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Jazz Articles about Barry Donohue
Tom Caraher: Ninety Degrees
by Ian Patterson
For his debut as leader, Irish saxophonist Tom Caraher has roped in some of the country's finest jazz musicians to bring his music to life. The album clocks in around the length of an old vinyl, which, for some tastes is ideal in terms of attention span--it is easy to overegg it these days, with digital compression sometimes guilty of enabling 70-minute slog-fests. No such charge of overindulgence can be levelled at Caraher's quintet, whose soloing feels lean and to ...
Continue ReadingMichael Buckley: Ebb And Flow
by Ian Patterson
Given his world-class chops, tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley's albums have been too infrequent. This is a man who has played with George Coleman when he was still in shorts (Buckley that is), backed Jerry Lee Lewis, collaborated with Dave Liebman and Kenny Wheeler, and toured with The Mingus Big Band. His talents as a composer for television and film, and as a producer--Buckley runs his own Dublin studio--also impose demands on his time, so a new album from the Dubliner ...
Continue ReadingAleka Potinga: Romania: Songs Of Love And Longing
by Ian Patterson
You can take singer/cellist Aleka Potinga out of Romania, but you cannot take Romania out of her musical soul. Classically trained in Bucharest, and Dublin-based since 2012, Potinga has slotted into the city's fluid jazz/improvised music scenes, working with Izumi Kimura, Ronan Guilfoyle, Tommy Halferty and Cello Ireland. Her debut album Person I Knew (Self-Produced, 2019) featured imaginative interpretations of modern jazz classics by Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans. Prior to that, her debut EP Aleka (EM, 2016) ...
Continue ReadingUmbra: West
by Ian Patterson
American road trips have long inspired writers, from Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck and Tom Wolfe, to Hunter S. Thompson, Robert M. Pirsig and Bill Bryson. Fewer are the extended works, similarly inspired, written by musicians. Some things, it seems, may be easier put into words. Umbra's West is inspired by founding member Chris Guilfoyle's 2017 road trip, as evidenced through the song titles, through North America's Western states to Canada. It marks Umbra's full debut, but can be seen as ...
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