Ronan Guilfoyle: News

Hi Everyone


Here’s an update on recent and forthcoming activities – hope you find something of interest in here.

It’s been a crazy 2010 so far! Since January I’ve been travelling and playing incessantly. Beginning in London where I was involved in workshops at the Guildhall School of Music and performing with the Stroman/Jönsson Project, who released their debut CD on Kopasetic Records. Then it was off to Norway and Denmark, for performances with Métier at a very nice club in Oslo as part of an EU festival, and then on to Copenhagen and Odense for gigs with an international quartet and workshops at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen and at the Carl Nielsen Conservatory in Odense – you can see some photos from that very cold trip here.

In February I travelled to Paris to begin working on music with a new trio featuring Stéphane Payen (alto) and Christophe Lavergne, two great French musicians and real innovators in the area of rhythm. We got together in Paris and Dublin just to rehearse and develop some music. We finished the Dublin leg with an impromptu concert at Newpark Music Centre – I’ve put a couple of clips here and here. We’re planning on doing some concerts in Ireland and France in the Autumn.

February also saw the debut performance of my new improvising Chamber group Trilogue. Featuring Sarah Buechi (voice) and Izumi Kimura (piano) the group balances the written and the improvised in a very unusual way. We rehearsed for three days at the beautiful Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan for three days and Sarah and Izumi are both great musicians and I’m looking forward to developing the music. We filmed a duo piece of mine for voice and piano – you can see it here.  

March saw the arrival of Jim  Black and Julian Arguelles for a tour of Ireland – this is a trio I’ve been involved with for several years and is always fun to play with. This tour was just as much fun as the others and the free-wheeling nature of the music is a real pleasure for me to be involved in. So much music these days is technically/rhythmically/harmonically difficult, but the music of the trio is LOOSE! You need really good musicians to make this work, and Julian and Jim are two of the best. I’ll be posting some audio clips from this tour very soon. 

And then it was off to South Africa to play some concerts and attend the South African Jazz Educators conference. It was a first time in SA for me, and I think truthfully I can say that being in Cape Town gave me a little insight into the country, but an even bigger insight into how little I was actually seeing off that same country and just how big it is. I met some great people there and it definitely whetted my appetite for going back and seeing more. You can see some photos from the trip here.

As I write this I should be actually be in Brazil, but the volcanic ash has put paid to that trip – d’oh!

Future events include more concerts with Trilogue, another live performance with Métier of my film music in Dun Laoghaire in April, a performance with the power trio of MSG (with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Chander Sardjoe) at the ELB Festival in Hamburg, a duo performance with the great French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le in Paris in June and more concerts with Scott Stroman in August in London. You can see a full list of events on ‘dates’ section of my website.

On the recording front I will at last be releasing ‘Renaissance Man’, my music for jazz guitar trio and string quartet, dedicated to the memory of my father, and featuring the great John Abercrombie. It will be released on Diatribe Records later this year. As will the new MSG album, which will be out later in the year on the French Plus Loin label. We’ll be organising gigs with the trio to promote the album – watch this space! You can see a clip of the trio in action here

On the composition front things have been fairly relaxed in comparison to previous years, which is no bad thing considering how much else is going on. I did write a piece for the great classical duo of Katherine Hunka (violin) and Dermot Dunne (accordion) called ‘Binary Numbers’ which was commissioned by Con Tempo, which they toured around Ireland in March. And I’m gearing myself up for a really big project – a commission from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland for a Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. It will be performed in 2012 and I’ll be writing it next year – wish me luck!

One final piece of news – I will be involved in hosting the annual meeting of the International Rhythmic Studies Association at Newpark Music Centre next July. This is a 3-day event which brings together some of the leading innovators in the development of new rhythmic techniques for improvised music. We’ll be hosting 30 musicians from 12 different countries for three days of workshops, seminars and playing. Can’t wait!

As always I keep things updated on my website so please do drop in from time to time. I’ve also succumbed to the Facebook monolith and can be found here. And I’m writing an occasional blog on music also, which you can see here.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you out on the road sometime soon! 

Hi Everyone


On Sunday 7th of June next at JJ Smyth's in Dublin, the Guilfoyle/Nielsen Trio - one of the seminal groups in Irish Jazz of the last 20 years, will be playing its first concert in five years. Furthermore the group will be playing a programme of music not heard in Dublin for over 15 years, the affectionately titled 'F***ed Up Classics' - a programme of standard pieces, all reharmonised and played in different metres. The trio were trailblazers in the area of such rhythmic techniques as odd metre playing and using metric modulation.

I've written a blog about the trio and the background to the concert - you can see it here:

http://ronanguil.blogspot.com/2009/05/peer-group.html
Hope you can make it along!

Thanks


Ronan

Hi Everyone,


I've posted a new essay on the subject of rhythm - dealing with soloing issues. Have a look and please feel free to tell me what you think!

