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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: Louis Stewart & Brian Dunning – Alone Together
Remastered and Extended Edition • Livia Records • Out November 14th, 2025
Livia Records continues its remarkable restoration of the Louis Stewart catalogue with the reissue of Alone Together, a captivating live duo recording featuring Louis Stewart on guitar and Brian Dunning on flute. Originally recorded over three lunchtime concerts at Dublin’s Peacock Theatre in August 1979, the album captures two of Ireland’s most gifted musicians in perfect musical conversation — inventive, intimate, and alive with the spirit of spontaneous creation.
This new edition has been remixed and remastered from the original quarter-inch tapes, and includes two previously unreleased studio tracks, newly discovered during the digitisation process. The result is a beautifully restored album that celebrates the clarity, warmth and dynamic interplay between the guitar and flute — an inspired pairing that proved as lyrical as it was daring.
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- Written by: Daniel Rorke
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Album Reviews
Read more: Album Review: Nils Kavanagh – No Expectations
Nils Kavanagh – Piano
Marcus Baber – Bass
Sam Green – Drums
It is perhaps unsurprising that Sligo is now producing musicians of note, given the educational focus of the annual Jazz Project there. At a mere 21 years old Nils Kavanagh, an alumnus of the festival and summer school, and student of the exceptional-playing and always well-dressed Belfast pianist Scott Flanigan, has released a recording of introspective yet dynamic piano trio music that projects a sense of self-awareness and assuredness uncommon in a musician of his age.
Kavanagh is an Irish and Danish duel national, and here on his debut recording entitled No Expectations he presents seven of his own compositions that thematically reference notion of place and being. In his own words, he asserts that the overarching theme, which fuelled the creative drive for this release, was the question of what it means to “dwell”. Indeed, the music itself carries a quality of some sort of suspension in place. No doubt a good deal of this has come by way of the Jazz and adjacent improvised music he has absorbed through his associations in Scandinavia. Congruent with much of the Scandinavian Fjord-Jazz, the pianist describes his music in heavily narrative terms, citing a mix of mythology and geography, such as the cairn at Knocknarea, and personal touchstones such as his relationship to his Danish grandmother’s clock.
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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: Applications are now open for the Music Network Music Capital Scheme 2025.
Deadline: Thursday 27 November 2025 at 2pm
The Music Capital Scheme, which is supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, provides funding for the purchase of musical instruments and selected items of equipment to individual professional musicians and non-professional groups across the country.
A total of €1,040,000 in funding is available through the following awards which are now open for applications:
- Award 1 - for non-professional performing groups
- Award 2 – for individual established professional performing musicians
- Award 3 – for individual emerging professional performing musicians
An extensive range of applicant supports will be delivered between now and the application deadline. These will be available to both organisations and individuals, with a particular focus on supporting first time and previously unsuccessful applicants.
Read more: Applications are now open for the Music Network Music Capital Scheme 2025.
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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
On this week's edition I explore the magic sound of the Bass in the Jazz environment, exploring it in all its beauty and variety from the majestic acoustic Double String Bass to the fretless electric bass. And you can "Bass-ically Speking" hear Charles Mingus, Ray Brown, Victor Wooden, Christian McBride, Steve Bailey, Dave Holland, Stanley Clarke and others
- Details
- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: Nigel Mooney Prepares to Release Mooney’s Mood — A Heartfelt Collection of Ballads
Nigel Mooney, one of Ireland’s most enduring and beloved figures in jazz and blues, has announced his forthcoming album, Mooney’s Mood, now available for advance purchase through his website.
Currently in the final stages of production, Mooney’s Mood is a record of Mooney’s favourite ballads, recorded in intimate small-group settings. The album features an impressive roster of Irish and international artists, including Louis Stewart, Jim Doherty, Michael Buckley, Johnny Taylor, Scott Flanigan, and guest vocalist Deborah Swiney.
The album grew out of Mooney’s long-running Sunday night residency at Dublin’s United Arts Club — an eight-year tradition that inspired a return to the elegance and restraint of the ballad form. Performing in an unamplified trio with Johnny Taylor (piano) and Barry Donohue (bass), Mooney rediscovered the subtlety and beauty of quieter expression.
Read more: Nigel Mooney Prepares to Release Mooney’s Mood — A Heartfelt Collection of Ballads
- Details
- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: A Night of Musical Alchemy: The 8th Italian Fusion Festival – Jazz Edition
Consider that magical moment when two cultures meet — when Irish spirit and Italian passion converse in the language of improvisation. That’s what awaits Dubliners on Saturday, 15 November 2025, when the 8th Italian Fusion Festival – Jazz Edition takes over the cozy and elegant stage of the United Arts Club.
If you love music that surprises, art that speaks between lines, and evenings rich with connection — this is one you’ll want to mark in your diary.
What is the Italian Fusion Festival?
The Italian Fusion Festival, organised by Radio Dublino, is a beautifully ambitious celebration of what happens when Italian and Irish artistry combine. It is not just a concert series, but a multidisciplinary festival, weaving together music, visual art, film, hospitality and cultural exchange.
Now in its eighth edition, the Jazz Edition continues a tradition: bringing international talent to Dublin, spotlighting the creative energy of artists in Ireland with Italian roots or connections, and inviting dialogue across art forms.
Backed by the Italian Institute of Culture and RTÉ, it has become a fixture in Dublin’s cultural calendar — one that promises to surprise, enchant, and linger in the imagination.
Read more: A Night of Musical Alchemy: The 8th Italian Fusion Festival – Jazz Edition
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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
Read more: Tales from the far Side 16.10.25 Preview of Jazz Fest Berlin 2025
On this edition I preview this year's Jazzfest Berlin by featuring some of the appearing artists in expectation of another groundbreaking celebration of modern contemporary progressive Jazz spearheaded by artists like Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Martha Sanchez, David Murray, Tomeika Reid, Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan and others, some of their music featured here today
Read more: Tales from the far Side 16.10.25 Preview of Jazz Fest Berlin 2025