Métier - Jazz Ensemble in Residence

Métier

Joe O Callaghan - Guitar
Michael Buckley - saxes and flute
Justin Carroll - keyboards
Ronan Guilfoyle - bass
Sean Carpio - drums

Métier is Ireland's first Jazz Ensemble in Residence. Supported by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and formed in 2007, Métier has just completed two concert series at Cabinteely House to great critical and audience acclaim. Under the artistic directorship of Ronan Guilfoyle, one of Ireland's leading jazz musicians and composers, Métier is a group bristling with creative energy, both in improvisation and composition. Their repertoire is comprised exclusively of pieces composed by the various members of the ensemble and a performance by Métier represents the best that jazz in Ireland has to offer both in playing and composition. Plans for 2009 include a national tour, an innovative film project in association with Temple Bar, another concert series at Cabinteely House, new music commissioned for the band, and performances with international guest soloists.

As Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's Jazz Ensemble in Residence, the band is the first of its kind here, following similar initiatives around Ireland in classical music, and is just one strand of an innovative project that has also featured schools workshops and performances by international artists like cellist Vincent Courtois and Lars Jansson. With a line up that convenes five of the strongest musicians in Ireland today to play their own compositions, Métier is a potent assembly, and Michael Buckley (saxophones), Joe O Callaghan (guitar), Justin Carroll (piano) and Sean Carpio (drums) join the project's leader, bassist Ronan Guilfoyle, in a quintet that is at the very pinnacle of the art form of jazz in Ireland.

"With the support of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Métier has been able to achieve that rare thing in today's music world, an opportunity to play, work together and grow artistically and musically. I think the results of this support are evident on this new recording featuring wonderful compositions by all the band members. I'm proud and excited to be involved in this musical venture, and myself and my colleagues in Métier are looking forward to developing the music and group even further over the coming years"

Ronan Guilfoyle (Artistic Director)

Métier Recording

In April 2008 Métier went into the studio and recorded their first CD, 'Cascade', featuring new pieces especially composed for the recording by the members of the group and covering a wide range of approaches, all bearing the hallmark of the Métier group sound. The CD was mastered in the renowned Bauer Studios in Germany and the pristine sound of the recording does justice to the virtuosic playing and innovative and exciting writing of these five musicians. The CD was released in July 2008 to great critical acclaim.

Métier CD Reviews

Métier - Paul Williamson (trumpet/flugelhorn), Michael Buckley (tenor), Justin Carroll (piano), Ronan Guilfoyle (bass) and Seán Carpio (drums) - is a bit special. The front line of Williamson and Buckley is a class act, Carroll has produced his most mature recorded work yet, Carpio is magnificent and Guilfoyle the essential fulcrum. With demanding originals, the group draws creative sustenance from the almost wilful complexities of Cascade and Skimming, serves the austere beauty of the (partly) through-composed Hymn and plays with flexibility and fire. And, behind the band's uncompromising energy, the potential for monotony (in unison statements and successive solos, for example) is frequently tempered by deftly unobtrusive writing and arranging. It's early days for them, but the bar is set high and already they sound like a real band.

RAY COMISKEY, Irish Times July 2008

Cascade does not have a weak moment - the energy and creativity never flag. This has to be one of the finest jazz releases of the year, in Ireland or anywhere else'??

JOURNAL OF MUSIC IN IRELAND Autumn 2008

Métier on Myspace:

myspace.com/dlrcoco

Métier on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkJI_fsTPAk&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMgOFtaOln0&feature=related&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNVOhfkxpKM&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-EA-paHNmI&feature=related&fmt=18

Group Biographies

Ronan Guilfoyle - bass

Ronan began playing professionally with Louis Stewart's group and appeared all over Britain and Ireland with him playing at festivals and clubs and also in Ronnie Scott's Club in London. In 1986 and '87 he studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where his teachers included Dave Holland, Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Coleman, Julian Priester, John Abercrombie, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

Ronan is very active in the field of jazz education and is the founder of the Jazz Department at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin where he serves as director. He has taught at many schools around the world including Berklee College of Music in Boston, the New School in New York, The Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Holland), is an Associate Artist of the Royal Academy of Music in London, has lectured for UNESCO and is the author of two books on jazz education.

As a composer he has written music not only for jazz ensembles but also for classical ensembles, works include a Jazz Guitar Concerto, a Violin Concerto, a Piano Concerto, Music for String Trio and Clarinet, a Saxophone Quartet, and a Wind Quintet. He won the American Julius Hemphill Composition Award in 2003, and in the same year was the first jazz musician elected to Aosdana, an Irish government funded body that acknowledges and celebrates high achievements in the Arts.

