Gigs

Dr Louis Stewart, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, began his international career in 1968 when he was awarded the special jury prize at The Montreaux International Jazz Festival. Shortly thereafter he began working with Benny Goodman, an association that lasted three years, and gave way to an extended and prominent period with the late, great, English saxophonist/flautist Tubby Hayes.

As a member of Ronnie Scott’s quartet and quintet for several years, Louis began recording as leader in the mid-’70s, making albums with Sam Jones and Billy Higgins, with Peter Ind, and later, with Red Mitchell, saxophonist Spike Robinson, pianist Bill Charlap, and now, more recently again, a new CD, recorded in Venice with alto great Peter King (”Angel Eyes”).

On the occasion of his very welcome return to Limerick Louis is supported by Len McCarthy on saxophone, Peter Hanagan on bass and John Daly on drums. More Information…

Song traditions of different complexions come under the scrutiny of five exceptional musicians in this concert that features duo and trio performance with a memorable quintet finale.

Certainly England’s and arguably Europe’s finest jazz singer, Norma Winstone has saved the very best work of a four-decade career until now. Recent recordings for ECM have drawn forth something special and here she reunites with guitarist Tommy Halferty, a perfect foil for her lissome voice and forthright delivery. It’s a style all the more affecting for its absence of histrionics and melodrama, attesting to the power of time, experience and musical refinement.The pair worked together successfully in the early 1990’s, but the occasions when they have shared a stage since then have been rare - but much talked of events in jazz circles. Norma Winstone was born in London and first attracted attention in the late sixties when she shared the bill at Ronnie Scott’s club with Roland Kirk. In 1971 she was voted top singer in the Melody Maker Jazz Poll, and over the years she has played and recorded with many of the great jazz legends. Norma Winstone continues to be at the forefront of British jazz - being nominated again in the 2007 BBC Jazz Awards for best vocalist, as well as being awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in the same year.

Tommy Halferty is from Derry, and one of that city’s proudest musical exports. Since the late 70s, he’s been an irrepressible voice, always lyrical and animated, and a generous mentor to a new generation of guitarists.

With a brace of cds together, drummer Kevin Brady here reconvenes his acclaimed trio with Dublin bassist David Redmond and Michigan pianist Bill Carrothers. One of the most lyrical and individual voices in jazz today, Carrothers is a pianist who stands apart from the crowd, and his impressive back catalogue includes the elegiac Armistice and Civil War Diaries, CDs that stand as powerful statements on the human dimension in all conflicts. Distilled over many nights as rhythm section of choice for Dublin’s leading pianists, Brady and Redmond play with all the nuance and dynamics that the idiom demands, alive to the invention and sophistication of one of the finest pianists in the US today.

Jazz singer Emilie Conway launches her debut album “The Secret of a Rose” with an evening of music to celebrate spring as a season of hope, change and new love with jazz standards You Must Believe in Spring, Joy Spring, Aguas de Marco, It Might As Well Be Spring,, But Beautiful, So In Love and many more..

Emilie: “The repertoire for this concert and album developed out of my personal response to the climate of negativity in our country over the past few years. Life has taught me that there is always hope and there is beauty, that this is a beautiful life we have here - where there are dark shadows, there is also light. For me, these songs are about affirmation and acceptance. Well just as it says in You Must Believe in Spring

“Beneath the deepest snows, the secret of a rose, Is merely that it knows, you must believe in spring!”

The evening features the talents of Emilie’s in-demand support musicians: Cian Boylan (piano), Dave Fleming (double bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums) who are among Ireland’s leading musicians, sought after north and south. The Emilie Conway Quartet has been working together for the past six years so that there is a very close musical understanding. More Information…

Pete Robbins moved to New York in September, 2002, and immediately became “a welcome presence on the creative music scene.” He has since performed and/or recorded with Vijay Iyer, John Hollenbeck, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Mario Pavone, Tyshawn Sorey, Ben Monder, Dan Weiss, Thomas Morgan, Melvin Sparks, and Kenny Wollesen, and has performed at festivals and clubs in the US and throughout Europe. Robbins’s releases “Waits and Measures” (2006, Playscape), “Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy” (2008, Fresh Sound/New Talent), and “siLENT Z - live” (2010, Hate Laugh Music) were all named as top-10 jazz releases by international media outlets.

Pete’s quartet comprises guitarist Mikkel Ploug from Denmark and Ireland’s Simon Jermyn and Sean Carpio on bass and drums. More Information…

Born in Dublin, vocalist Bob Whelan has been in various musical groups since the age of 15. In the 80’s he formed a group called Jazzology which played a number of residencies in Dublin, and also appeared several times at the Cork Jazz Festival. Bob has worked with all the major names on the Irish jazz scene: Louis Stewart, Jim Doherty, Michael Neilsen, Richie Buckley, John Wadham, Noel Kelehan, Myles Drennan, Dave Fleming to name but a few. In 1986 he featured in a tribute to Duke Ellington alongside American stars Pepper Adams, Bobby Shew, Sonny Fortune and a 50 piece orchestra which was broadcast live from the National Concert Hall. Bob has also performed a number of times in the green room in the N.C.H. including a concert featuring the music of Thelonious Monk with lyrics added, many of them written by Whelan himself.

Bob Whelan has broadcast on RTE Radio, East Coast radio and Anna Livia FM, and has appeared twice on RTE’s Late Late Show. Outside this country, he has performed in Portugal, France and England. He is currently working with guitarist Hugh Buckley and bassist Martin Curry and performing regularly around Dublin. In 2001 he sang with U.K. bassist Peter Ind and the Louis Stewart trio at the Davis Gallery jazz week in Dublin. Bob Whelan’s repertoire includes the standards from the great American songbook, the music of Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, the jazz classics of Monk, Parker et al, plus an increasing number of original songs.

At 70 yrs young Bob still performs regularly in Dublin and we are delighted at Limerick Jazz to welcome him to perform with the Limerick Jazz Quartet.

In the course of their musical partnership, David Friedman and Peter Weniger have developed a kind of intuitive and interactive sense and a love for spontaneous music making. As a result they decided to go into the studio without any preparation or pre-conceived concepts. They used compositions drawn from the great american songbook as a kind of loose framework and turned these pieces into “on the spot”, intimate musical landscapes.

The results of this informal recording turned out to be so compelling, that they decided to release this material as a CD, entitled “Rétro”.

The press response has been nothing short of astounding. “Music of incredible depth and beauty”, said “Jazz Podium. “The best jazz release of 2010!” praised “Jazz Thing”. Rétro has already been nominated for a German Grammy.

Live, this duo is nothing short of spellbinding. Their combined sound has an orchestral quality, way beyond the seeming reality of only two musicians playing together. Their highest priority is, simply, the moment.