Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Cork Jazz Festival is looking interesting for 2010!





I met with some of the people organising the forthcoming Cork jazz Festival in October last week and I came away confident that this years event will even surpass last years one, which in my opinion, was the best festival in many years. The balance between commercial and artistic success at such a festival is always tricky, but in 2009 big acts such as Imelda May in the Savoy were backed by a host of others who filled different sized venues in one of the busiest jazz weekends since the 90’s.

Sun Ra Arkestra, Pharoah Sanders, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Dam-Funk and many more played very highly regarded shows, and notably, their was a very big travelling contingent from other Irish cities and indeed abroad. This year events is still quite a bit away but I can tell you that there is a strong possibility that Robert Glasper will be making his second appearance in Cork. The young pianist was not that well known the last time he came here, alongside Terence Blanchard, but he has become one of jazz’s biggest upcoming stars in recent years.

He will be joined by longtime musical collaborator Bilal, one of Philadelphias most under-rated singers. Glasper has already worked with most of the big hip-hop names; Erykah Badu, Common, Guru, Mos Def and even Dilla himself, who he has paid homage to on record, have all been in the studio with him. He is quite simply one of the most exciting names in jazz, and it will be amazing to see Bilal here too. The singers career has always been one step away from the big time, and his early high profile production from Dr Dre seemed to set him up nicely, but mostly he has kept it low-key and soulful. Everyone from Jill Scott to Common have been touched by his vocal magic, and himself and Robert Glasper in Cork would be a terrific prospect.

The fact that Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings might be on the same bill sends the excitement levels into orbit but this is not confirmed as of yet. These guys are known to many as the backing band behind the success of Mark Ronson and indeed some of the Amy Winehouse material, but they are a lot more besides and are simply one of the best contemparary funk and soul outfits. In Sharon Jones they have a singer straight out of the James Brown era of funky divas so I’m keeping more than my fingers crossed that this show will happen.

I know the festival organisers are gonna do their best to try and get jazz legends such as Sonny Rollins and Pat Metheny here too so we can only live in hope; often with the veterans it is tricky trying to get the dates to match the October weekend. I’m confident we will be looking at another very interesting festival regardless.

Robert Glasper/Bilal



Sharon Jones and the Dap-KIngs



Here's some vids i took at last years festival at the Pavilion









This article originally appeared in my Downtown column in the evening Echo recently

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Rise and shine soul-Candi Staton

ahead of the big gig at the The Pavilion Cork on Sunday i'm gonna be rolling out Candi Staton classics all week

Friday, April 23, 2010

Rise and shine soul-The Stylistics part 4

Rise and shine soul

The Stylistics part 4

The original of one of the most covered and sampled tracks of all time everyone from Michael jackson and Moodyman to Blackalicious and Marc Dorsey used a piece of this and no wonder

More relevant now than ever

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Rise and shine soul-The Stylistics part 3

One for the late night crew-Monk Higgins

One for the late night crew

"So keep abreast to the GangStarr conquest
Underground ruffnecks pounds of respect
I've never been afraid to let loose my speech
My brothers know I kick the code of the streets"

DEEP-did a sunday in the Torch, now Fionnbarras, in about 97, spinning jazz and soul like this-i'll have my Guru tribute up tomorrow!



Tuesday, April 20, 2010

One for the late night crew-Gang Starr

One for the late night crew

I'm digging deep in the crates for Guru and have about 100 vinyl records in front of me as i prepare a 3 hour special on Saturday-quite simply, I admit i would not be spinning records without Gang Starr, who helped elevate hip-hop to a level on a par with the greatest jazz and soul. Rest in Peace

"Ill be taking care of business regardless
And when it comes to rhyming you know Im hitting hardest
So you can kick dirt but in the end you'll feel pain
You little sucker, there aint no shame in my game"

Rest in Peace Guru

One of the best yet

No doubt about it Gang Starr were one of the greatest and until recent years he had some great solo stuff too. Simply one of the all time best MC's, I had the pleasure of hosting him at our Jam night in 2001 and hanging out with him for the day too; he was a nice guy and down to earth compared to many of the big name rappers i've met. It's a sad day for hip-hop but i'll be paying homage at Jam on Friday at the Pavilion and on Black on Red on Saturday on Cork's RedFM





















































Rise and shine soul-The Stylistics

Friday, April 16, 2010

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Yo this is my blog that's updated pretty much every day before 1pm Irish time

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    I'm a DJ from Cork in Ireland. I work with RedFM, presenting Red Drive, The Hitlist and my specialist show, Black on Red. I'm probably best known for being one of the main hip-hop/soul DJ's in Cork and Ireland. I've been DJing in Cork since the early 90's in legendary clubnights such as Sweat in Sir Henrys, Mor Disco, Free La Funk, Yo Latino and also Jam and Jam Junior at the Savoy and the Pavilion. I've also held down long term residencies at clubs around Ireland such as Brown Sugar at the Kitchen in Dublin, U-Turn at Ri Ra in Dublin, Jazz Juice at the GPO in Galway, Thompson Garage in Belfast, the Soul Clinic, Dee-Bop, Meltdown and Mo Bounce in Limerick and i've played abroad in the United States and the U.K. on numerous occasions. I also write a music column for the Evening Echo and i'm a regular contributor to the U.K.'s Blues and Soul, the longest running black music magazine in the world. These days i run the Pavilion, a music venue in Cork, which hosts my Jam night every few Fridays http://www.pavilioncork.com also you can catch me at http://djstevieg.podomatic.com