You can see it here
all the best

Ronan

Hi Everyone,

I've uploaded a couple of videos of performances of my compositions on to Youtube - there a performance of my solo piano piece 'Toccata and Feud' played by the wonderful Izumi Kimura here:

Toccata and Feud

and here’s Izumi playing a new piece

Funk Étude No. 1

And another performance by the also wonderful violinist Ioana Petcu-Colan of two movements of my 'Sonata for Solo Violin' here:

Solo Sonata 1

and here:

Solo Sonata 2

Hope you enjoy them!


Ronan

Ronan has just posted a major new essay on the nature and study of rhythm - see 'The Art and Science of Time II' in the 'Essays' section

Premiere of 'Hand Head Heart'

On September 25th next, as part of a week of celebrations in Dublin of the great Dave Liebman's 60th Year, Ronan will perform the premiere of 'Hand Head Heart', an extended suite featuring Lieb, John Ruocco (clarinet), Nils Wogram (trombone), Joe O Callaghan (guitar), and Tom Rainey(drums).

Debut of 'Métier' - new ensemble in residence

Ronan has been appointed Artistic Director of 'Métier', Ireland's first Jazz Ensemble in Residence. Funded by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Métier features Paul Williamson (trumpet), Michael Buckley (saxophones), Justin Carroll (piano), and Sean Carpio (drums). In October (see dates) they will perform a series of concerts featuring both the ensemble alone and with special guests Vincent Courtois (cello), Joe O Callghan (guitar), Mike Nielsen (guitar), and Dave Redmond (bass). The series will include the premiere of Ronan's 'Haikus' - a series of short pieces based on the Japanese poetic form.(See 'Dates" for full details)

MSG Tour

In November/December Ronan will tour with the MSG trio, featuring features Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto) and Chander Sardjoe (drums). A power saxophone trio that specializes in complex rhythmic music, they will be debut their first CD in the near future. Exact dates will be posted here soon.

Commissions and Premieres

In November/December the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet will premiere and tour Ronan's 'Music for String Quartet' - a piece commissioned by the Vanbrughs to celebrate their 25th anniversary (see 'dates' for details)

On February 8th 2008, at the National Concert Hall, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland will premiere Ronan's "Synapsis" - a concerto for orchestra commissioned by the orchestra for their 2007/2008 season.
February 24th, will see the world premiere of Ronan's 'Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2' at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, performed by Michael D'arcy (violin) and Izumi Kimura (piano). The concert will also see the Dublin premiere of Ronan's 'Sonata for Solo Violin' performed by Ioana Petcu-Colan, who commissioned the piece and gave the world premiere in Cork earlier this year.

Other news

Ronan will be doing some guest teaching at the Luzern Jazz School in December (10/11) and at Skurups Folkhogskola in Sweden in Spring '08………… Ronan is scheduled to travel to Brazil in February 2008 to discuss the latest developments in rhythmic techniques in jazz and to play with like-minded musicians in Sao Paolo…………Ronan will begin work on his latest book 'The Art and Science of Time', a companion volume to the seminal work on extended rhythmic techniques in jazz 'Creative Concepts for Jazz Improvisation'. This new book and DVD will focus on how to develop one's time. ………… Other plans for 2008 include a tour with the Arguelles/Guilfoyle/Black trio, a tour with 'Beginning to End', a project based on the works of Samuel Beckett featuring Christy Doran (guitar) and Isa Wiss (voice), and releases of the MSG and Microclimate CDS…………Finally in 2008 Ronan will complete a Masters Degree in Composition from WIT in Waterford.

Ronan has recorded a couple of infomal vidoes of two improvised pieces for solo acoustic bass guitar on Youtube - you can view them at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ImABXDwsU
and at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmwTrWjbM0
These are the first in a series of what will be an exploration of the possibilities of improvised solo acoustic bass guitar

A new recording of a live trio performance with Julian Arguelles and Jim Black has just been released on the Italian Auand label. Recorded during a trio tour in 2002 the recorded captures the excitement and invention of the music of three of the finest contemporary jazz musicians of their respective countries. You can hear sound clips from the recording in my 'music' section.

Review:

Argüelles/Guilfoyle/Black ‘Live in Dublin’ *****

When this trio played in Dublin the night after their wonderful concert in Cork a few years ago, the question was, would the chemistry still be there? On the evidence of this recording, it was. Inside or outside the loop, their dialogue, mutually supportive and challenging, maintained a gripping level of creative responsiveness, full of wit and lyricism. With Argüelles at times recalling Rollins in his imaginative and successful risk taking, drummer Black astonishingly and quirkily inventive, and bassist Guilfoyle the infinitely flexible friend at the core, freedom was never allowed to degenerate into incoherence. Their subtlety and sustained creativity over a programme of originals by Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Argüelles, and Guilfoyle, a spontaneously created piece by the trio and a superbly deconstructed 'I Wish I Knew' make it potentially one of the albums of the year.

The Irish Times, 2006

Ronan will go into the studio twice over the coming months to record with two different trios - MSG, with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Chander Sardjoe (you can hear samples from a live performance in my Music section), and with his own Microclimate group with Joe O Callaghan and Sean Carpio. Expect both albums to appear in the first half of 2007.