Belfast jazz festival Brilliant Corners will take place this month from 2 to 11 March. The festival – which is programmed by promoter Moving on Music – is now in its eleventh year and will present thirteen concerts over nine days in the Black Box Theatre and other venues across the city. 

This year’s line-up includes Scottish jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie, performing at the Black Box on 9 March with his trio including Stephen Henderson on drums and David Bowden on double bass. McCreadie’s style blends jazz with Scottish folk music and his 2022 album Forest Floor was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and won the Scottish Album of the Year Award.

US-born drummer, producer and composer Sarathy Korwar will perform in Belfast for the first time at the festival and will be joined on stage by a full band for a night of jazz and Indian classical fusion (4 March). Saxophonist and composer Binker Golding, who released his second album Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy last year, performs on 11 March. The concert will showcase the songwriting of the album, featuring slide-guitar and a driving rhythm section with Golding’s trademark tenor sound. 

Also on the line-up is Roamer, the experimental project featuring four of Ireland’s most internationally renowned improvising musicians: Lauren Kinsella (vocals), Matthew Halpin (saxophone), Simon Jermyn (guitar), and Matthew Jacobson (drummer). The quartet will perform at the Black Box on 11 March. 

Elsewhere, the festival will feature performances by saxophone and drum duo Run Logan Run (3 March), jazz guitarist Ant Law and saxophonist and composer Alex Hitchcock performing with Jasper Høiby on bass and Sun-Mi Hong on drums (5 March), pianist Johanna Summer (5 March), vocal-piano duo Camille Bertault and David Helbock (7 March), Canadian trumpeter, improviser and composer Lina Allemano with her band (8 March), and the pianist Alexander Hawkins with his trio featuring drummer Stephen Davis and bassist Neil Charles (10 March). 

Short sets; call for musicians 
There will also be an evening of experimental music in The Accidental Theatre, with three acts – bass player Alan Niblock, the Queen’s University Belfast Ensemble, and saxophonist Lara Jones – performing short sets of 30 minutes or less (2 March), and an afternoon performance by the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra at the Black Box on 4 March. 

The Moving on Music team is also seeking women and non-binary musicians in Northern Ireland for a new jazz project to begin shortly after the festival. The participants in the project will meet regularly to learn and collaborate under the guidance of renowned saxophonist, composer and teacher Meilana Gillard. For further information or to register your interest, please contact mark [at] movingonmusic.com.

For the full programme information and tickets for Brilliant Corners, visit www.brilliantcornersbelfast.com/gigs.

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