Saxophone Emigrés #3 - Tom Caraher (USA)

About this event

The Sofa Sessions presents Saxophone Emigré Series 2018

Ireland’s music community has been enriched over the last two decades by the arrival of so many talented musicians from around the world, we decided to celebrate that diversity by showcasing three very different foreign-born saxophonists who have all made a home in Ireland.

In light of the recent unfortunate - and entirely unrepresentative - expressions of intolerance in our home city of Kilkenny, we offer this series as a gesture of love and welcome to our brothers and sisters from around the world who have honoured us with their presence.

Saxophone Emigré Series #3

Tom Caraher (USA)
with
Phil Ware (UK)
Barry Donohue (Galway)
Cormac Larkin (Carlow)

9pm / No Cover Charge

Tom Caraher is a tenor saxophonist born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1990. After living there, Phnom Penh, and Peshawar as a small child his family moved to his father’s hometown of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. From there, at 10 years of age, his family moved again to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was there, in the land of bluegrass and fried chicken, that he discovered his passion - the saxophone. After earning a bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance at Berklee College of Music studying with George Garzone, Frank Tiberi, Hal Crook and many others, and after a year long stint on Cruise Ships, he resettled in Ireland. For the past few years he has performed with some of Ireland’s top musicians and bands including the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, the Hot House Big Band, ZASKA, The Connor McKeon Band, Aja, Phisqa, The Booka Brass Band, and many more.

Since arriving on these shores nearly two decades ago, Phil Ware has been one of Ireland’s most sought after jazz pianists. Phil's career as an instrumentalist and jazz educator has taken him throughout Europe and as far afield as America, Asia and the Middle East. His long-standing piano trio, with bassist Dave Redmond and drummer Kevin Brady, was chosen to represent Ireland at the 2008 Eurojazz Festival in Mexico City. As a sideman, he has played with international figures such as Guy Barker, Peter Ind, Ian Shaw, Gene Caldarazzo and heroes of the Acid Jazz revival, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers. A regular at the Sofa Sessions, Phil’s hard swinging approach and his deep knowledge of the jazz tradition have made him a hugely popular addition to Ireland’s jazz community.

Barry Donohue is one of the rising stars of the current Dublin scene, as an in-demand sideman and as a leader of his own Plaza Real, paying homage to the music of Joe Zawinul and Weather Report. Barry, who earned an MA in Music from Hochschule Lucerne/Paris, also plays with some of the biggest names in Irish music across all genres, including Chris Guilfoyle’s Umbra, Loah, Mick Pyro (Republic of Loose), Mary Coughlan, Nigel Mooney, Miles Graham, The Hibernian Orchestra and many more.

Cormac Larkin has been a prominent figure on the Irish music scene, as a performer, as a promoter and as a film-maker and journalist, since he emerged on the Dublin scene in the early 90s. A student of the great American drummer Keith Copeland, Cormac’s groups over the years have featured many of Ireland leading jazz musicians, including guitarist Tommy Halferty and pianist Phil Ware. He is a member of legendary guitarist Jimmy Smyth’s trio and also co-leads an organ trio with keyboardist Scott Flanigan and guitarist Chris Guilfoyle. Cormac is founder and curator of the Sofa Sessions and writes regularly on music and the arts for the Irish Times.