Tom Caraher Band

About this event

The Sofa Sessions at Billy Byrnes presents The Tom Caraher Band

9pm / No Cover Charge

Tom Caraher - saxophone
Darragh O’Kelly - keybaords
Barry Donohue - bass
Davie Ryan - drums

Tralee-based saxophonist Tom Caraher was a big hit when he made his Sofa Sessions debut in our Saxophonist Emigré series in 2018. Born in the far east, raised in North Carolina (close to where John Coltrane was born), and a graduate of the prestigious Berklee jazz school in Boston, Tom is nonetheless an Irishman and one of the best saxophonists this island has produced.

He returns to Billy Byrnes bar with a muscular new band focusing on hard-driving electric jazz and funk, influenced by Bowie collaborator Donny McCaslin and Underground saxophonist Chris Potter. The talented group features Republic of Loose keyboardist Darragh O’Kelly, Mary Coughlan bassist Barry Donohue and top Cork drummer Davie Ryan.

About Tom Caraher

Tom Caraher Music is an Irish 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.

About Darragh O’Kelly

Born in Dublin, Darragh William O'Ceallaigh is one of the most in-demand pianists and electric keyboards players on the Dublin scene. He studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and then piano and jazz composition at Newpark Music Centre, where he received an AGSMD Diploma in Jazz Performance, and he went on to obtain a Masters in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin.

Darragh has performed extensively across Ireland, Great Britain, Europe and North America and at major festivals including Electric Picnic, Oxygen, the 12 Points Festival, the Stockholm Jazz Festival and the Cork Jazz Festival. He is a member of various music projects, including the long-running jazz outfit The Dirty Jazz Club, electro-acoustic improvisers OKO, hip-hop monsters Mixtapes from the Underground and the rock-funk band Republic of Loose. He has also worked on a number of television and film projects, including Lenny Abrahamson’s films Frank and Academy Award-nominated Room.

About Barry Donohue

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.

About Davie Ryan

Davie Ryan is a graduate of both UCC (1st class honours degree in Music) and of Cork School of Music (1st class honours Masters in Performance). He has extensive experience both nationally and internationally as a touring and recording musician in a range of diverse genres including, pop, jazz, folk, rock, world and traditional music.

Acts that he works with on a regular basis include Ariel Posen, Jack O’ Rourke, Marlene Enright, the Niall McCabe Band, NOTIFY,  Donal Lunny's Atlantic Arc Orchestra, Cormac McCarthy's Cottage Evolution, Súp, Paul Dunlea, John Blek, Anna Mitchell and Gemma Sugrue.

He has wide-ranging expertise as a recording artist and has worked with many renowned studio producers, including Grammy award winning Jay Joyce (Tragedy/Tragedy Studios, Nashville) & Ciaran Byrne (Cauldron Studios, Dublin), Christian Best (Monique Studios, Cork) and John Fitzgerald (Lettercullum Studios, West Cork). He is also Senior Drum Tutor at the CIT Academy of Popular Music.  Davie endorses Sakae Drums, Protection Racket Cases and Big Fat Snare Drum.