Wandering home after an early week dinner, and with a glint in the eye for one for the road, we heard some hot jazz sounds wafting up from the basement of Dublin’s International Bar on Wicklow Street. Down the steps we stumbled to find the Alex Mathias Trio in full swing, playing red-hot standards to a respectable mid-week crowd.
The trio are Mathias on saxophone, Damian Evans on double bass and Dominic Mullan on drums, and their two sets brought a flavour of the Lower East Side to the International’s venerable Cellar. And the cost? Whatever you cared to drop into Mathias’s hat, which was passed around during the interval.
If you can't catch Mathias on this Tuesday residency, he is also in action with his quartet, featuring Johnny Taylor (piano), James Little (bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums), at the Stout Bar in Rathmines on Thursday nights. www.myspace.com/alexmathias. Laurence Mackin