What's on at The Big Fringe during Cork Jazz Festival?

Over recent years the Fringe, which began as a modest series of events, has grown into a thriving element of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival weekend, so much so it is now itself named ‘The Big Fringe’.

Fiona Collins, chairperson of the Cork Jazz Festival, sees its continuing expansion as imperative.

“It’s really important for us to keep it as varied as we can, always adding to the schedule, to add to the fun and diversity over the weekend. It also makes it more accessible to everyone, which I think is really important for any festival. Helping the fringe grow as much as we can, just as the main festival itself is growing.”

As she continued her passion for the fringe became even clearer. 

“It reaches out to communities before and during the festival, we try to make the festival open to as many age groups as possible so that everyone gets to experience the music. 

One of my favourite things with the street bands is when you see young kids bopping away to the brass bands with no inhibitions, or older kids going up to the musicians and asking questions about their instruments or the music. It’s so lovely to be able to see that.

Those street bands are involved with several events throughout the fringe, such as the Oliver Plunkett Street Stroll on Friday, October 25, from 6.30pm, where some of the best marching bands at the festival will be all playing together for what is promised to be a ‘cacophony of music’.

The invited bands this year include The New York Brass Band, a contemporary New Orleans-inspired brass band; The Hyde Park Brass Band, who blend traditional brass sounds with electronic music; BoolaBoom, a Cork-based super-sized brass and percussion big-band playing acoustic house, jazzy techno and drum and bass belters; Lamarotte, the first street parade jazz band from the Netherlands, who are celebrating their 50th birthday this year; Code of Behaviour, another Cork-based band who play their own arrangements of modern covers, traditional New Orleans standards, and original tunes; Tbl8 Brass Band, a Dublin-based band that compose their own songs as well as reworking pop songs into their own original arrangements; Rebel Brass Band, as the name suggests also from Cork, who provide a very energetic take on New Orleans brass music; and The New Brass Kings, a Dublin-based six-piece.

Keeping those bands on some sort of track is one of the committee’s main tasks, as Fiona explained. 

The majority of the festival volunteers end up with the marching bands, making sure they find their way around the city and don’t get lost, and find safe places to keep their equipment, help them find new areas. Or keep them to a schedule when they might be getting distracted.

Throughout the entire weekend those bands will be playing unannounced around the entire city as well as advertised shows, expect them to pop up in all manner of places in the city centre.

The Big Fringe also has the Jazz Bus, an open-topped double-decker bus which tours the city’s streets filling the streets with great music, which never fails to bring a smile to pedestrians.

Paying attention to what people like is important to Fiona and the rest of the committee. “The feedback we get covers so much of the festival, it’s always great to hear positive things like people’s favourite gigs, particular venues etc. The Metropole Hotel’s Festival Club always appears at the top of the list but people love the street stuff too. People feel they are part of the festival wherever they are in the city. 

Some of my favourite moments are on Emmet Place with the stage there, and people milling about.

Those Jazz On The Plaza sessions happen between 1pm and 5pm, on Saturday and Sunday outside The Opera House on Emmett Place, where all the invited brass bands play a set each through a full PA and on a stage, it all culminates at 5pm on Sunday with the Jazz Jamboree where all the brass bands get on stage together and play as one huge supergroup, where they bid farewell to Cork and the Festival for another year.

Another live music event of The Big Fringe happens outside the city in Blarney, with a concert of light and popular music by the much loved Blarney Brass and Reed Band at 3pm on The Square. Earlier that morning is a gem of the schedule, The Jazz Gospel Service, but as Fiona herself puts it, “it’s not for the faint-hearted... especially those who party late into Saturday night!”, held every year in St Anne’s in Shandon at 10.45am. It is a celebratory and spiritual ‘Harvest Jazz’ special, while it is a free event it is ticketed to manage capacity, they can be collected in advance from St Anne’s Church.

For those who might want some Bank Holiday Monday music, there is a ‘Jazz By The Riverside’ event with the New York Brass Band holding court in the River Lee Hotel’s Riverside bar. It has become an annual wind-down for many of the volunteers, committees and Jazz festival aficionados.

The involvement of one particular cultural space is very important to Fiona and the rest of the committee as she continued. “The festival just weaves itself into the city and the Library on Grand Parade plays a huge part in that, it’s great to see so much activities takes place with them.”

This year’s events include on Wednesday, October 23, at 11am as part of their ongoing ‘Listen Back!’ sessions, Philip Watson (The Irish Times) who wrote the authoritative book, ‘Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed The Sound Of American Music’, introducing Frisell’s acclaimed album, ‘Good Dog, Happy Man’, which many consider to be his masterwork.

Following that at 1pm, there will be a presentation by Dr. Ian Darrington MBE on the history of Japanese Jazz and its place in the jazz scene. In tandem with that is an exhibition, an international collaboration detailing the phenomenon of jazz culture in Japan – from its origins in visiting jazz troupes in the 1920s to the cultural importance that the country’s Jazz Cafes hold today. There will be an interactive presentation on Thursday at 11am on ‘How Brass Instruments Work’, and on Friday there will be live brass music in the music library at 2pm, after which Sonny Emerald will be hosting a DJ set that promises to “open the door of the cosmos by paying tribute and gratitude to the intergalactic genius of Sun Ra and his Arkestra”, from 4pm to 6pm, playing records from Sun Ra’s expansive and incredible recording catalogue will be dug through with reverence.

This year one of the new elements being introduced to the fringe is a Jazz Festival History Walking Tours, based on the history, development and influence of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. The tour will take around 90 minutes and will cover various venues, legendary gigs and memories while also using the narrative of Cork’s own history. This will be running every day of the festival at 11am.

For more information on any of the events mentioned go to www.guinnesscorkjazz.com/the-big-fringe