Jazz in Soho - Wallis & O'Rourke

Soho is always  hive of activity. Early morning sees the food delivery vans mysteriously and quietly dropping  their cargo of goodies across the various eateries. By night, the after-work hipster crowd linger beyond the planned quick pint-after-work and commute.

Pizza Express where Dean St. brushes Oxford St delivers live jazz most night with your favourite topping on a thin and crispy.

Wallis & O´Rourke

 It's a basement venue below a conventional pizza restaurant.

I secured the last of the tickets for the Larry Willis / David O'Rourke Quartet. You pay your entry fee, order a pizza and beverage  and enjoy the gig.

What a gig!. Larry Willis has a jazz pedigree that  must be head-wrecker for those who write programme notes. Simply, he's played with everybody and even had a stint with the '70's group Blood, Sweat  Tears.

Guitar player David O'Rourke is an Irishman based in the US. Originally from Malahide he was introduced as a orchestrator and arranger. He plays a mean jazz guitar in the Louis Stewart mould. After you get over his uncanny resemblance to Fergus Finlay  you realise how great a guitar player he is. The set list  was stuffed with  mellow easy listening and even included a snippet of Mountains of Mourne for the city that was in it!

To my liking, there was little chat during the set just a few brief intros and the music did the taking 

Stephen  Keogh played drums and Jeremy Browne on the bass completed the quartet.

Great concert and great pizza.

John Hartery  - Guest Blogger

Happy Blues at the Mill Bar with Ottley and Friends

There was  kind of hush as we stepped into The Mill Bar in Sixmilebridge, as if the audience didn't want to miss one note of the opening Gillian Welch song  from a quartet featuring  the 2012 Tennessee fiddle champion. Ivor Ottley was joined by Galway based musicians Tom Portman on dobro guitar, Paddy Jordan on double bass and Pete Lamb guitar and vocals. This was not a fast paced hard, driving traditional bluegrass set  but rather a mellow mélange of styles with elements of country, swing , jazz  and trad. There was plenty of  toe tapping stuff with Fisher's Hornpipe a highlight near the close. But it was the  languid waltzes that were most winning with Lamb's simply delivered vocals allowing dobro and fiddle to weave some melodic magic in the spaces.

Ottley is extraordinary -a very clean and elegant  fiddle style with a varied arsenal of left hand and bowing techniques that adds a depth and colour to his playing . While quite the virtuoso and  adept at improvising,  his variations are never indulgent and thankfully never stray too far from the original melody. His version of  Ashokan Farewell was rather more interesting than Ungar's relatively straight version.  His versatility was perhaps best demonstrated by his  rendition of a solo air delivered in a simple style, with vibrato reigned in for more haunting effect

An  ambiance  of collegiality radiated from the stage and the audience responded less with whoops and hollers but  more with concentrated listening ears .  The venue, a  large square timbered room with nice high ceiling and a huge stove with a welcoming real fire was very comfortable.

I spoke to Ottley following the gig and he told me something of his fascinating journey and his admiration for the playing of Grapelli,  Oistrakh and Milstein and the tale of serendipity that led an Englishman to be the Tennessee Champion.  The story is covered in this post from the  Bluegrass  Ireland  blog (link  here)  I was surprised to learn that he was a frequent visitor to Feakle sessions and was in fact resident in Ireland for many years. (Fiddle players should check out his website for some great tips).  Ottley is now happily ensconced in the Swedish jazz scene and opportunities to hear him on these shores are rare .

 **The trio Gone to Grass with members Paddy Jordan, Tom Portman and Pete Lamb will play at Green's Pub, Kinvara as part of the Turkey Fleadh on December 30th  4.30pm

** Please note this is a correction on the information originally posted .


Set List
Tear My Stillhouse Down  Gillian Welch
Bill Munroe/Kenny Baker tune 
Swing number Six Pack to Go
Steve Miller Dance Dance Dance / Arkansas Traveller
Ashokan Farewell Ungar
Good Ole Mountain Dew
Old Time Waltz
Til The Day I Die Steve Earle

It Wasn't God Who Made Honkytonk Angels
Tennessee Waltz
Come On Girl Pete Lamb
Mama Don't want 
Red Clay Halo Gillian Welch
Rolling in my Sweet Babies Arms
Rising Tide Tom Portman
Jump the Happy Train Blues 
Fishers Hornpipe
Solo Air Fiddle 
What in the World John Prine 

Tony Miceli MJQ Tribute at Dolans

Following on from the David Friedman gig ,  Limerick Jazz Society  brought us another excellent vibraphone virtuoso for a gig at Dolan's Upstairs lounge.  Tony Miceli from Philadelphia fronted a recreation of the line up of The  Modern Jazz Quartet,  not a genre heading but title of an influential ensemble established in the early 50's and active on and off until the 90's.  The line up  included  Limerick man John Daly on drums, Phil Ware, piano and  bassist  Dan Bodwell. There was a good range of tempos in the set list from the frenetic Cherokee to the more restrained Blues in C minor The set list included Bags Groove, a piece named after a nickname of Milt Jackson, the vibraphone player and founder of the MJQ.  The treatment of a protest anthem opening with a slow piano exposition by Phil Ware was a highlight.The group are embarking on a short tour of Ireland and patrons can expect a very cool sophisticated set with fine ensemble playing from the quartet and effortless virtuosity from front man Miceli . Catch them in Limerick , Wexford  and Dublin later this week.


A clip of the original  Modern Jazz Quartet

Jazz at Berts in The Merchant Belfast

By Guest Blogger John Hartery

Belfast has been working hard on its tourism potential and offerings for the visitor. We found another reason to go there.  What a thrill  to find on a Monday night a  late night jazz bar that is promoted as 
 'find yourself instantly transported back to the chic, intimate jazz bars of 1930s New York as you soak up the sophisticated atmosphere and let the cool jazz melodies wash over you'


It delivered on just that!  The bar is Berts which is the house bar of The Merchant Hotel in Skipper Street. 

Kevin & Scott

Seven nights a week there is live jazz  in a bar that is styled on the classic  New York music and dining combination and similar in ambition to Ronnie Scotts of London.  What a great addition to the live music scene in Belfast with great food too! When we visited we enjoyed the great vocals of Kevin Morrow accompanied by  the excellent Scott Flanigan on the piano. Over a two hour set we were treated to soft jazz standards from the duo. They  also play in the Burlington and Hampton hotels in Dublin.

A terrific venue,  excellent live entertainment and  great food.

John Hartery