Cork Jazz Festival: Omar - cementing a legacy of collaborations at the Everyman
Part of the appeal of the Jazz is the clash of styles you see across lineups at the weekend - while there’s no shortage of fare to sate the needs of festival traditionalists, hardened music heads and casual revellers alike, there’s something to be said for witnessing worlds collide in unique situations such as the one conjured by Saturday night’s early-evening show at the Everyman.
Dublin contemporary jazz ensemble Mås Exödus - led by musical polymath Max Zaska and ChoiceCuts booker and promoters Mark Murphy - heads up a sonic journey joined by the presences of US hip-hop legend Jeru the Damaja, no stranger to Cork himself after an appearance at Townlands Carnival fest in 2017, and UK soul survivor Omar Lye-Fook, fresh off his addition to cast of EastEnders - and the latter, answering a Zoom call to his home studio, is looking forward to the challenge.
“This is the kind of thing that spurs on my career, just working with other people and getting influences, that's the kind of thing that I live for, I'm still enjoying my creative process. I'm getting on in years, but still, I'm still getting up, fire in my belly, the passion to make music. So working with other people, especially Jeru the Damaja, that's a big name.
“We've never crossed paths before. There's so many people out there that I know of, and we speak, but we never actually get the chance to work together. So seeing him out there, especially in Ireland as well, there might be a whole Guinness influence there as well [laughs].”
Lye-Fook has been working on a new studio album, tentatively titled ‘Brighter the Days’ - which sees him assemble a number of tunes penned at different points in his latter-day career, and continue his zeal for collaborations, including working with The Jam legend Paul Weller - for whom he reserves the highest of praise.
“My whole life is writing an album, because there's certain songs that I've written years ago that I haven't used until now, because it didn't make any sense, in terms of the puzzle that I like to make. I worked with Paul Weller, we met when I was 20, this is back in 89, but it's taken us this long to, to actually work together, but this is definitely the right time.
“And y'know, he's like the humblest superstar that I know - isn't that crazy? Y'know, in terms of his lyrics, his music, his guitar playing, all that stuff - it's exactly where it should be, so for me to work with him now, it's just a blessing.”
A career-spanning collection of singles, ‘The Anthology’, has been hard for Omar to keep in stock vinyl, as a renewed interest in the history and evolution of UK soul sees genre fans across the generations appraise the roles of Lye-Fook and his peers in pioneering its development.
While casual fans are more than familiar with breakout single ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ from its chart escapades upon reissue in 1991, ‘The Anthology’ is an impressive opportunity to look over three decades and counting of work, including collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu.
“I'm just so proud of my work, y'know, because it's vast. There are so many songs, I mean, everybody talks about the one single, but if you know my music, then you know the expanse of what I've done, because I've done everything. I don't think about it at the time, I'm just getting on with it, creating and making the music, I'm still doing it enough. I'm just blessed to be in that predicament, because not everybody has that, y'know?
“And labels mean nothing. We're still listening to Marvin, still listening to James Brown, we're still listening to Curtis, I would just want to make that kind of music, that people would... my first single that I released, after two weeks, I fucking hated it. I decided from then, I just wanted to make music that's gonna last, because you're going to have to sing that s**t forever and ever. So you know, if you're gonna do that, make it good.”
Does he feel he’s accomplished this?
“[Over the pandemic] I was so f**king blessed that I could still provide for these girls. I was supposed to go to tour Brazil for the first time in my life. Italy, France, Germany - everything just got ripped away [by the onset of the Covid crisis]. So I just had to think to myself, 'what are we going to do?' I bought myself two GoPro cameras, and set up my studio as a livestream thing, and just did it that way. We managed to make it work.”
Omar performs with Mås Exödus and Jeru the Damaja, at the Everyman on Saturday, October 29, at 7pm. Tickets from €33.50 available here.
For more see guinnesscorkjazz.com
