love to play themselves with arrangements by our own Irish arrangers Brian Byrne, David O’Rourke, Cormac McCarthy as well as USA arrangers, Thad Jones, Count Basie as well as Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, and Oliver Nelson.

The six week Button Factory residency in Dublin’s Temple Bar will feature a series of guests over the weeks including the great Sinatra man Seán Hession on June 22 and on Monday June 29th the impassioned sounds of Mary Coughlan will join the orchestra. Saxophonist Tim Ries of Rolling Stones fame will also be joining Dublin’s only Big Band, (date tbc). More news on other special guests soon.

So Dubliners grab your suits and skirts, shine your shoes and swing on the dance floor of the Button Factory every Monday to the old sound of the Big Band.

Dublin City Jazz Orchestra Guest List

Monday 29th June- Mary Coghlan

“Tom Waits has met his Irish match.” Is what the Guardian have said of Mary Coughlan.

Coughlan brings a realism and edge to her singing that few in Ireland can mirror for their intensity.

Born in Co. Galway, this acclaimed Irish singer's troubled upbringing manifested itself in an erratic career path, including stints as a model and a street-sweeper.

After moving to London in the mid-70s she married and began raising a family, before terminating the union and returning to Galway with her children. She began her singing career in 1984, working with Dutch producer Erik Visser (who became her long-term collaborator).

The following year she made an acclaimed appearance on the Late Late Show and recorded her first album, which showcased her powerful and bluesy jazz stylings and became an unexpected bestseller in her native Ireland. Despite her ongoing personal problems, Coughlan continued to reap praise for her recorded output on WEA Records. On Under The Influence she revived the 1948 Peggy Lee hit "Don't Smoke In Bed" and the Billie Holiday ballad "Good Morning Heartache", as well as Christy Moore's "Ride On".

She embarks on the next phase of her career with an extraordinary new album. Entitled ‘The House of Ill Repute’ – its thirteen songs represent the end of a thirteen year relationship in Mary’s life. The album re-unites her with Erik Visser, whose previous work with Mary has inspired them both to career best performances on the albums ‘Tired And Emotional’ and ‘After The Fall’ albums. Seldom has there been a better matched maestro and muse; as the immaculate song selection, sympathetic arrangements and matchless performances on this record reflect.

The first single is the late Kirsty MacColl’s wry discourse on misadventure ‘Bad’, an early highlight of an album that runs the gamut of emotions like a long night of Reeperbahn madness. Flirtatious on ‘Love Is Extra’, salacious on ‘Pornography’, outrageous on ‘Tootsies’; Madame Coughlan knows the intimate details of all the visitors to The House of Ill Repute. And in the cold light of the morning, we find them adrift on the emotional tundra of ‘Antarctica’ or clinging to the barren (Celtic) rock of ‘The Whore Of Babylon’.

It’s often said that an artist’s best work is made under the most trying of personal circumstances. With the release of ‘The House of Ill Repute’; Mary Coughlan emerges from the catharsis of record making, waking up to a new day; confident in the knowledge that she has produced an album which will stand up as one of the very best of her stellar career to date.