Ronan Guilfoyle's 'A Shy Going Boy' (DUBLIN PREMIERE)

About this event

Bray Jazz will host the Dublin premiere of an innovative new composition written by jazz musician and composer Ronan Guilfoyle to celebrate the role that his late grandfather played in The Rising and Ireland’s War of Independence.

Staged with support from the Co. Wicklow Centenary Fund, the presentation by Ireland’s foremost jazz player uses composition, improvisation and audio recordings to explore the life and times of Joe Guilfoyle, who took part in the 1916 Rising and was a member of Michael Collins’ inner circle during the War of Independence.

Guilfoyle will be joined by top English trumpeter Nick Smart, who is Head of Jazz at London’s Royal Academy of Music, by Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura, and by leading Irish players Sam Comerford (saxophone), Matthew Jacobson (drums) and Chris Guilfoyle (guitar) for the piece, which explore the different aspects of Joe Guilfoyle’s life, from his revolutionary youth to the dignified and quietly spoken grandfather that Ronan Guilfoyle knew in his childhood.

Ronan Guilfoyle is a major figure in Irish jazz, and has developed an international reputation as a performer, teacher and composer. An in-demand bassist both in his native Ireland and internationaly, he has performed with an array of jazz music’s leading lights, including Kenny Wheeler, Brad Mehldau, John Abercrombie, Benny Golson and Kenny Werner.