Big Band Evolution pianist Cormac McCarthy: ‘I’m still not able to understand how I played. It was painful to hit the keys’
The musician hit an unexpected barrier when tendonitis almost stopped him performing. But it also led to his noted career as a composer and arranger
Seamus Murphy took his camera from the Rust Belt to Russia. What he saw took him aback
The cold war was built on assumptions that Americans and Russians lived opposite lives. ‘What if that was a lie?’ the Irish photographer asks in his new book
Emma Rawicz: ‘I think jazz is made for people who don’t necessarily fit into life’s prescribed boxes’
Young saxophonist, composer and bandleader says she is a ‘massive perfectionist and complete workaholic’
Irish drummer Kevin Brady: ‘Most nights you’re able to hear great live jazz. But we need something like classical has in the NCH’
The musician, whose multinational Kevin Brady Electric Quartet embark on a rare tour in May, talks about teaching, his influences and the state of jazz in Ireland
‘You have to be delusional to be successful in anything’ – Bray Jazz Festival star Nubya Garcia
The saxophonist has seen huge changes in British jazz since her early performances. She’s now both a figurehead and a breakthrough international star
The Music of Kenny Wheeler review: All-star Irish line-up keeps jazz virtuoso’s legacy vibrantly alive
Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Leopoldo Osio and Brendan Doherty are joined by Wheeler’s friend Nick Smart – the perfect host, guide and devotee
Ethan Iverson at Triskel review: Jazz pianist shows off his harmonic elegance, delicate touch and winningly relaxed manner
Cork venue also hosts outstanding quintet led by trombonist, composer and Cork music hero Paul Dunlea
‘The holy men thought it was vulgar and obscene’: Irish jazz pianist Jim Doherty on 70 years in music
The musician, whose jazz ballet suite Spondance is about to be re-released, is as important to jazz as John Banville is to literature, Robert Ballagh to art and Gay Byrne to TV
Top five Irish jazz albums of 2024, from Mary Coughlan to Adjunct Ensemble
‘Thank God I’m alive,’ Mary Coughlan sings on her album Repeat, Rewind. Hear, hear
Marilyn Mazur Special 4 at Cork Jazz Festival 2024 review: Rhythm, movement and enchantment brilliantly to the fore
The shapeshifting percussionist, who played vital roles in bands led by Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek, leads an absorbing 70-minute set
Gregory Porter review: Cork Jazz Festival at its best, with music that reaches out and welcomes you in
The Grammy winner gets his biggest cheer for Hey Laura, but Porter standards such as Liquid Spirit and Mister Holland are no less rapturously received
Danish guitarist Jakob Bro on Paul Motian: ‘It was the most surreal thing ever, like calling someone from a different planet’
Cork Jazz Festival 2024: Bro got his big break when the renowned drummer Motian asked him to join his band
Nubya Garcia: Odyssey – An exhilarating mix of jazz, reggae, dub, neosoul and R&B
This multilayered and carefully crafted music feels like a significant step forward
Arooj Aftab: ‘If we all listened to more things that surprise us, we’d all be better for it’
Nobody does sound design like the Pakistani-raised singer and producer, whose new album is ‘about being flirty and crazy’ and who will soon seduce Dublin
Ezra Collective: ‘The Irish and Nigerians have got a lot more in common than Guinness!’
Ezra Collective’s new album, an ‘ode to the sacred act of dancing’, could be set in a church or at a carnival, wedding or even funeral, says Femi Koleoso