The 23rd Guinness Jazz Festival kicked off by announcing this year's line-up. Latin jazz is the hot ticket this year, with a double-bill of Havana bands, Sierra Maestra and Albita, opening the festival on October 27th. For now, though, the jazz band is getting everyone in the mood, with Richie Buckley on sax, Dave Fleming on base, Johnnie Wadham on drums and Jim Doherty on the piano at the Guinness Reception Centre off Crane Street. Blues singer Mary Stokes is here, and will be a regular face at Counihan's, close to the Imperial Hotel for the weekend. Back from a recent tour of America, Hugh Buckley is full of talk of the smokey jazz dens of New York and is looking forward to a "groovy" jazz weekend. The only downside to the festival, he claims, is the friendliness of the Corkonians.
Carole Devaney of the Dublin Jazz Society says dashing between the two main jazz venues - the Metropole Hotel and the Everyman Theatre - has become an annual event for herself and her friend Grainne Farrell. This is Guinness festival director Brian Brown's last year at the helm. So far, he's enjoyed 17 years of jazz, and now refers to himself as a "monument" of the festival. Philip Cawley of Today FM is here to check out the programme, along with RTE's Brendan Balfe, and Mick Mullally, the voice of jazz on Anna Livia radio.
Other festival highlights include shows from Chris Barber, now on his 70th-birthday tour, and performances by groove maestro Courtney Pine, pianist Lynne Arriale and the young singing sensation Jacqui Dankworth, daughter of UK jazz greats Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth.