Talented jazz quartet spice up dinner time in CafŽ 8 at Museum

What would you like with your dinner – potatoes, salad, vegetables? Or how about some jazz to complement your meal? This Friday, October 22 that’s on the menu when the Matthew Berrill/Aengus Hackett jazz quartet plays Café 8 at the Galway Museum. Berrill and Hackett will also be playing at the Galway Jazz Festival, which runs from November 19 to 22 in venues throughout the city.

Matthew Berrill has been playing jazz for over a decade. His love for the genre began as a secondary student in Headford.

“The school bought a saxophone,” he recalls. “I played a bit of clarinet. I learnt [jazz standard] Take Five and another Latin-y number I can’t remember. As far as I’m concerned that was me, I learned jazz then. But little did I know!”

After his Leaving Cert, Matthew went to the Newpark Music Centre in Dublin to take a diploma in Jazz Studies.

“That introduced me to the Irish jazz scene,” he says. “It’s small! But there’s a lot of quality in it, there’s a lot of really good musicians. It’s a very city based thing; there’s the Cork Jazz Festival – everyone knows about that. There’s a small but very active scene in Dublin. And Galway. It’s growing, definitely.”

Matthew goes on to explain what will be on the menu when his quartet play at Number 8.

“It’s two Galway men – myself and Aengus; he’s a guitarist. Then there are two American guys – Chad McCullough, a trumpeter, and Andrew Oliver, a piano player. They’re both from the North East [of America.] They’re coming over to Ireland for a week, so we’re playing Dublin and we’re playing Galway.”

As with any artistic discipline, once you delve into jazz the world becomes a much smaller place.

“It’s all about connections and it’s amazing once you get to know people,” Matthew explains. “I’m based in Holland for the last couple of years; I’ve travelled a fair bit around Europe and the States and Canada. It’s a great way to see the world and play at the same time.”Given that Chad and Andrew are only here for a week, will the four players find the time to practise before they do a gig?

“We send the pieces of music via e-mail,” says Matthew. “They’ll come in on Tuesday morning and we’ll rehearse that morning. Then Tuesday evening, we’ll play.”

“A lot of is to do with reading,” he adds. “It’s not just the improvisation side; you need a lot of different skills. You can be a great ear player, but you have to able to read.”

So, in a way, does a good jazz musician need the technical ability of a German footballer combined with the flair of a Brazilian one?“More or less. But then, you could be like the Irish footballer, just do the skill that you have and be very defensive!” he jokes.

The ability to improvise is something that jazz great Miles Davis had in abundance, but Matthew contends that it’s also something even novices can do.

“You can give them two notes and say ‘OK, just improvise, make a little melody around that,’” he says. “It’s basic, or as simple, as that. The blues is a big thing; people would know the blues in their ear anyway, and the form of it is fairly straightforward. Once you have the basic knowledge of your instrument it doesn’t take too long.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.