Jazz Articles about Darragh O'Kelly

About Darragh O'Kelly

Album Review

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 ...

Album Review

BigSpoon: The Return Of The Prodigal Son

Read "The Return Of The Prodigal Son" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 14, 2022

South African saxophonist Chris Engel has been a ubiquitous figure on the Irish jazz/improvised scene since arriving in Dublin in 2011. Whether in Chris Guilfoyle's modernist Umbra, Cote Calmet's Afro-Peruvian-inspired Phisqa, Italian guitarist Julien Colarossi's quartet or the Weather Report tribute band, Plaza Real, Engel's commitment is total, his fierce technique matched by a fearless improvisatory spirit. Engel has also embraced the world of electronica, notably in the duo Cafolla-Engel, whose DJ/improvised saxophone sets whip up the night owls. Engel, ...