Jazz and Swing in Cork
September 4th, 2008 Posted in Cork Jazz Festival, Wordpress
Jazz has a special place in Cork with the world-renowned Jazz festival happening every October bank holiday weekend. A lot of Cork people leave the city as the crowds throng in for world-class jazz but there’s plenty of jazz events and gigs going on in Cork for the rest of the year. Of course, the fabulous Roaring Forties are regulars on the gig scene and Gary Baus recently celebrated his fifth year of Doubletime with a change in venue to the classy Pavilion.
With all these events going on, we finally got along to a set of classes earlier on this year. Elaine, aka Suzie Q of Suzie Q Revue in the Crane Lane, runs regular classes and I recently helped put a site together for her at Swing Dance Cork dot com. She has a lot of classes coming up over the coming months but you will want to book early as I’m sure they’ll sell out. 10 week classes start at the end of the September but she also has quite a few drop in classes and pre-Doubletime classes. I can’t recommend these classes highly enough. I seriously dislike dancing, and anybody who has had the misfortune to see me dance will know why, but swing dancing is different. At almost every Doubletime you will now see people doing the Charleston or Lindy Turns or plenty of other moves. Cork is really starting to swing!
6 Responses to “Jazz and Swing in Cork”
By Pure Cork Boy on Sep 5, 2008
I’m really going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to do this swing dancing thing properly one of these days…
By Julian on Sep 13, 2008
Everybody should go along: people who think they can’t dance, out of work drummers, the lot. There’s hope for us all. It’s only about having fun!
By tommie on Oct 3, 2008
does anyone remember anything about a group that used to play every thur.night in the country club hotel in cork about 25 years ago, i think they were called the jack ramsey trio, would be gratefull for any info.
By Julian on Oct 4, 2008
Hello Tommie, the name rings a bell, but you hear a lot of names when you’re talking to musicians. If you’re in Cork, the thing to do would be wait for the jazz festival and have a word with some of the local players. Or get on to the organizers and see what they can come up with.
By Donal on Oct 5, 2008
@Julian: Good idea Julian. It’s a bit before my time I’m afraid. Looking forward to the jazz festival, especially all the swing dancing events lined up. Will we see you at any of them?
By Julian on Oct 6, 2008
Well, it’s not beyond possibility… I’m just delighted the old swing dancing is happening at last, and if – as seems likely – I don’t have any drumming duties that weekend, I’d really like to cut a little rug or two.