The beat is on down at Vicar Street - but "black berets" need not apply. The hip Dublin Jazz Festival is not just for snobs, but for music-lovers of all kinds.
Wednesday night drew an eclectic mix for the launch of the festival at Shelter, Vicar Street. Our host was the irrepressible Gerry Godley, suited up in "irony stripes" and pink tie, who moved smoothly from schmooze to speech to sax. Godley told me Irish people shuffle around the edge of dancefloors like penguins, waiting for someone else to make the first move. Perhaps, but his 20-piece Night in Havana Orchestra soon had the whole place swinging.
Cuban singer Tony Oscar brought a touch of Havana to the night: "Ireland's a musical country like Cuba. I feel at home here".
Trombonist Karl Ronan was slightly star-struck after a gig in Killarney with Daniel O'Donnell. "The man is amazing," he said. "A lot of nuns go to his concerts. All his fans are fully dedicated to him. I was doing my thing and the fans asked if I was mocking him - they'd have torn my head off if I was."
Drummer Conor Guilfoyle is looking forward to seeing himself in Five Cities, which premiΦres at the Irish Film Centre during the festival. The documentary, filmed by Cormac Larkin, follows a tour of India in January by Irish band Khanda, led by Ronan Guilfoyle.
Ronan was the designated jazz legend for the night. He will play with "jazz aristocracy" Benny Golson and Keith Copeland and also present his latest band, Lingua Franca, for which he has composed new jazz riffs from traditional Irish tunes.
The ESB's Br∅d Tunney and Jessica Fuller from the IRMA Trust were chatting with Franτois Chambraud, director of Alliance Franτaise, who said he played his first gig in a decade on Sunday at the Temple Bar Music Centre. He played bass with the band Andala, which features Indian sitar, tablas, didgeridoo and moroccan ute.
Vicar Street will be the focal point of the festival, which runs from September 17th to 23rd, and everyone is dying to see New York composer and conductor Maria Schneider in action with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.
Lyric FM presenter Tim Thurston loves jazz because it makes him feel like he's 18 again. "When I saw her name on the programme I was absolutely thrilled. Her arrangements are fabulous. She is the most exciting thing to happen to big band in 20 years."
Lyric FM will feature live broadcasts from the festival and also record further shows to be aired at a later date, said presenter Aed∅n Gormley.
And that was enough of the jive talking: it was time to let our hair down and dance the night away.