Aleka and Oxygen Thief - Limerick Jazz Festival 2024

This year’s Festival opener is a show of two halves featuring the same personnel but two different programmes. In the first half singer Aleka Potinga showcases her 2024 EP ‘Romania: Songs of Love and Longing’ which draws on Romanian folk melodies, freighted with elements of jazz and rock to create a hip, cosmopolitan soundscape reflecting Aleka’s journey across boundaries and genres.

The release reflects Aleka's life journey from being born and raised in Romania as a classical cellist to moving to Ireland and becoming one of the most exciting and versatile vocalists in the Irish jazz scene, garnering attention of Irish jazz household names, working alongside the likes of Tommy Halferty, Michael Buckley, and Ronan Guilfoyle. As well as playing in Ireland, she has been a featured guest with the Romanian Radio Big Band.

The second half of the shows sees Chris Guilfolye’s Oxygen Thief trio joined by Aleka extend the cosmopolitan feel. Oxygen Thief's music aims to reimagine the traditional confines of the jazz guitar trio by blending elements of math rock and electronica together with jazz. The trio featuring Chris Guilfoyle on guitar, Barry Donohue on bass and Matthew Jacobson on drums - has a unique chemistry through their years of playing as the rhythm section in the critically acclaimed quintet Umbra.

Line-Up:

Aleka Potinga - Vocal/Cello
Chris Guilfoyle - Guitar
Barry Donohue - Bass
Matt Jacobson - Drums

Fresh sounds with eastern tinges

- Irish Times

Experience, delight, vocation, hard work, emotion, recreation, variation, improvisation – all of these revealed a moment of musical quality'

- MagmaNews (Romania)

Hip cosmopolitan sounds... have a borderless, trans-national flavour, liberally spiced with bossa nova, downtown jazz, outlier pop, art rock and free improv

- The Irish Times about ‘Aleka’ EP

Location of event - Get Directions

Venue Information - Dolan's Pub

Dolans pub is the hub of the complex, a traditional Irish bar with Irish music seven nights a week all year round. It has become a cultural attraction and this year received the IMRO award for best Live Music venue in Ireland. The bar is open 12pm daily for lunch and 10am on weekends and public holidays for breakfast.