JK Ensemble Session

It's been one of those weeks - non-stop work, and that's always the week when you have plans in the evenings, so really no time to take a breath. Not even today - it was all go, between returning fixed computers and fixing more, and there are a good few more to be done before the week gets started.

But we had booked tickets for the JK Ensemble Session in the Button Factory in Temple Bar, on Thursday night, so we had to leave the work behind, hop on the Luas, eat a pizza in town, and face the music.

And what music it was. As you know, I'm a big fan of the JK Ensemble on RTE Lyric FM, and when John Kelly advertised a concert of a few of the acts he likes, we were keen to give it a go, although we had never heard of any of them before.

It was a great night. Of course, we had never been to The Button Factory - we don't go out that much really. It's on Curved Street in Temple Bar, not far from the cinema there. We didn't get seats, but we got a nice little corner on the side where we could lean on a pillar and the stairs. And we could see everything that was going on in the Sound and Lighting control room! While the Sound guy was quite focused on his job, the Lighting fellow didn't seem to have much to do, apart from writing emails, browsing the web, checking what's on in the cinema, checking some technical questions on Experts Exchange, and installing a new version of Adobe Acrobat Player. He seemed quite unaware that there were people behind the glass panel! Very entertaining.

The concert was very John Kelly in style - that means everything from classical to jazz to electronica to girl playing the guitar and singing!
The acts were, in order of appearance, Chequerboard, Ensemble ICC, Bill Carrothers with Kevin Brady and Dave Redmond, Carly Sings and the Callino Quartet, and The Jimmy Cake.

My favourites were definitely Ensemble ICC - a viola, cello, bass, saxophone and xylophone (it wasn't a xylophone - it was like a vertical version of a xylophone - I don't know what it's called). ICC stand for "Irish Composers' Collective" - they play pieces by Irish composers, all very contemporary - it blew me away. There was one piece where the viola player, Cora Venus Lunny (daughter of Donal Lunny, according to Wikipedia), sings at the same time as she plays - amazing. And another piece where the strings are quite percussive - again, not what you'd expect from classical instruments.

Chequerboard was just one man on stage, with his guitar and guitar pedals - he basically lays tracks of rythm and melody on the fly and -re-plays them in a loop while playing the guitar. (Brendan has put the CD on his Christmas wishlist). And there was a projection above him which I feel enriched my experience, though some of the images were disturbing. It reminded me of the El Nino (by John Adams) video I got, where opera, dance and film are all working together.

Bill Carrothers with Kevin Brady and Dave Redmond are a jazz trio - they were very good. I'm not that much into jazz really. The piano player reminded me of the main actor in the French movie Delicatessen. And the bass player reminded me of Serenity's captain in Firefly. He reminded Brendan of Ethan (one of the others who infiltrates the plane-crash survivors in Lost). Funny how the mind works. Bill's website is very good by the way. He even has pictures of his house restoration project. Have a look!

Carly Sings played with the Callino Quartet. The arrangements were lovely. She was a bit like a young, sweet and shy Suzanne Vega (though I don't think Suzanne Vega ever came across as sweet or shy). Like Suzanne Vega, the lyrics are anything but sweet. I loved the way she took her golden shoes off to stand up and sing.

The Jimmy Cake was more of a novelty act, from my point of view. A lot of people on stage, playing a lot of different instruments, and playing together perfectly. But the music itself, while it had a deep beat that made me want to dance, didn't really build up to anything. While listening to them, I kept thinking of Ravel's Bolero. Ravel really builds up to something big. The Jimmy Cake didn't. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

All that for € 15 per ticket! Definitely better value than Eric Clapton! And I didn't say "eclectic" once!