Finding perfect jazz blend for a night at the distillery

Vocalist, composer and improviser Lauren Kinsella is one of the major names on the British and Irish jazz scene.    Having grown up in Ashbourne, Meath and then Sandymount, Dublin, Lauren relocated to London thirteen years ago. In the years since, she has built an extensive catalogue of music, from her own work with bands like Thought-Fox and Snowpoet, to a huge variety of features – many of which draw on her unique ability for avant-garde vocal improvisation.

This Saturday, the Lauren Kinsella Trio (featuring Liam Noble on piano and Julian Siegal on saxophone) will play an afternoon show at the Galway Bay Distillery, facilitated by the Black Gate.

The set for this tour is built around the jazz standards of Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. They will be presented, of course, in a new light based around the trio’s own compositional interpretations.

“I love thinking about when these songs were written and how people had access to them,” Lauren explains.

“A lot of the music was just popular music – they were pop songs. There was just such a great amount of composers churning out a lot of different tunes. There are so many to explore so I’m really excited.”

It is slightly unusual for Lauren to perform the jazz standards, even in the context of a fresh slant on classic material. Much of the work she is known for is original and experimental. With bassist and producer Chris Hyson, she has established Snowpoet as a vanguard of contemporary jazz which, she explains, is an ambiguous concept.

“A lot of the music I play is original music and it falls into lots of different genres,” Lauren says.

Pictured: Lauren Kinsella...Galway date this Saturday.