Even at this early stage, next year looks like another lively one for jazz. The Improvised Music Company's Gerry Godley has lined up visits by Ralph Towner, the Seamus Blake Quartet (both February), the Dave Holland Octet (March), Florian Ross's Octagon with Michael Buckley and strings, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio (both April) and The European Youth Jazz Orchestra (July - Belfast, Cork and Dublin).
Octagon will tour and record here; other recording projects include the Karnatic College of Percussion with Khanda, Ronan Guilfoyle's Lingua Franca, singer Dorothy Murphy, Dave Liebman with the Guilfoyle/Nielsen trio and the Noel Kelehan Quartet. The IMC also plans to continue the highly successful ESB Routes in Rhythm series with the Karnatic College and Khanda, La Bottine Souriante, Vocal Sampling and Les Mysteres Des Voix Bulgares, among others. There will also be a musicians' forum, a return for the Berklee masterclass/audition, the annual Openjazz day, an outreach pilot scheme and a tour support scheme. And the ESB Jazz Festival is down for its usual spot, though programme details are yet to be completed.
Ben Jackson's Note Productions plans two seasons for the ESB next year. The spring season will have four concerts from March to June, the autumn season will also have four concerts from September to December. All will be at Vicar Street.
The Dublin Jazz Society is looking at a programme which could bring in some of its regular mainstream visitors. The only unusual name being contemplated is that of tenor saxophonist Red Holloway. And it's a bit on the early side to name, with any degree of confidence, the possibles for the Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork next year, or the jazz element in the Belfast Festival at Queen's.
Ray Comiskey
Faces of 2001: far left, the original version of Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie, to be staged here by Opera Ireland in a new production directed by Patrick Mason; centre, top, Robbie Williams, to play at Lansdowne Road; below left, painter Camille Souter, subject of a retrospective in Dublin and Sligo; below, Abbey artistic director Ben Barnes with Minister for the Arts, Sile de Valera; above, composer Gerald Barry a new piece in Bantry