“Stella Bass is a storyteller.” So wrote Los Angeles’ Musical Memoirs, and at this year’s Guinness Cork Jazz Festival she tells the story of the greatest jazz singer of them all: Ella Fitzgerald.

Hailed by Jazziz magazine as “one of Ireland’s leading vocal jazz talents,” Stella has been interpreting the Great American Songbook for nearly 20 years. Her 2024 album Look for the Silver Lining was Grammy-longlisted, cementing her reputation as one of Ireland’s finest jazz voices.

Luke Thomas & The Swing Cats will perform on The Everyman stage as part of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival.

Ireland’s King of Swing, Luke Thomas, returns after his acclaimed sell-out performance at last year’s Guinness Cork Jazz Festival with his brand-new Kings of Swing Tour.

Mås Exödus exploded onto the scene in 2021, the brainchild of ChoiceCuts’ very own Mark Murphy and guitarist & MD Max Zaska. Together they explore modern contemporary jazz sounds along with an all-star band of Irish players (including Dylan Lynch, Matthew Halpin, Eamon Cagney, Luke Howard & Neal Dorrington) who share a love for soul and jazz music across the board that has been championed by ChoiceCuts over the past 20 years.

British synth wizard James Holden meets Polish clarinet guru Waclaw Zimpel to form Holden & Zimpel: a collaborative alliance wherein these two versatile modern composers might explore their deepest improvisational urges in an intimate setting, to strikingly lush, hypnotic and deeply emotive effect. Two like-minded masters of their instrument come together in an in-the-moment lyrical conversation between alto clarinet and modular synth, cementing the joyful convergence of their disparate musical journeys in an explosion of raw musical creativity in its most primal form.

After a stunning debut at the Bulman Bar as part of the 2024 Cork Jazz Festival, Lewis and her quartet return with a fresher and more playful set of classic golden age jazz. Danceable, elegant & timeless with stunning vocals, superb musicianship & a playfully infectious energy that keeps audiences smiling & feet tapping.

Delicate, profound, and full of lyrical power: British jazz vocalist Norma Winstone and pianist Glauco Venier present themselves in a fascinating duo configuration.

Winstone – a defining voice of European jazz, notably known from the trio Azimuth with John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler – is, at over 80 years of age, more artistically present than ever. As an artist who understands herself not only as a jazz singer but also as a lyricist, Norma brings her poetic sensibility to new compositions by Kit Downes, as well as works by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor, on the 2024 ECM album Outpost of Dreams, giving each piece a fresh dimension. Glauco Venier, one of Europe’s most compelling pianists, has shared the stage with Norma for many years. He impresses with a deep musical intuition and a playing style that is at once sensitive to every nuance and marked by extraordinary creativity. Their trio album with Klaus Gesing was even nominated for a Grammy in 2007.

Pianist Colin Vallon joins forces with two of Europe’s most prominent and original musicians: Matthieu Michel, whose unmistakable sound on the trumpet could by itself be the definition of beauty, and drums wizard Jorge Rossy, one of the most influential musicians today. The repertoire oscillates between free improvisation, own compositions, and older gems by Don Cherry, Thelonious Monk and Gabriel Fauré, amongst others.

As the title suggests, the notion of ‘time’ pulls through the programme like a theme, connecting music from different parts of the world – traditionals, popular songs and original compositions – in performances of deep lyricism but also fleet-footed folklore. The repertory spans Albanian and Kosovan traditionals, American songs as well as originals by Rob and Elina.

Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist, composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear broader creativity shining through. It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t fit.