Galway Jazz Festival
Galway Jazz Festival 2008
Thursday 20th – Sunday 23rd November
Thursday 20th November
From NYC, Kenny Werner, solo piano €15
Aula Maxima NUI Galway
Friday 21stNovember
From Scandinavia & Japan, The Thing & Otomo Yoshihide €15
Nuns Island Studio, Nuns Island, Galway
Saturday 22nd November
From Amsterdam, Eric Vloeimans Gatecrash Quartet €15
The Crane Bar, 2 Sea Road, Galway
Sunday 23rd November
From London & Dublin, Guy Barker & Hugh Buckley €15
The Crane Bar, 2 Sea Road, Galway
SPECIAL FESTIVAL PASS PRICE: €50 FOR ALL 4 CONCERTS
Book online 24/7 www.townhalltheatregalway.com
Tel: 091-569777
Small is beautiful at the 2008 Galway Jazz Festival, which presents a compact but delectable prospect for discerning music lovers with four night's magical music making from right across the jazz spectrum. Leading musicians from The US, Scandinavia, Japan, Holland and The UK are westward bound for this fourth edition, which runs from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd November with a stylistically adventurous line up that reflects the dynamic creativity of jazz around the globe today.
It begins with a US pianist of seemingly infinite capacity, the grammy nominated Kenny Werner, whose effortless mastery will be appreciated in full on the concert Steinway in the dramatic environs of The Aula Maxima. Solo performance is perhaps the highest expression of the jazz musician's craft, when player, instrument and audience are as one. In Werner's hands, it's a powerful and direct emotional experience with no impediment to the musical possilbities, from lyrical intimacy to grand orchestral sweep.
At the other end of the musical spectrum lies The Thing, a confrontational Scandiniavian trio with a sound world entirely their own, and free jazz has seldom sounded as exhilarating and life affirming as within the maelstrom of sonic energy unleashed here. Songs from diverse sources like PJ Harvey, Don Cherry and The White Stripes are all grist to The Thing's mill, and joining them on this dissonant road less travelled is the pioneering Otomo Yoshihide, a formative figure of Japan's experimental music scene. Using guitar and turntables, Yoshihide explores feedback and sine waves, and staunchly inhabits the margins of electronica, rock and free jazz.
Closer to home, Amsterdam is home to one of Europe's most creative music scenes, and trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is one of its most celebrated musicians, who beautifully distills the instrument's colourful history into something personal and engaging. With Gatecrash, he augments the fluid mastery and compositional originality that has garnered four prestigious Dutch Edison Awards with a virtuoso groove band that explores subtly addictive terrain.
One of our finest guitarists brings the festival to a swinging conclusion. Hugh Buckley is among the more unassuming figures on the Irish scene, but his resume of international associations speaks volumes for the esteem in which he's held elsewhere, and this engaging and creative soloist has worked with stellar figures like Georgie Fame. Of late, soul and gospel nuances are increasingly to the fore, idioms with which trumpeter Guy Barker is intimately familiar, gleaned from an extraordinary career that has seen the brilliant Londoner share the stage with everyone from Ornette Coleman to Frank Sinatra.
Modest in scale, ambitious in its reach, the jazz groove endures at the Fourth Galway Jazz Festival. Produced by Improvised Music Company on behalf of Galway Jazz Festival.
Booking information:
Date: Thursday 20th November
Concert: From NYC, Kenny Werner, solo piano
Info: "What sets Werner apart is his ability to consistently reach an ecstatic space when he plays, and communicate a rare depth of insight."- Gramophone
"A clear virtuoso, and when he solos there's with everywhere, with clichés dragged out of the closet to poke fun at or rhythmic bumps added for humor."– New York Times
Time: 8pm
Venue: Aula Maxima NUI Galway
Ticket Price: Adm €15
Booking info: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway.
Box Office: 091-569777
Email: Book online 24/7 www.townhalltheatregalway.com
Date: Friday 21stNovember
Concert: From Scandinavia & Japan, The Thing & Otomo Yoshihide
Info: Mats Gustafson – baritone saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
Otomo Yoshihide - guitar/turntables
"The power generated from wood, metal, breath and muscle is stunning."- BBC Music
"Tapping into rock's most primal forces with a fury that's something to behold." – Mojo
Time: 8pm
Venue: Nuns Island Studio, Nuns Island, Galway
Ticket Price: Adm €15
Booking info: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway.
Box Office: 091-569777
Email: Book online 24/7 www.townhalltheatregalway.com
Date: Saturday 22nd November
Concert: From Amsterdam, Eric Vloeimans Gatecrash Quartet
Info: Eric Vloeimans - trumpet
Jeroen van Vliet - Fender Rhodes
Jasper van Hulten - drums
Clemens van der Feen - bass
"Vloeimans plays crisp and self assured, embodying Clifford Brown plus many shades of Miles, without being imitative." – Jazz Times
While highly melodic and accessible, Vloeimans has a decidedly modernist approach that mixes funk and down-home blues with downtown improv, sometimes within a single tune." – All About Jazz
Time: 6.30 pm
Venue: The Crane Bar, 2 Sea Road, Galway
Ticket Price: Adm €15
Booking info: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway.
Box Office: 091-569777
Email: Book online 24/7 www.townhalltheatregalway.com
Date: Sunday 23rd November
Concert: From London & Dublin, Guy Barker & Hugh Buckley
Info: Guy Barker – trumpet
Hugh Buckley – guitar
Justin Carroll – keys
Dan Bodwell – bass
Shane O'Donovan – drums
Riffling at dazzling speed through classic jazz-trumpet styles, there's a pull between craftsman and artist in Guy Barker, the UK's best jazz trumpeter." – The Guardian
"Buckley's great strength is the balance he strikes between creativity and accessibility. The Dubliner never loses sight of the audience and knows how to keep the band in the groove." – Sunday Tribune
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Crane Bar, 2 Sea Road, Galway
Ticket Price: Adm €15
Booking info: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway.
Box Office: 091-569777
Email: Book online 24/7 www.townhalltheatregalway.com