The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival fast approaches and I wanted to send out a preview of the jazz events happening on the October Bank Holiday Weekend.

There will be a healthy mix of acts in this post, some headline, some not and some real gems but as always everything will be in the jazz event calendar on the website. With over 100 upcoming events listed on the website you are sure to find something you like.

It will be too overwhelming to cover everything in a single post so I will be following this up with a newsletter on Wednesday. Hopefully this small selection gives you a taste of what is on offer in Cork this year.

Read more: Preview of Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2022

Edel Meade received the prestigious Fulbright-Creative Ireland Professional Fellowship Award and Mary McPartlan Bursary in a ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs at Iveagh House, Dublin on Thursday 9^th June 2022 - the only professional artist and musician in the country to receive this award out of the 40 selected candidates.

Edel will be based at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley for 6 months from January 2023 exploring the intersection between jazz and traditional Irish song under the mentorship of world-leading jazz educators. Her Award will culminate in a world premiere live concert performance in collaboration with Bay Area musicians at the California Jazz Conservatory in June 2023. Edel is a recipient of the Fulbright Ireland Mary McPartlan Fund.

Read more: Edel Meade receives 2022-2023 Fulbright-Creative Ireland Professional Fellowship Award

STAR TUTORS AND A YOUTH ACADEMY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MUSIC GENERATION SLIGO

Sligo Jazz Project’s (SJP) International Summer School of jazz and improvised music returns as a live event this July 19-24 at ATU Sligo with a faculty of 30 international and Irish tutors and a full-blown jazz festival hand in hand with Europe’s most inclusive jazz education event

SJP’s Youth Academy partnership with Music Generation Sligo has also been renewed, with 20 subsidized places for young Sligo resident musicians aged 10-18 available at this world-class event.

SJP is a well-established international event running for 17 years, with a hectic schedule that leaves all who attend elated, inspired and educated. SJP’s visiting tutors, many of them major international figures in the jazz world, play host to morning workshops from 10am each day at ATU Sligo, on a variety of subjects, then give masterclasses till lunch. Participants and tutors have lunch together in the IT canteen, and then get down to the business of working on their performance skills in ensembles. SJP Youth Academy has its own dedicated faculty to work with its youth ensembles.

Read more: Sligo Jazz Project Ready to Roll Again

Bray Jazz Festival makes a welcome return to the annual calendar, and has announced yet another great line up of international talent it will bring to Irish shores on the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Missing due to Covid for the past two years, the festival returns for its 21st edition on April 29th, 30th and May 1st - with legendary American guitarist Bill Frisell set to make a welcome return to Ireland as the opening night headliner, at Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray.

Alongside Frisell on the headlining bill are one of the stars of the contemporary UK jazz scene, trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, who brings her quartet to Bray on Saturday, April 30th, while on May 1st it's the turn of Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen, who is set to release his newest album on the ECM label next month, to play the festival's main stage at Mermaid.

Read more: Bray Jazz Returns for 21st Year

Double A side single releases from Ríona Sally Hartman released on February 24th 2022, two sister songs called SEED and BLOOM. Available now from Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify

“I want these songs to get people out of bed in the morning. Seed starts gentle, and joyful, to wake you up while you make your coffee. By the time you’ve reached the end of Bloom the whole band is in full ecstatic mode, cheering you on so you’re ready to go out to face the day.”

- Riona Sally Hartman

Read more: New music from Ríona Sally Hartman entitled SEED & BLOOM

Dorota Konchevska is releasing a new single entitled “Gold Goes Out” on 18 February 2022 on the Max Min Records label. Gloriously dark Polish -via-Dublin electronic diva producer conjures up emotional introspective sketches writing them in a woodland hut during lockdown.

Dublin based artist Dorota, began her career as a jazz singer and has evolved into a multifaceted artist & producer, capable of breathtaking feets of alchemy that fuses her ethereal vocals with leftfield electronic music.

Read more: New Single - Gold Goes Out from Dorota Konchevska

Irish singer songwriter Aoife Doyle released LOVE CONQUERS ALL, the fourth single from her upcoming album on 11th of February. It's a soulful song about love released just in time for Valentines Day.

'LOVE CONQUERS ALL is about coming to a realisation that love truly is the answer to many of life's problems and questions.'

'Aoife Doyle combines the guts and vulnerability of a blues singer with the poise and musicianship of a well-schooled jazz artist .... Her albums to date have charted her growth from singer to songwriter, and she always keeps impeccable musical company.'

THE IRISH TIMES

'One of the most eagerly awaited albums... and it doesn't disappoint. It's right up there with anything I have heard this year.' 

LINLEY HAMILTON BBC Radio Ulster

Aoife Doyle is originally from Bray, Co. Wicklow now living in Co. Clare. While she has been performing for many years, it was upon moving to the West Coast of Ireland that she found her songwriting voice.

Read more: AOIFE DOYLE shares new song LOVE CONQUERS ALL from upcoming album INFINITELY CLEAR