Line-up unveiled for jazz festival
Modern jazz: Herbie Hancock.
Thursday September 02 2010
THE line-up for this year's Guinness Cork Jazz Festival has been unveiled, with a host of top international names set to grace the stages of venues across the city during the event.
Now in its 33rd year, the festival has become one of the most popular events of its kind in Europe, attracting fans from across the globe to see some of the world's finest musicians perform live.
Over the years the event has played host to some of the greatest jazz and blues musicians of all time, including Ella Fitzgerald, Cleo Laine, BB King, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Mel, Torme and Dizzy Gillespie to name but a few.
This year's programme will continue that same great tradition with more than 1,000 musicians from 29 countries performing in over 80 venues across the city over the October bank holiday weekend.
The concerts will include an evening in the company of the legendary Maceo Parker who will appear on a double bill with Creamy Goodness in the Everyman Palace Theatre on Sunday, October 24. Having played with everyone from James Brown to The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Parker navigates deftly from the soul funk of the 1960s right through to the contemporary grooves of hip-hop.
Another highlight of the festival will be a concert by the mercurial Steve Winwood, who will play a double bill with Yori Honing's Wired Paradise from Holland at the Everyman on the same evening.
The night before, the venue will play host to Herbie Hancock, one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. As part of Miles Davis' 'second great quintet' Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the 'post-bop' sound.
One of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesisers and funk, Hancock's music is melodic and accessible, with many of his cross over compositions achieving success within different genres.
Other notable concerts will include performances by The Brand New Heavies with support from Norwegian acapella group Apes and Babes, the Charles Haden Quartet, the Robert Glasper Experiment, the Vijay Iyer Trio and Omar Sosa.
This year will also see the return of the everpopular Guinness Music trail, which will see gigs taking place in a number of intimate venues across the city over the weekend.
Full detail of the trail and the festival club will be announced over the coming weeks.
Tickets for the headline concerts are now available for purchase either online at www. guinnessjazzfestival.com or directly from the venues, a list of which can be found on the festival website.
- BILL BROWNE
