FRIDAY 18th
BOWING TO BENNETT – Cormac Kenevey & Cian Boylan, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 1pm, €16/14, nch.ie
In the late 2000s, polished Dublin vocalist Cormac Kenevey released two fine albums on the Candid label – This Is Living (2006) and The Art of Dreaming (2009) – but these days, such is the demand for his services, you are more likely to hear him at private functions than in public performance. Here's a chance to hear his velvet voice in person, paying tribute to the great Tony Bennett, with a group led by multi-talented pianist and arranger Cian Boylan.
BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME – Jennifer MacMahon, Bello Bar, Dublin, 8pm, €15, bellobardublin.com
Singer Jennifer MacMahon has just completed a masters degree at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Valencia. Tonight, she launches her debut album, Part of the Whole, with a young trio led by US pianist Clifford Bond. Support comes from rising Dublin-based Palestinian vocalist Ruba Shamshoum.
TAKIN' OFF – This Is How We Fly, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, 8pm, €15, siriusartscentre.ie
Gravity-defying supergroup This Is How We Fly artfully elude the genre nets. Though rooted in the Irish tradition – thanks to Gloaming fiddler Caoimhin O´ Raghallaigh – this quartet of adventurers in the musical slipstream are taking it somewhere new and exciting, with delicate rattling from Swedish folk percussionist Peter Berndalen and lyrical interference from Dublin reed player Sean Mac Erlaine, while Michigan percussive dancer Nic Gareiss literally takes off. In the future, this is how we will all fly.
SATURDAY 19th
NO FRONTIERS – Listen, Arthurs, Dublin, 8pm, €10, listen.ie
Composer and impresario Dylan Rynhart’s monthly salon is an opportunity to check your overweight preconceptions in the hold and embark for destinations unknown. This month’s musical mystery tour includes Clare singer and guitarist Síomha, works for solo violin by Bach and Ysaye from violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain, pianist Peter Moran’s impressionistic ‘Dublin Miniatures’ and a talk about Schoenberg from art historian Jessica Fahy. Where else would you get it?
THURSDAY 24th
BLUES TO JAZZ – Ronnie Greer Jazz Collective w/ Linley Hamilton, Arthurs, Dublin, 9pm, €10, arthurspub.ie
Belfast guitarist Ronnie Greer had already scaled lofty heights as one of Ireland's leading blues players when he came down with the jazz bug a few years ago. This week, he travels to Dublin with a group of front rank jazz musicians including keyboardist Kyron Bourke and drummer Dominic Mullan, and special guest, Belfast trumpeter, BBC broadcaster and jazz ambassador extraordinaire Linley Hamilton.
