Prince’s New Energy Technology to play Cork Jazz Competition

THE forty fourth Guinness Cork Jazz Competition will boast an distinctive back-to-the-future factor with the late musical maestro Prince’s well-known band, New Energy Technology, returning to town for a live performance 32 years after they performed to a sell-out 60,000 crowd in 1990.

he revelation got here because the programme for Eire’s longest-running annual specialist music pageant was unveiled.

Annually the three day spectacular is value an estimated €45 million to the better Cork economic system.

Final 12 months, the Cork Jazz proved a trailblazer for the return of the Irish leisure business after a two 12 months Covid-19 lockdown.

This 12 months the pageant will run from October 27-30 and can function new areas, pop-up occasions, late evening events, secret gigs, boat journeys, musical collaborations and on-street actions.

The undoubted spotlight of the 2022 occasion shall be a showcase live performance by the New Energy Technology – Prince’s previous band.

Also referred to as NPG, the group supported Prince from 1990 to 2013.

Band members reunited in 2015 to assist Prince on what would show to be his last album.

Fittingly, the primary world tour that NPG supported Prince with included the well-known Pairc Ui Chaoimh gig in 1990.

Their Cork Jazz Competition live performance will function a particular tribute to their mentor and inspiration, Prince, who died in 2016.

Different main acts collaborating on this 12 months’s occasion embody Lyra, Hermeto Pascoal, Denise Chaila, Amaro Freitas, Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton, Gogo Penguin, Seun Kuti, Fela Egypt, Toshin, Fehdah, Bricknasty, Mas Exodus and Jazzanova.

This 12 months’s occasion will once more function the Jazz Music Path and the Competition Membership on the Metropole Resort.

Diageo Eire partnership director Rory Sheridan stated everybody was delighted to see such an thrilling jazz programme for 2022.

“We’re thrilled to return as sponsor of the Guinness Cork Jazz Competition,” he stated.

“This 12 months will see us welcome a world class line-up of each music and artwork to Cork, that represents, not simply established artists, but in addition offers us with the chance to champion Irish and rising expertise on a world stage.”

The pageant was based in 1978 and expanded to turn out to be one in every of Eire’s largest annual music occasions.

It options over 60 venues and has additionally supported fringe festivals in Blarney and Kinsale.

Over time the Guinness Cork Jazz Competition has featured a galaxy of jazz greats together with Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Cleo Laine, Artwork Blakey, Gerry Mulligan, Mel Torme, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, B.B. King, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea and a bunch of different prime worldwide jazz names.

The Cork pageant has established itself as one of many premier jazz occasions on the planet and attracts headline stars that often play such legendary festivals as Montreux and New Orleans.
A key factor of the pageant has been extending the tourism season in Cork for motels, guesthouses, B&Bs and eating places in addition to surrounding areas together with Kinsale, Blarney, Ballincollig and Midleton.