Music

Four jazz concerts to catch this week in Ireland

Renowned US keyboardist and producer Robert Glasper plays two nights, while Michael Bublé is at Croke park

Renowned US keyboardist and producer Robert Glasper leads a heavyweight group for a two night residency at Dublin’s Sugar Club

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Jul 7 2018 - 05:00

Saturday, July 7

Michael Bublé
Croke Park, Dublin, 6pm, €89/109.50/130. ticketmaster.ie
Some 50 years ago, the chasm between jazz and the commercial mainstream had not yet opened fully, and artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet could run with the jazz hare and hunt with the record company hounds. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine a contemporary jazz singer playing Croke Park but for the likeable Canadian crooner, there's an adoring audience for whom jazz is a heritage style to be indulged once in a blue moon when someone famous rolls into town. Will any of them turn up next week for talented locals like Honor Heffernan, Sue Rynhart or Cormac Kenevey at a fraction of the price? We live more in hope than in expectation.

Tuesday, July 10

R+R=Now
The Sugar Club, Dublin, 8pm, €25 (also Wednesday, with support, 8pm, €33.50) thesugarclub.com
The name of US keyboard star Robert Glasper's latest project – Reflect + Respond = NOW – refers to a Nina Simone comment: that an artist's duty is to reflect the times. To reflect on his own times, in particular what is happening at the sharp end of black music in the 21st century, Glasper has assembled a heavyweight group – Milesian trumpeter Christian Scott, saxophonist and hip-hop producer Tarrace Martin, bassist Derrick Hodge, multiinstrumentalist Taylor McFerrin and drummer Justin Tyson – a line-up of major African-American talent that can deliver on Glasper's creative, open-ended fusion of jazz, soul, R&B and hip-hop. The band were scheduled for one Vicar Street date, but the transfer of the show to two nights in the more intimate Sugar Club, the second with support from acclaimed drummer Nate Smith's Kinfolk, should make this as powerful a "club" date of groove-based art music as you'll see in Dublin this year.

Thursday, July 12

Jazz at Wood Quay
Civic Offices Amphitheatre, Dublin, 1pm, No Cover Charge, improvsiedmusic.ie
The weekly lunchtime music series, running throughout July in the outdoor amphitheatre at the Civic Offices, is programmed jointly by Improvised Music Company, First Music Contact, Music Network and The Contemporary Music Centre, and is a perfect opportunity for Dubliners to catch the latest sounds in creative music in their lunchtimes without committing to a whole night of music of which they may have an irrational fear. This week, IMC's programme features Parallel Society, a funky new ensemble led by Dublin-based German guitarist and composer Jan Henrik Rau featuring some of the up-and-comers of the burgeoning Irish jazz scene, including saxophonist Yuzuha O'Halloran, keyboardist Luke Howard, bassist Eoin O'Halloran and drummer Hugh Denman.

Friday, July 13

Robocobra Quartet/Just Mustard/The Felonies
Workman's Club, Dublin, 8pm, €8/5, meetup.com/gigonometry
The first appearance in Dublin by Belfast art-rockers Robocobra will have discerning members of the capital's live music audience salivating with anticipation. Blending jazz and experimental music with hardcore post-punk and a frankly situationist attitude, drummer Chris Ryan's ever-shifting collective grew out of Belfast's Sonic Arts Research Centre and their 2016 release, Music for All Occasions, was a shot across the bows of musical orthodoxy on the island. The bill at the Workman's Club – jointly programmed by music blogger Remy and on-line fan collective Gigonometry – also features Dundalk noise-rockers Just Mustard and Wicklow alt-punk four-piece The Felonies. The faint-hearted are encouraged to make alternate arrangements.