Oxygen Thief

About this event

The Sofa Sessions, in association with Kilkenny Arts Festival, presents Oxygen Thief

Chris Guilfoyle - guitar

Barry Donohue - bass

Matthew Jacobson - drums

6pm - 7pm / Free (ticketed)

Oxygen Thief is guitarist Chris Guilfoyle’s own trio, featuring two of the most sought-after musicians on the Irish scene, bassist Barry Donohue and drummer Matthew Jacobson.

What the critics say

“Chris Guilfoyle is one of the most talented of the new generation of Irish jazz musicians, inheritor of an illustrious lineage of guitarists that stretches back to Louis Stewart”

The Irish Times

“[Matthew Jacobson is] a European jazz artist of growing charisma"

John Fordham, the Guardian

"[Matthew Jacobson is] one of the most dynamic forces in Irish jazz, on and off the stage"

The Irish Times

About Chris Guilfoyle

Chris Guilfoyle is one of the leading lights of a new generation of Irish jazz musicians. He grew up in a musical family where his father Ronan Guilfoyle and uncle Conor Guilfoyle are household names in the Irish jazz scene. He has studied at Berklee College of Music - where he was awarded a scholarship from Fender Guitars and the Jazz and Improvised Music Salzburg conference in Austria. Chris was also selected to represent his college at the International Association of Schools of Jazz in The Netherlands in July 2010.

In August 2011, Chris was accepted to study at Dave Liebman’s Chromatic Harmony Workshop in Stroudsburg Pennsylvania, USA. Since graduating, Chris has been actively performing in the Dublin music scene as well as abroad. In November 2011 he performed in Paris with Ronan Guilfoyle’s Lingua Franca as part of the Festival Jazzy Colours; in October 2011 he performed on a 3 day tour of Ireland with Dave Liebman, Ronan Guilfoyle and Finnish drummer Jussi Lehtonen; In March 2011 he performed with the great drummer Ralph Peterson in Dublin and in February 2011 he played with Greek pianist/organist George Contrafouris at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Chris also leads his own group Umbra, a quintet featuring some of the most promising musicians in the country who play all original compositions and Oxygen Thief, a new project aiming to expand the vocabulary of the jazz guitar trio. He also plays as a sideman in 3G (Ronan Guilfoyle, Conor Guilfoyle, Chris Guilfoyle), Kevin Higgins’ Nature, Aleka and The Long Way Around. Chris also produces electronic music under the name Exit Introvert. Currently, Chris is part of the guitar and ensemble faculty of DCU’s jazz performance degree where he teaches 1st, 2nd and 3rd year guitar as well as 2nd and 3rd year ensembles.

About Barry Donohue

Barry is an Irish double bassist and electric bass guitarist from Dublin, Ireland. Donohue's most consistent output over the ten years of his career has been as a sideman. However, in recent years he has brought his own group, 'Satori' together to record his debut album. Satori is a quintet made up of Darren English from Cape Tow (trumpet), Kasperi Sarikoski from Helsinki (trombone), Christian Li from New York (piano), and Ariel Tessier from Paris (drums). Satori met at the IASJ meeting (International Association of Schools of Jazz) in 2011, which is lead by renowned saxophonist Dave Liebman. Each member of Satori was chosen to represent their respective college at the meeting. Musical chemistry brought the members of Satori together during the week of masterclasses at the IASJ meeting. This chemistry inspired Barry to bring the band back together four years later to record his debut album. The album has yet to be released.

As a sideman, Barry has performed and recorded with some of Ireland's biggest names, including Mary Coughlan, Miles Graham, Loah, Mick Pyro, Fehdah, Esosa, Chris Guilfoyle (Umbra), Matthew Halpin, Francesco Turrisi, Greg Felton, CC Brez, Michael Buckley, Nigel Mooney, Sean Carpio. Donohue has also performed with international stars such as Nelson Veras (FR), Tal Cohen (US), Michael Piolet (US), Ingo Hipp (Aerie), Nils Wogram (DE), Michael Arbenz (CH), Pablo Held (DE), Marie Kruttli (CH).

Barry is also bandleader of 'Plaza Real', a band dedicated to playing the music of Weather Report, featuring Darragh O'Kelly on keys/synths, Shane O'Donovan on drums and Chris Engel on soprano sax.

Barry has studied with renowned classical double bassist Thierry Barbé, contemporary jazz guitarist Nelson Veras, and composer/saxophonist Stephane Payen, composer/trombonist Nils Wogram, electric bassist Matthew Garrison, and saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman.

About Matthew Jacobson

Matthew Jacobson is a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator and producer currently based Dublin. He completed his BA in Jazz Performance at Newpark Music Centre, Dublin in 2008 and in 2010 he received a Masters Degree in Music Performance from Lucerne University, Switzerland.

He has represented his country, touring with the European Jazz Orchestra in 2008 and performs regularly in Ireland and abroad. He is also a co-director of Diatribe Records, Ireland's leading record label for new sounds and the Irish co-producer of European exchange tour network and annual festival Match&Fuse. Since 2010, Matthew has been a member of faculty on Newpark Music Centre’s BA in Jazz Performance program, as both a drum tutor and ensemble leader.

As well as performing, composing for and recording with his own quartet ReDiviDeR - winners of the Cork Jazz Festival 2011 ‘Best Young Artist Award’ - Matthew also co-leads German-based guitar trio Blowout Fracture, Swiss-based quintet A E R I E, New York-based trio FarJam and France-based Foluain Trio. Matthew has also worked with several leading European and American creative music specialists including Evan Parker and Kit Downes (UK), Ralph Alessi, Peter Evans and Mark Feldman (US), Niels Klein and Nils Wogram (DE), Savina Yannatou (GR) and at home in Ireland with Michael Buckley and Ronan Guilfoyle.

As well as receiving scholarships to spend time studying at both the School for Improvisational Music in New York and Berklee College of Music in Boston, he also received a bursary from the Irish Arts Council to spend six weeks in Chennai, South Indian studying the region's traditional Carnatic music.

He received a Fulbright Scholar Award in Performing Arts to spend a nine-month period – 2013/14 – in New York developing compositional and improvisational skills and was the inaugural Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Musician in Residence from October 2015 - January 2016.

Matthew uses Jesse Simpson Cymbals with thanks to the Irish Arts Council, Music Network and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.