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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: Sligo Jazz Festival 2025: Celebrating 20 Years of Jazz, Community & Creativity
Jazz is the teacher. That’s the message running through this year’s Sligo Jazz Festival, which returns from 22–27 July 2025, marking its 20th anniversary with a week-long celebration of boundary-breaking performance, deep musical exchange, and serious good vibes.
Kicking off with a programme launch and live performance on Thursday, June 12th at Lillies Cocktail Bar, the festival gets its first spark from UK guitarist Ant Law and vocalist Brigitte Beraha, two of the many creative voices shaping this year’s programme. The evening will also unveil the full SJP 2025 schedule — and what a schedule it is.
“Funk may be the preacher but jazz is the teacher,” writes Stephen Graham in the official festival programme foreword. “Whether a learner or observer, the Sligo Jazz Project’s faculty — its biggest ever — sends a signed, sealed, delivered message hand delivered person to person, generation to generation, musician to musician.”
Read more: Sligo Jazz Festival 2025: Celebrating 20 Years of Jazz, Community & Creativity
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- Written by: Werner Lewon
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
Read more: Tales from the far Side 12.0.625 Vibraphone Magic-Icons and Innovators
On this addition I explore the magic sound of the Vibraphone in Jazz with music from some of the Icons and some of the modern voices on this instrument, with music by Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson, Stefon Harris, Steve Nelson, Patricia Brennan, Sasha Berliner, Yuhan Su and others.
Read more: Tales from the far Side 12.0.625 Vibraphone Magic-Icons and Innovators
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- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Read more: Louis Stewart’s I Thought About You: A Landmark Recording Reborn
Release Date: May 29, 2025
Livia Records | Remixed, Remastered, and Extended Edition with 16-page Booklet and Photos
“In my book he's one of the world's great jazz guitarists.” – Ronnie Scott
Louis Stewart’s extraordinary career is once again illuminated by the latest release from Livia Records: a fully remixed and remastered edition of I Thought About You, a studio album recorded in 1977 featuring a stellar international quartet—British pianist John Taylor, and the powerhouse American rhythm team of Sam Jones and Billy Higgins.
Originally released in 1980 with some edits and overdubs, this new version restores the album to its original brilliance, using the master tapes recorded at London’s Olympic Studios. With two additional tracks and a 16-page booklet of rare photos and newly commissioned notes, this reissue confirms I Thought About You as one of the definitive documents of Stewart’s artistry.
Read more: Louis Stewart’s I Thought About You: A Landmark Recording Reborn
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- Written by: Werner Lewon
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
Read more: Tales from the far Side 05.06.25 Let some Jazz into your heart-The Song is you
On this edition I explore some magic Jazz standard about the power and spirit of a song, from "I feel a Song coming on" to "letting it into your heart", the soundtrack delivered by Emmet Cohen, Houston Person, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dinah Washington, Sonny Rollins, Claire Martin, Perrick Pedron+Ruben Gonzales, Milt Jackson and others
Read more: Tales from the far Side 05.06.25 Let some Jazz into your heart-The Song is you
- Details
- Written by: Werner Lewon
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
Read more: Tales from the far Side 29.05.25 Jazz Trumpet innovators and elders
On this week's edition I feature some of the movers and shakers of modern progressive Jazz trumpet with music by Woody Shaw, Eddie Henderson, Jon Faddis, Bill Dixon, Lester Bowie and Dave Douglas
Read more: Tales from the far Side 29.05.25 Jazz Trumpet innovators and elders
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- Written by: Werner Lewon
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: All Other Jazz
Read more: Tales from the far Side 22.05.25 Jazz Straight ahead into you heart
On this edition you can hear a selection of "straight ahead and straight up and down Jazz", Jazz straight for your ears, heart and mind.
So get up and groove along to the music of Hank Mobley, the QOW Trio, the Particle Trio, Eric Dolphy, Gary Burton, Gerry Mulligan+Thelonious Monk, Carmen McRae and others
Read more: Tales from the far Side 22.05.25 Jazz Straight ahead into you heart
- Details
- Written by: Red Keane
- Parent Category: Jazz Ireland Blog
- Category: Jazz News
Composer and guitarist Orlando Molina steps into the spotlight with the release of his debut album Autorretrato en Tres Colores (Self-Portrait in Three Colours) on May 23, 2025 — a sweeping, seven-track reflection on migration, transformation, and the emotional terrain that lies between.
Blending contemporary jazz with the vibrant folk traditions of Latin America, Molina crafts an intricate and deeply personal sonic portrait. Each composition is a chapter of his life, composed during different stages of his journey from Venezuela to Ireland, and informed by the emotional tension between departure and arrival, longing and belonging. With striking clarity, the album reveals the quiet resilience and joy found in cultural hybridity and self-discovery.