Mayfield experimentalist puts together exciting line-up for Cork Jazz Festival gig at St Luke's 

Dan Walsh is as cool and composed as ever over the phone, as your writer scrambles for a print deadline. Multi-instrumentalist, session musician, composer, improviser, teacher, facilitator, and more, Walsh is one of those figures to whom a scene like Cork’s is ever-more important, not only fully engaged in his city’s musical community on a daily basis, but drawing an ever-evolving energy from it, creatively.

One of the channels for this focus is his long-term project Fixity, under whose auspices Walsh and a coterie of local collaborators will take to stage this Sunday afternoon for a headlining Jazz Weekend engagement at Live at St Luke’s - one of many gigs and performances he and others will be sitting in on across the weekend. It’s a point of reflection for Walsh on how things have evolved for him - and what’s not changed about his values as a musician and bandleader.

“We played one of our early shows in St Luke’s. I think it was maybe the second or third Fixity show ever, and that was eight years ago, and it was to forty people who were invited, it was an invite only thing, and people could sit on the altar with us, kind-of a small thing, and that was, like an early formation of the band... that was actually the launch of the first Fixity tape.

“Now I’m on Fixity 8, and that’s just the projects that are the ones that I make myself, and then inbetween, it’s been a solid eight years of music where I’ve been trying to build the original idea of kind of getting collaborators together, with having a very clear vision, and being a clear band leader as much as possible, so that people could come and go, and feel valued, but also I could follow this path that I felt was something personal to me.

There’s a combination of wanting to work with a lot of people, and also not wanting to ask too much of people, wanting to just carry on your own personal mission, so I’ve just kept going in a way that now, it’s very different every time, still, but I feel like there’s clarity to that now. 

"I always thought that over the years, the group, the project, it’s a long form project, as I’m seeing these days, but it’s maybe a little bit clearer what people are coming to see.”

In nearly a decade of composition, improvisation, performance, recording, and gigging, a lot has changed for music and our relationships to it, both in terms of how we consume and discover music, and in terms of the post-pandemic, post-Brexit and late-capitalist economic situations, and how touring, release and other major projects are navigated and seen through.

When asked to reflect on what, if any, guiding principle or manifesto he has on hand to centre his visions and values, he looks instead at how that same compass has been affected by the journey itself.

Fixity functions as the place where I can push all my musical priorities. The ideals I’m carrying with it would be that each person that gets involved, it feels like they’re supposed to be there, and that they’ve been asked because of who they who they are, and what they play, and that they’re bringing something unique, and that’s respected, and inviting people into the music.

“So with that, it’s been, I’ve taken the responsibility of trying to write music in a way that can function like that. So I’m writing in a way that tunes can be performed in multiple ways, and each time we go, we approach a tune depending on the lineup that’ll have an influence on the sound, and the overall production, how it comes across and like that, each person has a big effect on it.

“That’s been a core part of my journey, personally, and I have found that over the years, it’s been of great benefit to me to work with different bandleaders and learn different approaches, and then I can carry through what I need, and maybe form new ways, based on things that I’m learning all the time.

“Collaborating with people that are playing other people’s music has been a big part of giving me perspective on, like, how I want to run a band, essentially, and then the music itself is just facilitating that kind of interaction, so even when I’m working by myself, I’m thinking of the people I play with in the band, and I’m trying to write things that will excite them, and I’m trying to write things that would be able to feature these friends and collaborators, in a way that shows their strength.”

That same sense of adventure, respect and fearlessness will present itself fully in the environs of Live at St Luke’s, the former Church of Ireland cathedral turned sonic temple for the Northside, as the aforementioned assembly of Cork-based collaborators will have another bandmate, both to contend with, and complement their creations.

I’m really looking forward to playing St Luke’s, because it’s a very unique environment, and I’m focused on trying to make each gig a unique experience, something that can’t be repeated. 

"If you’re there, you were there, and if you’re not there, it’s going to be something else next time, and maybe you’ll be there for that, y’know.

“So it’s going to be a unique gig for us, being able to play in a room that has this kind of sound, that has this kind of history, and, like, not only recent history, like, where amazing musicians have been playing for years now, which is amazing, but also... I went to school around the corner, and that means a lot to me, that the music scene is able to get closer to different parts of town, and it’s just good to see stuff happening on the Northside that brings people up.

“Also, just the room. So, there’s six seconds of reverb in St Luke’s, and we’re going to use them. We’re not going to try to work against something quite beautiful, y’know? So we’re going to go with it, and showcase the venue as if it’s another member of the band.”

Walsh, of course, is also known for taking a fairly full-on schedule during the Jazz Weekend, between residencies and gigs, with some post-covid editions seeing him take on up to 12 performances across a three-day span. This year, though, Walsh is intent on getting a bit of the atmosphere.

“I’m less busy than I have been in past years, but I’m just being more focused on making sure I’m doing my thing, y’know. On Friday night, I’m playing with [singer and rapper] Ophelia in the Crane Lane. And then on Saturday, I’m in O’Sho [on Barrack Street], five ’til seven and nine ’til eleven with Emil Nerstrand, and Neil O’Loughlin.

“Then there’s Fixity on Sunday, and after that, we’re back over to O’Sho to play some jazz for the evening. So it’s going to be a fairly musically fulfilling weekend, which is great, because it’s always been something for me growing up, like, every year comes around and you just, you hope you get to soak in as much as possible, and also, play with some great people who aren’t always in town.”

Fixity plays an afternoon gig at Live at St Luke’s, this Sunday, October 27. Doors at 1.30pm, tickets at eventbrite.ie.

Stream and download Fixity’s music at https://fixity.bandcamp.com/.