April, 2010

Linley has been on the scene for many years now having doubled up his jazz career with one in the Rock and Pop arena. Well known for his work with Paul Brady, Linley has also toured or recorded with Andrew Strong, the Commitments, Foy Vance, Eleanor McEvoy and Duke Special among others, but has somewhat left that side of his career behind to concentrate on jazz.

Having toured and recorded with Jacqui Dankworth in the ‘Noughties’ Linley has a successful weekly jazz show on BBC Radio Ulster with recent guests including Wynton Marsalis, Jan Garbareck, John Abercrombie, Walter Becker and Billy Cobham. In 2001 he released his debut album ‘Up to Now’ and toured extensively with a line up that included Dublin Saxophone phenomenon Derek O’Connor. Renowned as a bebop and hard bop player, Linley shows a love for all styles modern and has a lyrical approach to the Flugel Horn which has played a more substantial role in his work of recent years.

In 2009 Linley went ‘back to school’ and studied at DIT in Dublin under Mike Neilsen where he achieved a 1st in Master of Jazz performance and won the Student Academic Excellence Award along with it. He has recently penned a Kind of Blue Theatre Show and is touring with it in Ireland in April 2010 and embarks on a PhD in Jazz in September this year.

Derek ‘Doc’ O’Connor has played saxophone from the age of nine and turned professional at age seventeen. His style is very much high intensity in the Bob Berg, Michael Brecker mold and his live playing is always an exciting experience. Derek toured with the European Jazz Youth Orchestra in 2001 representing Ireland and divides his time between recording sessions,touring and live gigs.

Derek has performed with many top artists including Paul Brady. Van Morrison, Chaka Khan and Jeffrey Osborne to name but a few. He is currently the house saxophonist on ‘Tubridy Tonight’ which airs every saturday night and also ’You’re a Star’ on Sundays during the autumn. Derek has recently received rave reviews for his playing on Niall O’Niell’s debut album ’As If’ with the band Reverse Trust featuring Ireland’s top session musicians.