IMC’s 2019 Retrospective

Click through the links below and enjoy a selection box of our favourite reading and listening from 2019, to keep your Christmas holidays filled with improvised music.

In case you missed it…

Cormac Larkin in the Irish Times reviews this year in Irish jazz, flagging IMC’s concert of pianist Craig Taborn in January as the gig of the year.

Check out Craig’s interview with the Irish Times

Listen to an interview with Peter Brötzmann on RTE’s Culturefile

Have you heard the ‘This Is Irish Jazz’ PLAYLIST?
46 tracks of Irish based jazz artists — is yours on it? We want to keep building this up and will be promoting it again at Jazzahead 2020 industry fair in Germany next April.
Share it around! And contact admin if you would like a track added.

During this year's call out for 12 Points acts, we created a playlist of Irish Artists who have performed at 12 Points over the past 13 years, which makes for some excellent listening!

We’ve enjoyed the ‘Other Side of the Tracks’ interview with artists that we’ve been publishing throughout the year. Here are a few of our favourites that you may have missed:
Nick Roth interview ahead of The Commons collaboration in March
Cora Venus Lunny about the joys of free improvisation ahead of her brilliant performance with Izumi Kimura at Jazz Connective in December
Han-Earl Park had some great insights in this interview before his performance in the Fumbally Stables with his band Eris136199
Tommy Halferty chats about his tribute to the late John Abercrombie and his influences and perspectives as an active musician in the Irish jazz scene for almost 50 years.
A really interesting perspective on bringing tribal rhythms into the 21st century from Kakatsitsi Drummers from Ghana ahead of their performance at Hotter Than July Wicklow-based singer-songwriter Aoife Doyle, before her International Jazz Day performance at Signal Series.

A few other playlists worth exploring include:
Meilana Gillard - her music and influences
Elliot Galvin - current listening
A combined Playlist of music and influences from Paul Dunlea and Cormac Kenevey before their double headliner performances at Signal Series in June

Eighteen Irish acts appeared onstage at the Signal Series in 2019, our new monthly series highlighting the Irish jazz scene. Line up is out for February and March 2020 with the Open Call still running for acts interested in performing.

We put Irish jazz on the map for International Jazz Day, largely with sharing and spreading the word
If you have plans for International jazz Day 2020 (30th April 2020) please send us the details.

NARLI's (National Association of Record Labels Ireland) Annual General Music live-stream took place in October

The Wood Quay Summer Sessions from July:
Charlie Moon Quartet & the RBG Trio live-stream

We wrapped up the year with the recent Jazz Connective Festival in Project Arts Centre with seven really excellent performances over the 2 days:
Jazz Connective Artist Playlist

Here are a few Reviews from Marlbank, The Examiner, London Jazz News as well as interview with Izumi Kimura and Cora Venus Lunny on ARENA on RTE Radio 1 and a great feature on the ‘No Standards’ show on DDR (Dublin Digital Radio) interviewing Shane Latimer:

Marlbank review
Marlbank audio
Irish Examiner review
ARENA on RTÉ Radio 1 interview/session with Izumi Kimura & Cora Venus Lunny
DDR (Dublin Digital Radio) interview with Shane Latimer.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us at IMC!