Jazzy ESB

The ESB Jazz Series running at Vicar St. over the next few months, features yet another stellar cast of jazz greats, showcasing a diverse range of styles and genres. Following last year’s successful autumn series of concerts, the spring season includes world renowned performers such as the Mark Murphy Quartet, the legendary bassist Charlie Haden and his Quartet West, Blue Note pianist Jacky Terrasson and Afro-Peruvian vocal legend Susana Baca.

Once again Note Productions, fronted by young jazz fanatic Ben Jackson, is the team behind the current ESB Jazz Series. Note, has over the past few years put on an ambitious range of live jazz events and established itself as the country’s most dynamic jazz promoters.

Jackson, still only in his mid-twenties, started running jazz gigs while a student in Trinity College where he formed a Jazz Society.

“I was just trying to spread the word,” he explains. “But it was very successful at the time. We had people like Brad Mehldau Julian Joseph and Mike Carr and we attracted attendances of up to 450 people, which was unheard of for a jazz audience in Dublin at the time.

When he left college Jackson decided to devote his energies towards establishing a permanent jazz promotions operation, a move which ultimately led to the setting up of Note Productions.

“It just seemed worth giving it a shot professionally,” he explains. “We put on Diana Krall and Brad Mehldau at the Temple Bar Music Centre. Out of that came the MGD Sessions at Vicar Street in 1999, also featuring Diana Krall and bringing Jimmy Scott to Ireland for the first time. Then the ESB took over the sponsorship and we divided it into two seasons, spring and autumn. The idea is to have a concert a month and to make it reasonably broad in terms of the type of artists.”

Note places almost as much emphasis on the marketing of the events as the music itself, with well-designed programmes, posters, well as nice lighting and good sound. “We do work hard on the presentation,” Jackson confirms. “The audiences are steadily getting younger with a lot more women coming along. We also try to bring in working jazz groups if we can. Previous to that, soloists tended to be brought in to play with the local rhythm section. It often suffered musically, not because of the local players but because the acts weren’t used to playing with them.”

One of the most interesting performers in this season’s line up is Susana Baca, a Peruvian based vocalist with a unique style, which has been described as an ‘utterly distinctive blend of Latin rhythms and African percussion’. Her rise to international prominence has been likened to that of the Buena Vista Social Club and South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo. While not yet as noteworthy as the aforementioned acts there are similarities in the way she has come to the attention of the wider world.

Fifty-four year old Baca was discovered by former Talking Head honcho David Byrne and now records for his Luaka Bop label. When Byrne first heard Baca performing a version of one of her trademark songs, ‘Maria Lando’, the experience introduced him to a whole genre of music – Afro-Peruvian – that he had never heard before. He was so taken that he released a compilation of Afro-Peruvian music (including a recording of Susana’s ‘Maria Lando’) entitled The Soul of Black Peru and recorded his own cover version of the song.

Her current album Eco De Sombras (Echo Of Shadows) produced by Craig Street, the man behind Cassandra Wilson, features local Peruvian musicians along with Marc Ribot and Greg Cohen from Tom Waits’ band. She has already filled London’s Barbican Hall, appeared at Womad Festival and is back in Europe to promote her new album.

“My repertoire is both old and new, it has to be that way,” Baca explained recently. “I express myself with the songs and poetry of my people. They’re tender, melancholic, rhythmic, and poetic. And a few of them are a little risqué.

Another legendary artists appearing as part of the ESB Jazz Series is bassist, composer and bandleader, Charlie Haden and his Quartet West also featuring vocalist Bill Henderson. His stunning version of the standard ‘Wayfarin’ Stranger’ from his album The Art of The Song is one of the most requested tracks on John Kelly’s Mystery Train. Haden who has worked with everyone from John Coltrane to Carla Bley is sure to attract a sell-out crowd.

Charlie Haden Quartet West appear at Vicar St. on 29 April 2001, Susana Baca appears on 16 May 2001 and the Jacky Terrasson Trio appear on 30 June 2001