Brilliant Corners returns with dates now confirmed for 26-29 March.
The opening night of this still fairly new Belfast jazz festival features a double bill of the Jeremy Lyons Dectet and the Linley Hamilton Quartet on Wednesday 26 March at the Crescent Arts Centre. The Lyons 10-piece finds the tenor/soprano saxophonist leader, a former student of Polar Bear's Mark Lockheart, joined by alto saxophonist Laura McGrath, US tenorist/flautist Meilana Gillard, bass clarinettist/baritone saxophonist Paul O’Reilly, trumpeters Mike Barkley and Nathan Simpson, trombonist Brendan Coyle, pianist Scott Flanigan, bassist Rohan Armstrong, and Bourne/Davis/Kane drummer Steve Davis. Linley Hamilton’s quartet features the trumpeter-leader joined by pianist Johnny Taylor, bassist Damian Evans, and drummer Dominic Mullen. The Hamilton quartet appearance also serves as a launch for Hamilton’s new album In Transition (which features the quartet plus guitarist Julien Colarossi).
The second night of the festival, Thursday 27 March, moves across to the Black Box on Hill Street in the Cathedral Quarter, one of last year’s venues, and finds drummer David Lyttle joined by saxophonist Soweto Kinch and hobo chic vaudevillian singer Duke Special (‘Freewheel’) in one of the biggest talking points of Brilliant Corners this year, surely a hot ticket in prospect. Lyttle’s band also includes pianist Kaidi Tatham, bassist Conor Chaplin of prog jazz pacesetters WorldService Project, and singer Anne Lyttle.
Also for Brilliant Corners is veteran flamenco guitarist Eduardo Niebla who plays the University Road venue the Crescent Arts Centre on Friday 28 March; while over at the Black Box on the same night it’s free-jazz saxophonist Paul Dunmall’s tribute to John Coltrane, Dunmall in duo with drummer Tony Bianco. Their appearance is part of a double bill with guitarist/vocalist Richard Dawson.
The final night of the festival, Saturday 29 March, features improv trio Bourne/Davis/Kane (Lost Something) at the MAC in a gig that premieres composer Piers Hellawell’s ‘Sound Carvings, Strange Tryst’ while at the Black Box new wave piano trio GoGo Penguin fuse the arthouse dance-friendly appeal of Aphex Twin and Underworld with the groundbreaking jazz piano trio influence of EST into an enthralling blend on their brand new Gondwana album v2.0, and who appear with support from Boxcutter and DJ Jason Deadman.
David Lyttle top left with Soweto Kinch and Duke Special appearing at Brilliant Corners on 27 March
Tickets and more: www.brilliantcornersbelfast.com