'We’ve never actually said that we were a jazz band'

GoGo Penguin (Photo: Arien Connelly)

'We’ve never actually said that we were a jazz band'

GoGo Penguin's upcoming tour provide a taste of their new album on Blue Note Records.

Manchester drum, bass and piano trio GoGo Penguin will tour Ireland for the first time this month, from 25 October to 1 November. This is only their second time performing in Ireland, having featured at the Brilliant Corners jazz festival in Belfast in 2014.

The band, however, don’t fit easily into any genre, as can be seen from their exceptional performance on Later… with Jools Holland below.

While bassist Nick Blacka studied jazz at Leeds College of Music, pianist Chris Illingworth and drummer Rob Turner  met at the conservatoire of Manchester’s Royal College of Music.

The trio came to prominence in 2014 after their album, v2.0, was named a Mercury Prize Album of the Year. The Manchester-based trio have since signed a three-album deal with iconic label Blue Note Records and also recently won ‘Jazz Act of the Year’ at the Jazz FM Awards. 

Nick Blacka points out, however, that ‘We’ve never actually said that we were a jazz band at any point…’. At the end of the day’, adds Illingworth,’ it doesn’t really matter what people call us – jazz or electronica or anything… It’s their way of understanding the music. We try not to think about any of those labels. We want to be free to make whatever kind of music we want to make. As soon as we think, “Oh, it’s not really jazz, is that OK?” We start putting restraints on the music.’

GoGo Penguin’s seven-date Music Network tour takes in Cork, Dublin, Donegal, Mayo, Dún Laoghaire, Kildare and Sligo and will provide a taste of their new album on Blue Note, which is due for release in early 2016.

This is the third Music Network of the autumn season, following a traditional music tour featuring Dermot Byrne in September and the Zaïde Quartet from France earlier this month. The final tour of this season will be baritone Benjamin Appl on 15–23 November.

For more, visit http://bit.ly/1M89CgB

Published on 15 October 2015

comments powered by Disqus