The 2020 Guinness Cork Jazz Festival has been cancelled.

In a statement, organisers said: “As a result of COVID-19 and current Government restrictions on indoor and outdoor activities, with the requirement for physical distancing, the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival Committee regrets to confirm the cancellation of this year’s Festival. “

“We know that this announcement will be disappointing for music fans, artists, publicans and the wider Cork community but their health and safety is our number one priority. We look forward to bringing back a strong, exciting and memorable Festival in 2021.”

Read more: Guinness Cork Jazz Festival cancelled due to Covid-19

Jan & Jannike have been collaborating with Dublin based producer Matt Vukos to produce their first official single called MVAS. The new single was released on the 26th of June and this is the video release for the same track.

About the Video

As Jan & Jannike were in lockdown at the time of creating this single and video release it presented them with an opportunity to try something new in terms of visuals. Everything you see in the video tracks with the narrative of the single very well.

Read more: New Video Release “MVAS” from Jan & Jannike

Jan & Jannike have been collaborating with Dublin based producer Matt Vukos to produce their first official single called MVAS. The new single will be released on 26^th  of June and 2 weeks later the video will drop on the 10^th  of July.

Both graduates of NewPark Music Academy; a passion for music drew them both to Dublin, Ireland, where they studied music and honed their craft. A world away from their roots, it was an urban hub that touched their sound, staying with them as they headed in search of a different kind of inspiration, starting a new chapter in Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

Their art is a dancer between two worlds: the urban and the natural; evoking the modernity of city life while drawing from the dark melancholy of their origins. Somewhere between art pop, folktronica and modern jazz pop, they explore a distinct perspective and a fascination with the human condition in its many guises.

Read more: New Single Release “MVAS” from Jan & Jannike

Markus Strothmann releases the title track of his new album of the same name “Emerald” today on all major streaming platforms. Markus was due to embark on a 7 date Irish / German Tour but like all jazz musicians the tour is postponed for a later date. In the meantime this gives you the chance to preview this amazing album with a fantastic band behind it so that when the tour does come up again you won’t hesitate to grab a ticket.

Listen to “Emerald” from Markus Strothmann and follow him on Spotify. Lyrics for this track by Suzanne Savage.

Read more: New Single Release “Emerald” from Markus Strothmann

Mere Nation is the third Diatribe release from Dublin-based two-horns-no chords quartet ReDiviDeR. It follows ‘meets I Dig Monk, Tuned’ (2013) and ‘Never odd or eveN’ (2011), which were described as “an inspired endeavour” by No More Workhorse, “a big leap forward” by Marlbank and “a striking musical collage…recommended for those generally disposed to imaginative, genre-bending music” in All About Jazz.

The group, lead by drummer and composer Matthew Jacobson and completed by alto saxophonist Nick Roth, trombonist Colm O’Hara and bassist Derek Whyte, took a short sabbatical from performing after their last release, and in the last few years have been developing a new approach that aims to give maximum freedom to each of the musicians’ considerable improvisatory instincts, while still retaining Jacobson’s penchant for off-kilter grooves and interlocking melodies.

Read more: ReDiviDeR “Mere Nation” Album Release

The Sofa Sessions, Kilkenny announce an exciting Spring season of concerts, commencing Thursday 6^th February, featuring national and international musicians in the atmospheric Terrace Room at Billy Byrne’s. 

Musicians from the US, Japan, France, Germany and Venezuela join some of the finest Irish jazz musicians in an intimate, listener-friendly space that RTE Radio 1 has called ‘perhaps the best jazz venue in Ireland’.

The Sofa Sessions at Billy Byrne’s is thrilled to announce its Spring programme with an exciting and eclectic programme of fresh-sounding creative music, featuring some of the finest musicians on the national and international stage. Programmed by local musician and Irish Times jazz critic Cormac Larkin, the Sofa Sessions begins its fifth year of weekly concerts the next one being on Thursday February 13th, bringing high-level instrumentalists and acclaimed vocalists to the discerning Kilkenny audience.

Read more: Sofa Sessions Spring Season 2020

Birth of the Cool. On Jan 21st, 1949 the great jazz trumpeter Miles Davis assembled a nonet of four brass, two saxophones and three rhythm to record four tracks with eight more to come in April 1949 and March 1950. These recordings would make jazz history creating what we now call the “Birth of the Cool” sessions. Arrangements and compositions for the nonet were provided by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, John Carisi and Miles himself. The music fused elements of classical harmony with the jazz rhythm section and is now considered as important as Duke Ellington’s 1940’s recordings or Miles’s later masterpiece “Kind of Blue”.

Read more: The Conor Guilfoyle Octet performs “Miles Davis’s BIRTH OF THE COOL” and West Coast Cool Jazz from...