Music and Reviews from Clare, Limerick, Waterford and sometimes further afield

Sunday, June 6, 2010

All that Jazz! Doonbeg Jazz Festival



I drove out to the West Clare village of Doonbeg , last night to catch some of the action at the local annual jazz fest. We peered into Comerfords where there was a Dixieland outfit who sounded great and looked like they were having fun but it was just too hard to make your way in for a closer look. No such difficulty and plenty of room at the Igoe Inn where we had very comfy chairs to watch scottish group JazzMain. Made up of trombone, sax, drums piano, accoustic double bass and vocalist , they covered an attractive range of jazz standards. There were some difficulties with amplification with the vocals sounding a little muddy but piano sounded very clear and there was much to relish in the fine playing . A more negative factor though was the positioning near two access doors which meant there was a constant stream of people moving in and out under the musicians noses. Hard to belt out a soulful ballad with all that going on not to mention our natural tendancy to converse regardless .

Back up for another scout around where a very large crowd waited for Skazz in Tubridy's , Comerford's was still choc a bloc but the hit of the night for me was Fireflies in Madigans. A Klezmer group based in Southwest consisting of clarinet , accordion, bass and drums, they were belting out lively tunes with driving rhythms perfect for a noisy boisterous venue on a Saturday night. Best of all we could see and hear them perfectly from a position outside at street window where we were joined by several other patrons. Jazz in every corner of the village and something to suit all tastes

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