Returning for their 5th edition, Down With Jazz will once again take over and transform Dublin’s Meeting House Square in Temple Bar this June bank holiday weekend (June 4/5). With a stellar line-up including ambient folk from Dublin-born, London-based improvising vocalist Lauren Kinsella AKA Snowpoet (pictured), “two-horns-no-chords” quartet ReDiviDeR, the masterful, guitar-based Weird Glitches and Dublin guitarist, rapper and composer Zaska, organisers said “we’re following in the centenary theme of 2016, on the basis it is roughly 100 years since the birth of jazz (the early jazz period considered to be 1916-1922) which we feel juxtaposes nicely with the struggle for Irish freedom and identity.”
A celebration for “open minds and open ears”, this year’s programme reflects what organisers rightly say is a massive shift from 1930s Ireland, where musical liberation had become demonised by the Irish clergy as “devil’s music”, with both state and church colluding to have the music banned from the airwaves and dancehalls of our “sacred” nation.
Tickets for Down With Jazz range from €15-€25 (buy here). Check out the full line-up here.
