The programme for the 2018 Galway Jazz Festival will be launched in Galway City this evening (15 August).

Building on last year’s 40-event festival, this year is even bigger, with 60-plus events taking place over 4 days from Thursday 4 to Sunday 7 October, including ticketed and free concerts, improv sessions, masterclasses, DJ sets, a film screening, a panel discussion titled ‘Brexit Schmexit’, festival club and more. There will be a particular focus on German and British artists. Listen to our Galway Jazz Festival 2018 Spotify playlist below.

Urban groovemaking
Programmed by Artistic Director Ellen Cranitch, headline concerts include the genre-crossing Radio String Quartet from Vienna at St Nicholas’ Church (Friday 4 Oct.). Their 2017 album, In Between, according to critic John Fordham in The Guardian, showed ’how much they understand about jazz spontaneity and urban groovemaking as well as classical perfectionism’.

The intimate Mick Lally Theatre will see Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans perform music from his Oliver’s Cinema release on 5 Oct. at 6pm. He’ll be joined by Tuur Florizoone (accordion) and Jörg Brinkmann (cello). Pianist and composer Huw Warren – who has recently released a beautiful solo album titled Nocturnes and Visions – will perform at 10pm that night in the Theatre also.

Musical Steps to Camus
Legend of Irish jazz Tommy Halferty will perform his composition Seven Musical Steps to Camus, with a nonet that includes violinist Cora Venus Lenny and saxophonist Michael Buckley, at 2.30pm on Saturday 6 Oct. at the Mick Lally Theatre. Halferty will also give a free solo performamce at Kieran Moloney’s Music Shop at 7pm that evening.

The Mick Lally Theatre hosts three more gigs on Saturday, with Finnish composer and innovator Yrjänä Sauros playing his Saurophone with bassist Cormac O’Brien at 4.30pm, virtuosic Hamburg-based saxophonist Anna-Lena Schnabel with her Quartet at 7pm, and pianist Ashley Henry – nominated as Jazz FM’s breakthrough artist last year – with his ensemble at 9.30pm.

British and German jazz
On Friday 5 Oct. at 8pm, singer Liane Carroll – pillar of the British jazz and soul scene who has collaborated with Paul McCartney, Gerry Rafferty and more – will play the Taibhdhearc with Cormac O’Brien on bass and Dominic Mullan on drums. On Sunday at 8pm, ECM artist Julia Hülsmann, a musician that has helped shape contemporary German jazz, will perform with her Trio at the same venue.

Raw jazz
At the Black Gate Cultural Theatre, Assistant Festival Programmer Matthew Berrill presents three lunchtime concerts featuring Niwel Tsumbu and Eamonn Cagney (4 Oct. at 1pm), The Myles Drennan Trio (5 Oct.) and a solo Nick Roth concert (6 Oct.). In the Salthouse bar sessions, guitarist Aengus Hackett teams up with visiting festival artists for some raw jazz – no rehearsals and sometimes meeting for the first time. Dan Bodwell, Shane O’Donovan, Tommy Halferty, Conor Guilfoyle and Barry Rycraft will perform over the three days.

Saturday also features Elisa Rodriguez at the Black Gate and Michael Buckley at Tartare. Sunday highlights include the Conor Guifoyle Octet at the Biteclub on Sunday at 12pm; Susannah de Wrixon at Coffeewerk and Press at 2pm; innovative harper Kathrin Pechlof and trio at 3pm at the Mick Lally Theatre; Cormac Kennedy at 3.30pm at Il Vicolo; Peter Broderick – formerly of Efterklang and now on the pioneering Erased Tapes label – will perform at Loam at 5pm; and Jim Doherty and Dave Fleming play Universal at 6pm. Steve Davis (the snooker player) and Kavus Torabi will present a DJ set at Bierhaus at 9pm. The festival finishes with a free improv set at the Black Gate Cultural Centre at 10pm.

Brexit Schmexit
On Saturday morning at 11am at the Mick Lally Theatre, the festival presents a panel discussion titled ‘Brexit Schmexit’, exploring what Brexit will mean for the music community. Panellists include Olga Barry, the new Director of Kilkenny Arts Festival; Nick Roth, musician and founder of the Diatribe record label; Ciara Higgins, Director of the Great Music in Irish Houses Festival and concerts manager at the RIAM; Brian Carson, CEO of Moving on Music; and pianist and composer Huw Warren. The discussion will be moderated by Toner Quinn, Editor of The Journal of Music.

For booking and further details, visit www.galwayjazzfestival.com. Read our review of last year’s festival here.

The programme launch takes place on Wednesday 15 August at 6pm in Sheridan’s Winebar. Download the full programme below.