SATURDAY 10
Trish Clowes quartet The Model, Sligo; Also National Opera House, Wexford (Feb 11). musicnetwork.ie – Rising UK saxophone star Trish Clowes concludes a six-date Music Network Irish tour with a powerful quartet featuring fellow ascendants – guitarist Chris Montague, keyboardist Ross Stanley and drummer James Maddren – playing music from My Iris, Clowes's well-received fourth album.
SUNDAY 11
Jim Doherty Trio w/Richie Buckley Arthurs, Dublin, 4pm,€10, arthurspub.ie – It's 50 years since pianist Jim Doherty travelled to the Montreux Jazz Festival as part of an Irish quartet (with guitarist Louis Stewart, saxophonist John Curran and drummer John Wadham, since you ask) that caused a sensation, one of the first instances of Irish jazz musicians making an impact on the international stage. Doherty is still playing, still in demand as an accompanist, still a fluent speaker of the language of classic jazz, and this birthday celebration concert, which includes bassist Dave Fleming, drummer Dominic Mullan, and mellifluous saxophonist Richie Buckely, will be fallen upon hungrily by mainstream fans and discerning modernists alike.
THURSDAY 15
Selk Grand Social, Dublin, 8pm, €12, thegrandsocial.ie – Selk – pianist and vocalist Anna Jordan and drummer Dennis Cassidy – play their first Dublin date in two years with an augmented six-piece line-up. Drawing on jazz, electronica, ambient rock, avant-folk and much else, Selk's otherworldly sound juxtaposes Jordan's stark, emotionally raw lyrics and hypnotic acoustic with electronic grooves from Cassidy, best known as the locomotive behind much-admired Dublin hip-hop-meets-jazz collective Mixtapes from the Underground. With an opening set from Liam Ó Maonlaí.
Carole Nelson Trio Arthurs, Dublin, 9pm, €10, arthurspub.ie (also Saturday 17, Tinahely Courthouse, Wicklow) – London-born Carlow pianist Carole Nelson continues a nationwide tour in support of her trio's new album, One Day in Winter, a quietly elegiac meditation on the season, with bassist Cormac O'Brien and drummer Dominic Mullen.
Scott Flanigan Trio Sofa Sessions, Billy Byrne's, Kilkenny, 9pm, No cover charge, facebook.com/sofasessionskilkenny – Belfast pianist Scott Flanigan is getting pretty used to the M1. In demand north and south, on both piano and Hammond Organ, as well as in the studio with the likes of Van Morrison, Flanigan is building a reputation as a consummate sideman, a safe (and fleet) pair of hands, whatever the style. Here, though, is a rare chance south of the border to hear Flanigan's own piano trio, with rising bassist Barry Donohue and creative Belfast drummer Stephen Davis, playing original compositions from the pianist's fine debut recording, Point of Departure.
FRIDAY 16
Emilie Conway Trio Dunmaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, 8pm, €15/€10, dunamaise.ie – Dublin vocalist Emilie Conway's celebration of the life and writing of Irish-born author and New Yorker columnist Maeve Brennan reaches well beyond the normal jazz vocalist fare, combining readings and spoken word with original music and songbook standards. Conway has presented this imaginative show to great acclaim in Chicago, New York and at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Played by a stripped-back trio, with silky pianist Johnny Taylor and admired Australian bassist Damian Evans, You Won't Forget Me: Exploring Maeve Brennan is a fresh and unusual piece of chamber musical theatre.
