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Cooler empty 2 june 23

June Bank holiday jam session

We kicked off our new jam series last Monday after a successful day of Cooler Clinic workshops & one on ones. The Cooler is our rehearsal & performance space at The Complex, dedicated to supporting & nurturing the jazz & improv scene here in Dublin/Ireland. Cooler Clinics are the free professional development days we run in there. Jazz & improvising musicians can book The Cooler for rehearsals, developmental work and testing out ideas / kickstarting projects. So if that sounds like you, check out the full details here and book yourself in for a quick induction.

We were grateful for the high turnout to our soft launch last Monday despite the blazing bank holiday sunshine & gorgeous weather. It just goes to show the demand and need for such a space. We opened our doors at 1pm and welcomed in a handful of eager & waiting musicians to participate in our first workshop of the day. Caitriona took the lead with “The Art of Selling Yourself (without ick)” and ran through various ways to describe your music for different scenarios (press, bookers etc), deconstructing good/bad pitches/copy and prompts for writing all of the above. She talked about using different language styles for different audiences, e.g. technical terminology for those with a music theory education, and more common language for everyone else, like bookers, press etc.

At 2pm we had some informal one on one chats and group discussions. These took different forms for each musician, with topics such as promoting gigs, releasing music, and managing social media all covered. It was great to see the engagement and enthusiasm from all involved!

At 4pm Bianca ran a group listening session. This was an opportunity for musicians to play a song / work in progress and get constructive feedback about how to describe it from the audience (ourselves and the other musicians in attendance). Further discussion went into details like how the songs could be developed further, mixed & released. This type of scenario, playing unreleased music to peers can be anxiety-inducing so fair dues to all who took part! A rich & wide variety of music was presented, and participation was great with this exercise.

5pm was break / UMI Falafel time. We’re blessed to have an UMI branch around the corner from us on Mary street!

At 6 we opened the doors for our inaugural jazz jam at The Cooler. Again a steady stream of people began to turn up, grab a drink from the bar and settle in. The sunshine was threatening to mess with our plans all day but thankfully that wasn’t the case and a beautiful evening of indoor-jazz-jamming ensued. Our house band So Young Yoon (keys), Dominic Mullen (drums) and Derek Whyte (double bass) took to the stage for the first few numbers and then the line was cast out to the audience. We had no shortage of willing participants and it was wonderful to see the space being used like this for the first time. We have to send a big shout out & love to all the musicians who came through, in no particular order: Hannah, Jordan, Mikael, Riccardo, Ryan, Aja, Alice, Eoghan, Luisa, Jenni, Johnny, Filipa, Red & Jamie – thanks guys! Extra shout out to those who came for the workshops and stayed all day! We wrapped around 9pm and went home feeling pretty chuffed and excited for the future of the space. Speaking of, stay tuned for updates about the next jam! And be sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow our socials.

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