LedZeppelinLives.com: BRAY JAZZ FESTIVAL 2008-Featuring The Music of Led Zeppelin

BRAY JAZZ FESTIVAL 2008

When rock legends Led Zeppelin announced a once-off reunion concert in London last Christmas, it created the largest demand for tickets for a concert show in history.

Several million fans scrambled to get seats at the show in the city’s O2 Arena, resulting in the crash of the concert’s official web-site, and the subsequent sale of tickets for hundreds, and even thousands of times their face value.

Local lovers of the music of the British rock legends will get a unique chance to hear their music in a live setting next month – but it will be a musical production of an entirely different sort when the inventive Paris based Orchestra National de Jazz (ONJ) come to town.

The French orchestra’s ‘Close to Heaven’ - a celebration of the music of Led Zeppelin is one of the highlight’s of this year’s Bray Jazz Festival, an event which has yet again assembled a brilliantly diverse and imaginative programme of concerts for the town over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Now in it’s 9th year, Bray Jazz 2008 will host shows by performers from as far afield as China, the United States, Italy, Cuba, Cape Verde, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom, when the festival rolls into town on May 2nd, 3rd and 4th with a programme of over 40 concerts, recitals, and pub trail shows.

The concert featuring Orchestra National de Jazz will take place at Mermaid Arts Centre, which will also play host over the weekend to shows by the European jazz supergroup ‘Mare Nostrum’, featuring a Swedish pianist, Italian trumpeter and French accordianist, and a unique to Mermaid standing only gig with the legendary American funk legend Maceo Parker and his band.

Parker, who made his name as a member of the late soul great James Brown’s band has spent the past decade recording and touring with Prince, comes to Bray with a 12 piece jazz funk orchestra who are legendary who are renouned for their marathon dance shows.

Elsewhere, this year’s festival will a progamme of day-time and evening shows at the town’s Royal Hotel, featuring Cuban drumming great Dafnis Prieto amongst others, a series of world music shows at it’s World Stage at Katie Gallaghers, a programme of early evening recitals in the Town Hall, and late night club concerts at The Heather House Hotel.

Pub and hotel venues around the town will also be in on the act, hosting free to the public concerts and shows each night, over the May bank holiday weekend.
(The above information in this web post was obtained from: http://www.eventguide.ie/articles.elive?session_id=12094742514199142&sku=080429104752)

Some of the featured shows include :

Friday, 2nd May

6.30pm
Town Hall
Liu Fang (China) €12

8.00pm
Mermaid Arts
Mare Nostrum (Sweden/Italy/France) €25

9.00pm
Royal Hotel
Dafnis Prieto Sextet (Cuba/USA) €20

11.00pm
Katies World Stage
Carmen Souza Band (Cape Verde) €12

Saturday, 3rd May

2.30pm
Royal Hotel
Touché (Denmark) free

6.30pm
Town Hall
Norma Winstone & Tommy Halferty (UK/Irl) €12

8.00pm
Mermaid Arts
Maceo Parker & his Band (with Dennis Rollins) (USA/UK) €30 (standing show)

9.00pm
Royal Hotel
Togetherness (Irl) €15

10.00pm
Katies World Stage
Havana Son avec David L’Esprit (Irl/Cuba/France) €12

12.00
Heather House
The Electric Miles Davis (Irl/Aus) €12

Sunday, 4th May

2.30pm
Royal Hotel
Fuzzy Logic & Tom Arthurs (Irl/UK) free

6.30pm
Town Hall
Zahr (Italy) €12

8.00pm
Mermaid Arts
Orchestra National de Jazz–Close to Heaven (Fr) €25

9.00pm
Royal Hotel
Cormac Kenevey & The Phil Ware Trio (Irl/UK) €15

10.30pm
Katies World Stage
Ibrahim Electric (Denmark) €12

12.00
Heather House
Yurodny (Irl) €12

Full details are available at www.brayjazz.com

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