Music

This best jazz gigs in Dublin for the week ahead

The Spectrum Festival, the Nigel Mooney Quartet and Terra Firmish grace the capital

Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen and his Magnetia Orkestri perform at the Spectrum Festival in Dublin on Saturday, MArch 9th.

Cormac Larkin's face
Cormac Larkin
Sat Mar 9 2019 - 05:00

Saturday, 9th

Spectrum Festival
Various venues, Dublin; continues until Sunday, 10th
improvisedmusic.ie

The Spectrum Festival, now in its third year, is a rare chance on these shores to inspect the increasingly blurred frontiers of creative music.

Still to come this weekend is an exciting double bill from Dublin post-electro-math-rockers Alarmist and Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen’s Magnetia Orkestri (Saturday); and an opportunity to witness a live performance by star Dublin turntablist Djackulate, aka Jack McMahon, still glowing from his impressive victory in the Clash of the Titans scratching competition at the Sample Music Festival in Berlin last September (Sunday).

Appearing at the Spectrum Festival in Dublin on Sunday, March 10th, is award-winning Dublin turntablist Djackulate, aka Jack McMahon.

Nigel Mooney Quartet
Arthurs, Dublin, 9pm, €10
arthurspub.ie

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Flying the flag for classic jazz – and particularly for the bluesy, groovy strain of soul jazz recorded by Grant Green on the Blue Note label in the 1950s and 1960s – Dubliner Nigel Mooney has been one of the most popular jazz performers in Ireland for more than two decades.

Drawing on his early career as a blues musician (Mooney was the original founder of the legendary Gripewater Blues Band back in the 1980s), and wearing his devotion to Ray Charles and Les McCann on his tailored sleeves, the singer and guitarist delivers a storming show that will satisfy those who still need their jazz to swing hard.

And with an A-team rhythm section of pianist Johnny Taylor, bassist Barry Donohue and drummer Dominic Mullen, Mooney’s band is geared to do just that.

Sunday, 10th

Joe O'Callaghan
Workman's Club, Dublin, 7.30pm, €10
facebook.com/dublinjazzcoop

Tipperary guitarist Joe O’Callaghan would be a household name if he chose to base himself anywhere near a major metropolis.

An extravagantly talented musician, with a particular devotion to six string pyrotechnicians like Alan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin, O’Callaghan’s rare visits to the capital should be required listening for anyone interested in the electric guitar.

O’Callaghan’s unassuming current trio is a powerful combination of individual voices, with adventurous Japanese keyboardist Izumi Kimura – hot on the heels of the release of her own critically acclaimed trio recording, Illuminated Silence – and mercurial bassist Derek Whyte of RedivideR; part of the artist curated series from the Dublin Jazz Co-Op in the intimate Vintage Room overlooking the Liffey, upstairs at the Workman’s Club.

Composer Seán Mac Erlaine’s Terra Firmish show combines contemporary dance and new original music at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin on Friday, March 15th.

Friday, 15th

Terra Firmish
Smock Alley, Dublin, 7.30pm, €16.50
stpatricksfestival.ie

Terra Firmish is musician and composer Sean MacErlaine’s paean to Teampall Caomhán, a tenth century church on Inis Oírr that would have long since been buried in sand were it not for repeated excavations by the islanders over the centuries.

Inspired by their Sisyphean labours, Mac Erlaine – one of Ireland’s most original musical voices and one quarter of the world-beating This Is How We Fly –  has created a piece of innovative musical theatre, which he calls ‘part elegy and part playful commentary on the increasing absurdity and inevitability of the situation’, featuring dancer and choreographer Emma O’Kane, with harpist Maeve Gilchrist, percussionist Alex Petcu and the composer on woodwinds and electronics.