‘The Long Way Around’

About this event

Ronan Guilfoyle – bass

Chris Guilfoyle – guitar

Matthew Jacobson - drums

The Long Way Around, the trio dedicated to exploring the complex rhythmic language of contemporary jazz, is literally taking the long way around when they head off to Australia, with the support of Culture Ireland, to play at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival. Wangaratta is Australia’s biggest jazz festival, and Ronan, Chris and Matthew will also be playing concerts in Sydney and Canberra. In addition to their trio concerts they will also be performing Ronan’s ‘A Shy Going Boy’ suite with three of Australia’s finest jazz musicians – Jamie Oehlers, Andrea Keller and Scott Tinkler.

This performance at Ireland’s premier club venue, the legendary JJ Smyth’s, will be their last performance before heading off Down Under, so come out and get a taste of what Australian audiences will be getting a couple of days later!

The trio is has just recorded their first album containing the typical rhythmic legerdemain with which they have become synonymous in the Irish jazz scene – expect lots of rhythmic cut and thrust, off-kilter grooves and the place where the familiar collides with the new.

Chris Guilfoyle is an up and coming guitar player on the Dublin 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, and later went on to obtain his Masters Degree from the Luzern Jazz School in Switzerland.

Since graduating, Chris has been actively performing in the Dublin music scene as well as abroad. Although young, he has already played with such jazz notables as Dave Liebman, Eric Ineke and Ralph Peterson and his band Umbra were selected to play at the prestigious ’12 Points’ Festival in 2015, and the Jazzy Colours Festival in Paris.

Ronan Guilfoyle is a bassist, composer and an acknowledged innovator in the area of rhythmic technique. He has toured extensively in Europe, Asia, and America, performing with such artists as Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, Brad Mehldau, John Abercrombie, Benny Golson, and Jim McNeely. Ronan's book, "Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation", is now seen as the standard text for the teaching of advanced rhythmic techniques. He has taught this at many schools around the world including Berklee College of Music, The New School, and is an associate Artist of the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a composer he has written a vast body of work for both jazz and classical ensembles, from pieces for solo violin to three-movement works for symphony orchestra.

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.