Tipped as ‘One To Watch’ by BBC Introducing, Jazz FM UK and Belfast Live, award-winning singer-songwriter Katharine Timoney is making waves as one of Ireland’s leading jazz-soul crossover artists.

Raised in Belfast, Katharine grew up listening to the voices of Nina Simone, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday.  In 2024, she caught the attention of Jamie Cullum on BBC Radio 2with her single ‘All This Time’.

Her debut EP ‘Life came into Colour’ produced and arranged by British saxophonist Ben Castle was significantly supported by Jazz FM UK, and has received an incredible 600,000 plays on Spotify.  Recent performances saw her take to the stage to a packed out audience at Cheltenham Jazz Festival and perform a string of sold-out shows this year.

Katharine’s upcoming record is due for release in September and is produced by saxophonist Ben Castle, and features pianist Mark Edwards, drummer Darren Beckett and bassist Arnie Somogyi. 

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Collider is the newest project from Dublin based guitarist Chris Guilfoyle. It’s music that explores the electronic worlds of Drum and Bass, House, and IDM, where the rich tones of electric guitar intertwine with ethereal synth sounds and heavy drum grooves.

All the musicians in the group are well known in the electronic music and jazz world with Darragh O’Kelly (OKO, Big Spoon) on synths, Scott Flanigan (keys) and Shane O’Donovan (OKO, H-CI, Big Spoon) on drums.

Following a knock out performance at last year’s festival, Collider are back, offering a unique set where the spirit of jazz collides with the innovative beats of electronic music.

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Max Zaska is a guitarist, songwriter, and producer best known for his feel-good blend of modern funk, neo-soul, and indie jazz.

With his band, ZASKA, Max brings his original songs to life with a verve and enthusiasm that is infectious. His live work and recordings over the past decade have featured a dizzying array of Irish artists, ranging from Hozier, who was his first vocalist, to Wyvern Lingo, Loah, Tolu Kakay, Jess Kav, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Little Green Cars and Denise Chaila.

Bray born and raised and now living in the midlands, Max Zaska pays a welcome return to his hometown and to this year’s Bray Jazz, where he will play songs from his newly released third album of original material.

He exudes breezy optimism, plays with a smile on his face, and leads a tight big band that’s part funk, part jazz and part RnB, the overall concoction serving up rich slabs of what Max Zaska himself describes as “future soul.”

“…a refreshing sense of fun and mischief, who isn’t afraid to go deep” – The Irish Times.

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Shetland islander Norman Wilmore and Glaswegian Corrie Dick daringly blend the old and new with their reimagining of the airs and rich musical heritage of Scotland’s northernmost isles.

Using as their reference point ancient melodies discovered during an island residency, Norman&Corrie’s compositions bridge the gap between tradition and innovation, infusing ancestral melodies with modern production – much has Lankum have done with traditional music in Ireland.

They combine drum kit and saxophone, with organ foot pedals, sampled field recordings and earthy, cutting-edge electronics to breathe new life into instrumentals that range from haunting spirituals to raucous ceili stomps.The pair are immersed in the UK’s jazz and contemporary music scene, Corrie Dick drumming with the acclaimed quartet Dinosaur and the award-winner Jacob Collier, and Norman Wilmore working with The Peatbog Faeries and Glaswegian Mercury Prize nominee, Corto.Alto, and Beth Orton.

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Also Featuring: Ronan Guilfoyle’s Bemusement Arcade

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” VIJAY IYER is an influential and shape-shifting presence in twenty-first- century music.

Vijay Iyer has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music.

A composer and pianist active and revered across multiple musical communities, Iyer has created a consistently innovative, emotionally resonant body of work over the last three decades, earning him a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation.

His honours include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, three Grammy nominations, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. His newest albums are Defiant Life (ECM, 2025), his second suite of duets with visionary composer-trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith; Compassion (ECM, 2024), featuring his celebrated trio with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh; Trouble (BMOP/sound, 2024), a composer portrait album comprising three of his orchestral works, including the titular violin concerto performed by Jennifer Koh; and Love in Exile (Verve, 2023), his Grammy-nominated collaboration with Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily.

He is a professor at Harvard University.

“Iyer’s music has always been both intelligent and unpretentious, complex without being opaque; [he] ponders a phrase with obsessive rumination, unveiling layers of shifting, subtle emotion, before letting it fly with joyous abandon.” – The New York Times

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Harbour Bar
Saturday, 3rd May. Time 6.30pm

London-born jazz pianist, saxophonist and composer Carole Nelson has been a mainstay of the Irish jazz scene, since she first moved here more than 30 years ago.

Her current project, The Carole Nelson Trio with bassist Cormac O’Brien and drummer Dominic Mullen has produced a series of highly acclaimed albums since they release their first recortding, One Day in Winter, in 2017. It’s follow up ‘Arboreal’ was listed amongst the albums of the year by The Irish Times, as was its follow up ‘Night Vision’, which she lanched at Bray Jazz Festival in 2022.

Carole first came to prominence on Ireland’s music scene when she formed the successful jazz pop combo Zrazy with vocalist Maria Walsh, in 1991.

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Pianist Nduduzo Makhathini has been a central figure in South Africa’s vibrant jazz scene for over a decade.

One of just a handful of African-based musicians to be signed to the prestigious Blue Note jazz label, he has released three albums on Blue Note, including Modes of Communication: Letters From the Underworlds, which earned a New York Times ‘Best Album of the Year’ ranking in 2020.

But Makhatini is no ordinary jazz pianist. Rather, he’s a warm, engaging performer who is also a healer, shaman and educator who has delved deep into the history and traditions of his ancestors for inspiration.

A charismatic live performer, his concerts are absorbing, his tunes a rich tapestry that can be simple, sparce and lyrical, or dense and hypnotic.  Makhathini imbues his music with distinctive cultural references – Zulu language recitations, trills, treble fill-ins, intimate microphone murmurs and passages studded with impressive tongue-click consonants of the Khoisan languages of his homeland. 

Makhathini is joined in his stellar trio by South African double-bassist Zwelakhe Bell le Pere and Cuban drummer Lukmil Perez, musicians with whom he appears to have a near telepathic understanding. 

“…quite simply magnificent.” – Best of Jazz

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Featuring in a double bill with: VIJAY IYER

Bemusement Arcade is the new quartet from Ronan Guilfoyle, one of the most prolifically creative figures in Irish jazz in the past 30 years. The band, which recently recorded their new album ‘At Swing Two Birds’ on Dublin’s Livia Label, will launch their work at this year’s festival.

Guilfoyle, who has played with many of the greats, from Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano to Brad Mehldau, is joined in the quartet by young London saxophonist Sam Norris, guitarist Chris Guilfoyle, and Belfast-drummer Darren Beckett.

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Pizza Jazz are a new four-piece comprising some of Dublin’s leading jazz players.

Expect the music of Sun-Ra, Charlie Mingus, Hermeto Pascoal and Ornette Coleman alongside traditional and modern standards from the quartet, who cut their teeth playing a lively residency at ‘Luckie’s on Meath Street in the city.

Fresh from releasing their debut album, ‘Home Delivery’ last September, the band pay their first visit to this year’s Bray Jazz Festival.

The band are led by bassist Sean Maynard Smith, and include Brendan Doherty (drums), Darragh O’Kelly (keyboards) and US-born but Irish based saxophonist, the prolific Steve Welsh.

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