GET THE BLESSING - BUY TICKETS NOW
"If the term 'jazz-rock' could be stricken from history and applied with virginal use to The Blessing, it could be pulled from the mud and proclaimed the future.” – Venue Magazine
Award-winning, Bristol based Get The Blessing (formerly The Blessing) are made up of bassist Jim Barr, drummer Clive Deamer, trumpeter Pete Judge and saxophonist Jake McMurchie. Jim Barr and Clive Deamer of '90s trip-hop superstars Portishead formed Get The Blessing in 2000 to share a fascination with improvised music, a pathological distrust of chords and a passion for north-african cuisine. The idea was to “get stuck into 'proper' improvisation rather than to rely upon a coasting rhythm section” explains Jim Barr.
Get The Blessing started out playing the music of Ornette Coleman but began slowly to make a noise of their own. They began to write tunes and in 2006 they reached a turning point, finally getting into the studio, and a new sound emerged almost overnight. Each band member is also involved in various other projects such as Ultrasound (Jake McMurchie), Mopti (Pete Judge), Robert Plant (Clive Deamer) and Marc Gauvin (Jim Barr) but despite being highly sought after musicians the band are always excited by the opportunity to play the music they love in their own way.
Their approach to jazz has much in common with the current crop of trailblazers, bands such as Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland but their music also draws from influences as diverse as the Kings of Leon , Morphine, Elvis Costello and Albert Ayler. Get The Blessing's catchy, rocking tunes and arrangements create a genre-bending blend of sounds that is all their own.
Get The Blessing stormed onto the UK and European scene with their debut studio album ALL IS YES . The album was released on the in February 2008 on Cake, an imprint of the legendary jazz label Candid also home to the magnificent Neil Cowley Trio. To support the release the band found spots at Glastonbury festival and the Big Chill amongst their extensive UK tour and their live response confirmed their reputation as “jazz-informed art-rock at its finest” (Venue Magazine). Their work was recognised at the BBC JAZZ AWARDS 2008 with the prestigious ALBUM OF THE YEAR AWARD. They were also invited to perform at the ceremony itself.
The eagerly awaited second album BUGS IN AMBER is due for release in May 2009. With the band continuing to grow and gel, as witnessed by so many at their live gigs, the new material is sure further scramble the ideas of jazz. In 2008 ALL IS YES was chosen by Hi-Fi Choice as “the shape of jazz to come”, the only 21st century album to make it onto its list of 12 genre-defining ‘Jazz Masters'. Keeping their trademark patchwork of catchy hooks and free improvisation BUGS IN AMBER defiantly fulfils that promise. It is experience to YES's innocence, amber and black to its white and red. “An intimate epic,” says Jim Barr “a low-budget Bond movie remade by Tarkovsky and starring Buster Keaton.” Expect the unexpected.
****** “Gloriously powerful”– BBC Music Magazine
“A blast” – Mojo
“A revelation” – Evening Standard
GET THE BLESSING PLAY THE PENTHOUSE,
TOBERGAL LANE CAFÉ SLIGO
10.30PM SATURDAY 18 JULY 2009
Tickets ˆ15 at door or www.tickets.ie
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SLIGO JAZZ 2009
JULY 17-19
featuring
GET THE BLESSING (UK)
MATTHEW HALPIN QUARTET (IRELAND/SWEDEN)
THE ODD COUPLE with SINEAD CONWAY
FULL SCHEDULE
FRIDAY 17 JULY
FACTORY PERFORMANCE SPACE 8PM - NEIL COWLEY TRIO
Tickets ˆ15 +353 71 917 0431
TOBERGAL LANE CAFÉ 10.30PM - MATTHEW HALPIN QUARTET
Tickets @ door €10
SATURDAY 18 JULY
FACTORY PERFORMANCE SPACE 8PM - EMPIRICAL
Tickets ˆ15 +353 71 917 0431
TOBERGAL LANE CAFÉ 10.30PM - GET THE BLESSING
Tickets @ door €15
SUNDAY 19 JULY
TOBERGAL LANE CAFÉ 1pm - JAZZ BRUNCH WITH THE ODD COUPLE & SINEAD CONWAY
€15 including food Advance booking essential +353 71 9146599 |