Joe O Callaghan - guitar

Performing professionally since the age of 16. Joe has performed in dozens of theatre productions as a theatre musician including "Annie", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Chess", "The Wiz", "Children of Eden" and many more.

But it is as a virtuoso jazz guitarist that he is best known in Ireland, making a huge impression on the jazz scen since his return from Australia several years ago. He has performed with many leading musicians of the international and Irish jazz scenes including Louis Stewart, Sean Carpio, Richie Buckley, Michael Buckley, Mike Nielsen, Honor Heffernan, Martin Speake, Tom Rainey, Nils Wogram, David Liebman, John Ruocco, Julian Arguelles, Dominique Pifarely, Vincent Courtois, Chander Sardjoe, and Tanya Kalmanovitch

Joe has performed at the Bray Jazz Festival, Cork Jazz Festival, Mermaid Arts Centre, Project Arts Centre, Vicar Street, as well as countless other venues and has recorded for Lyric Fm and RTE Radio 1, and is a member of the groups Microclimate, Fuzzy Logic and Protea. In 2007 Joe performed with the legendary American jazz saxophonist David Liebman as part of Liebman's 60th birthday celebrations.

Micheal Buckley - saxophones

The leading saxophonist on the Irish jazz scene, tenor saxophonist and composer Michael Buckley has been playing professionally since the age of six. Michael first came to prominence in 1984 when, aged thirteen, he played flute with the legendary saxophonist George Coleman in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Though largely self-taught, his obvious talent has been developed by Pat LaBarbera, Enrico Pieranunzi and Milt Hinton.

Michael has toured the world four times with The Mingus Big Band, Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Grant Stewart, Ingrid Jensen, Florian Ross, soloist with the BBC big band, Louis Stewart and Gerard Presencer among others. At Dublin Jazz Week 2000 he performed the jazz suite, Octagon, by German composer Florian Ross which was specially commissioned for The Michael Buckley Quartet with Strings. As well as frequent radio spots, he has made numerous television appearances, regularly works on film and television scores and has collaborated on recordings with Donovan, the Cranberries and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Justin Carroll

Dublin-born Justin Carroll started playing piano at a young age and studied classical music at the Royal Academy Of Music. He soon began exploring different styles of music and discovered jazz. He started playing regularly with many musicians in Dublin and attended the Jazz Workshop in Banff, Canada, a number of times where his teachers included such outstanding and diverse jazz musicians as Kenny Werner, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Joey Baron, Mark Feldman and Tony Malaby. He holds a Diploma in Jazz Studies from Newpark Music Centre, and a Masters Phil (First Class Honours) in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College.

Justin has a number of years experience as a performer and has toured internationally with the likes of Van Morrison and Mary Coughlan. He has also performed with many jazz musicians such as Bobby Watson, Ronnie Cuber, Keith Copeland, Jim Mullen and Gerard Presencer. As a composer, Justin has written music for different musical groups he is involved in as well as for theatre pieces such as 1900, the pianist on the Ocean, a monologue play with a live 5-piece jazz group, Beatbox Bingo, a contemporary dance piece with live organ and vocal beatbox. In 2003, Justin composed Helicopter Duo, an electronic piece for two performers to manually rotate two hand-held speakers. The piece was performed at the Crash Ensemble Festival and the RTE Living Music Festival 2004. Currently Justin plays with Organics, an organ trio that became Music Network's Young Music Wide Group of 2004, which involved touring and the recording of their debut CD "New Light". Justin also plays with group Trouble Penetrator who have played a number of times at the Cork Jazz Festival and recently worked on a contemporary dance piece from Berlin called "Input/Output".

Sean Carpio - drums

Sean Carpio has rapidly established himself as one of Ireland's leading jazz drummers. He has performed with many leading lights in jazz both in Ireland and internationally including Ronan Guilfoyle, Louis Stewart, Henri Texier, Justin Carroll, Mikkel Ploug, Mark Turner, Bill McHenry, Dave Binney, Jesse Van Rueller, Dominique Pifarelly, and Ernst Reisiger, and has performed in India, Mexico, France, USA, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Canada.
Sean has received many awards for travelling, studying, and composition from the Arts Council of Ireland, and has studied with several great musicians including T.A.S Mani, Jeff Ballard, Jason Moran, Dave Douglas,and Jackie Williams. He has a close working relationship with Project Arts Centre, where he has performed on numerous occasions with his bands White Rocket, Red Rocket, and very soon Rainbow Rocket.