Jazz programme at Solstice features two more stars

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, is hosting two jazz performances from two exceptionally talented Irish musicians this September. The Claire Daly Quartet perform a '50s style jazz concert on Friday 18th September and the David Lyttle Group will perform on Wednesday 23rd September. Hailed as one of the most exciting voices on the Scottish jazz scene, Claire Daly returns to Ireland, to perform 'Songs of Love and Mischief' with award-winning jazz pianist Kit Downes. The tour is supported by Ireland's main jazz promoters, the Improvised Music Company. Noting that so many jazz standards are about love, loss and heartache, Daly felt that mischief was decidedly under-represented. So she has dug deep into the jazz repertoire, and looked a little beyond to come up with a set that covers the whole gamut of emotions. Some tunes will be familiar - like Horace Silver's 'Senor Blues', Lambert, Hendricks and Ross' 'Twisted' - reminiscent of the 1950s New York Jazz scene. Others are new - like Daly's own 'Close the Door on Your Way', or a jazz arrangement of the Yeats poem 'He Wishes For Cloths Of Heaven'. This is no cabaret show, however audiences can expect to hear some exciting jazz from some serious musicians with BBC rising star award winner Kit Downes, Italian drummer Nelide Bandello joining Dublin bassist Cormac O'Brien. Serious jazz, but with tongue firmly, if metaphorically, in cheek. Described as a drummer of real talent and with unfailing sense of swing, David Lyttle is particularly known for his passionate and driving approach to jazz that swings hard. The 24 year-old drummer and composer has been hailed as one of the most significant musicians to have emerged in Ireland in recent years. He has performed professionally in Ireland, the US, Canada, Britain and Europe, with some of the world's finest musicians. This Irish tour sees Lyttle alongside another saxophone star, Pennsylvania-born Tim Warfield. Warfield adopts a soulful and hard-swing approach to improvisation and the New York Times describes him as "perhaps the most powerful tenor saxophonist of his generation." Also featuring in this exciting group is leading young Irish guitarist Mark McKnight, and the prominent Dublin-residing Australian bassist Damian Evans. Tickets are on sale now from Solstice Arts Centre Box Office on 046 909 2300 or online at www.solsticeartscentre.ie . Tickets for both concerts are €15/€12 concession.