So, now we are back from Cork after some fabulous days of Jazz, enjoyment and amazing nature…

It all started Friday with Carla Cook

and Michel Legrand (just check out the Oscars and other prices he got for his work)

Both are famous, well known, yet a wee bit too much show for our liking. The music was ok, but not the best you can imagine…

Around Cork you find plenty of entertainers, trying to make a living as well

Some of them really good!

So next day (Saturday) we opted out to find another concert (this time in a much smaller venue) and were totally mesmerized by the Lulo Reinhardt Latin Swing Project – http://www.lulo-reinhardt-project.de/). He is the great-cousin of world famous Django Reinhardt and an extremely good musician with an amazing repertoire.

The club was very cosy

Lulo at the guitar

The drummer does a kind of “Skat” singing (Indian music)

And the violin was the “fiddler in the dark”

Double-bass was played by Harald Becher

Nice way of doing condom advertisements

Very stylish… a spermobile

In the evening the next concert started with Ed Cherry & The Bruce Barth Trio

All amazing musicians

Ed Cherry

This time at the side

And now Dianna Reeves

Again very poppy, American and showy – so not so much our cup of tea…

Showtime

Sunday we were heading for a small concert once more and were lucky to get tickets for the Triskel Christchurch – a converted church. First came the Vanbrugh Quartet (http://vanbrughquartet.com/) – actually a classical music quartet, but they played wonderful pieces by Maurice Ravel (String quartet – 1902) and Peter Schickele (String Quartet No. 1) – both classical with heavy Jazz influences.

For those of the non-faint hearted… Here is Ravel:

The second part were Italian classical pieces from the 16th century converted into Jazz format with a wonderful singer… Really 1st class!

He (Francesco Turrisi) plays and composes very nice!

Here is an example:

What do you do with some 3 h between 2 shows while in Cork? Eat & drink…

The good thing is that in most pubs there is good live music as well

And the waiters are costumed

Especially interesting if they don’t like the shot

Bars are cosy places

As it is Guinness Jazz Festival most pubs only serve Interbrew beverages (Guinness, Carlsberg, Heineken, Smithwicks, …), so this one here was a nice deviation

And this one as well. With the kind of food you get there you need some colour solver…

The following concert with Carmen Lundy was world class again

Her keyboarder is a Grammy winner as well

And her show really cool

A bit less, please…

Perfect double-bass

Wonderful! She looks relieved

As it was a double feature again the 2nd part – where we were not allowed to take pictures – was even better.. Ginger Baker and Pee Wee Ellis – outstanding!

Afterwards (it’s around 23:00 now) the streets are filling with the usual people going out in Cork

Security checks (age…) are very tight

And we just enjoyed ourselves

Watching the dress code

and various costumes

or not so much dress-code

legs are growing again this year

And the Gardai helping and protecting

Everybody contributes

to the show

and enjoys it obviously

In the end we had some time left so we were heading for our favourite spot – the West Coast…

Beautiful weather made it even better…

and our trip became an outstanding impression

A teeny bit too wet for walking without proper shoes

with magnificent countryside

endless

peat cutting

and again Nothing – but loads of it

Shy

The road to nowhere

comes from nowhere

it’s getting massive now

the and road just slopes through

sunny patches

and misty hillsides

cause instant admiration

These sharp images, the difference

make the landscape so special

As you continue it changes again and gets woodier

Old oaks and beeches

With patches of sunshine

create stunning images with

amazing colours

Due to the recent rains the rivers are all quite loaded

And fast running

Wonderful impressions

And the colours where just awesome

Yarrow is beautiful and so much searched for by bees

Even further down the road the coast gets closer

and suddenly is there

amazing landscapes

I just love these views

They are so diverse and beautiful

You can’t stop looking

Water created small rivulets

and patches of land

Before it gets really, really rocky

With the low sun the colours started to glow

and the pink stones were just outstanding

Reflections everywhere

And tidal pool inhabitants

A roadside

with strange markings – quite for sure some old art artefacts

Evening is coming

and sunset close

the last rays…

Rivers cut through the toughest stone

And the ever present fisher

Yet some people really consider this not too cold…

Back towards Dublin we had a nice background view of Mount St. Patrick

Again in full view