Sligo Jazz Project
Teach Mhuire
Cleveragh Road
Sligo
Ireland
Phone +353 71 9157862
Email:
sjp@sligojazzproject.com
Web:
www.sligojazz.ie
Sligo Jazz Project was formed in 2005 by a group of Sligo musicians – Eddie Lee, Jim Meehan, Eddie McFarlane, and Felip Carbonell - with a view to filling a void in jazz education and performance in the north west of Ireland. The primary aim of SJP was to bring world-class musicians to Sligo to teach and perform and that the events should be affordable to all and non-elitist.
The first SJP event featured five tutors from Ireland and the UK and attracted 35 students over a weekend of workshops and concerts on five instruments.
SJP ran its first summer event in 2006 when Rufus Reid, the great US bassist, took part. The event attracted over 60 students to four days of workshops (at St Edwards School) and concerts at various venues by a panel of tutors who also performed two concerts each in various combinations, plus two or three guest artist (non-tutor) performances.
A strong feature of the concerts was combinations of musicians/tutors from various backgrounds performing together for the first time. Rufus Reid delighted in this and performed two concerts in 2006, the first with dual guitars of Mike Nielsen and Sandro Gibellini and young Swiss vocalist Veronika Stalder, the second a thrilling night of music at the Black Box in the Model with Michael Buckley, Steve Davis and Greg Burk.
This idea of pooling tutors proved a winning combination and became a trademark of SJP, creating a very unique festival event, featuring energetic performances by combinations of musicians who had never played together before. This would appear risky from the outside, but in essence highlights the key elements of great jazz performances: a common repertoire, good reading ability, supreme improvisational skills: all that is required for two-way communication with fellow musicians. This also balances beautifully with another SJP festival facet: The SJP Jam Session, which occurs nightly during each festival at various Sligo venues, featuring a host of prodigious talent from all over the world, ie the summer school participants and, often, their tutors.
The 2007 summer school continued the pattern and attracted 100 students to the six day event. Rufus Reid returned to lead the faculty, which also featured 7 times Grammy winning US drummer Paul Wertico, French bass virtuoso Dominique DiPiazza, Australian saxophonist Jamie Oehlers and several other Irish and international tutors. As SJP had received €20,000 in Project Funding from the Arts Council, there was more room for guest artists. Concert highlights were The Avishai Cohen Trio, Wertico/Nielsen/DiPiazza, Rufus Reid’s All-Stars and Havana Son.
During this time, SJP continued to forge relationships with many Irish and international jazz organisations including Improvised Music Company, SJP becoming a partner promoter for the North West region. SJP also invited guests to perform at jazz concerts with Sligo musicians and subsidised their costs for many events. Louis Stewart, Jim Doherty, Gay McIntyre, Bjorn Solli, Sandro Gibellini, Cormac Kenevey, Phil Ware, Ciaran Wilde, Brendan Doyle, Michael Buckley, Richie Buckley, Mike Nielsen, Justin Carroll, were some of the musicians who performed with Sligo groups.
Sligo Jazz Project’s summer school continued in 2008, a difficult year financially with the beginnings of the recession hitting Ireland. Nevertheless 60 participants came to workshops featuring Paul Wertico, Todd Coolman, Reggie Washington, Julian Arguelles, Ulf Wakenius and many others. The concerts as always were riveting spectacles of supreme musicianship. Notable moments in 2008: SJP’s first commission, Cathal Roche piece for the RISE quartet with guests Julian Arguelles and 17 yr old Matthew Halpin, Ulf Wakenius’ in duet at the Factory with young Swedish drum prodigy Karl-Henrik Ousback, Paul Wertico’s All-Stars concert. Again, the jam sessions featured a host of young prodigious Irish and international talent.
With the recession came some changes in Sligo, one major change affecting Sligo Jazz Project was a change of administration at one of SJP’s biggest local sponsors, the Clarion Hotel, which provided accommodation for the previous two summer school faculties to the tune of €15,000. Facing the absence of this and the disappointment of funding applications, SJP decided to take a break from the summer school in 2009, but still ran a successful self-funded jazz festival featuring leading UK acts The Neil Cowley Trio, Empirical and Get the Blessing and others. One notable 2009 festival act was 18 year old Matthew Halpin’s Quartet. Matthew, recipient of SJP bursaries to the previous two summer schools, was given his festival debut as a bandleader at the age of 18, at Sligo Jazz 2009, and subsequently was awarded the Presidential Scholarship to Berklee College, the most prestigious scholarship a young jazz musician could wish for.
This good news in the face of recessionary times reminds Sligo Jazz Project of the reason it was initially formed back in 2005: to provide world-class tuition and education at an affordable price to aspiring Irish and international jazz musicians in the form of inspiring summer schools and other events. SJP will endeavour to continue this work for many years to come.
During 2008 and 2009 Sligo Jazz Project, along with several other Sligo arts organisations, co-founded Sligo Music Education Partnership (SMEP). Spearheaded by Sligo County Council Arts Office, the partnership is running a pilot programme, Live Music in the Classroom, at selected County Sligo primary schools. Each school undertakes a six week project in each of the 3 terms per year. A genre is picked for each school from three genres of music – Classical, Traditional and Jazz, so that by the end of the year each school will have undertaken a project in all three genres. Each six week project culminates in a working group of professional musicians performing a workshop on the chosen piece of music. The jazz compositions chosen in 2008/9 were Unsquare Dance by Dave Brubeck and St Thomas by Sonny Rollins. At long last, music education is beginning to be seen as a worthy addition to primary school curriculum in Sligo. Much work has to be done, however, as Sligo’s largest secondary school for boys, Summerhill College, has no music education whatsoever on its’ curriculum. It is only through the pressure of SJP and like-minded groups that changes will eventually take place in this regard.
Activities / Aims for 2010 onwards:
Regular Specialist Educational Events:
eg International Bass clinic/workshop with Michael Manring, 2 October 2009
Expand SJP’s sphere of influences:
Forge relationships with Berklee, Newpark and European institutions.
Audience Building
- regular events – concerts as opposed to local residencies. One concert a month by visiting artists. Oct 2009: Michael Manring. Planned from February 2010, one monthly concert.
Summer School:
- The 2010 event has been finalised (see www.sligojazz.ie for full details)
- Emphasis on quality of tuition rather than big names
- Market summer school earlier in the year
- Subsidised rates essential to a non-elitist event
Promotion of Music Education in Sligo:
SJP will endeavour to lobby wherever necessary to improve the level of music education in the region. By lobbying politicians and school authorities, SJP will apply pressure to certain second level institutions in Sligo to provide music education and fill the unacceptable void in this area of music education. Members of SJP’s growing jazz musician base have ongoing discussions with Summerhill College parents association and a group of teachers, with a view to running workshops in the College, Sligo’s biggest school, which has been sadly lacking in music education.
