Arts Festival success Michael Kaeshammer returns to Galway

Date Published: 02-Aug-2012

After two sell-out shows at Galway Arts Festival, jazz pianist and singer Michael Kaeshammer returns to Róisín Dubh on Tuesday, August 14, as part of a short Irish tour.

Recorded at Toronto’s Drive Shed and Keen Studios in 2010 and produced by Ron Lopata (Jacksoul, Ron Sexsmith), Michael’s latest album Kaeshammer is a gem, a set of original songs as playful as they are contagious. It blends ingredients from Kaeshammer’s store of jazz, soul, pop and R&B influences.

The Canadian plays a brand of pop tinged jazz that owes as much to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney as to jazz legends like Professor Longhair and Albert Ammons.

But while Kaeshammer’s fiery style incorp

orates elements of his early influences – the New Orleans sound of Fats Waller, Art Tatum and James Booker – on tracks like ‘Kisses In Zanzibar’ and the high-energy, boogie fuelled romp, ‘Rendezvous’, he also takes his cue from one of his own all-time favourite records, Robert Palmer’s Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, recorded in New Orleans.

No great surprise then that Kaeshammer is as passionate a cook as he is a performer and songwriter. As he told writer, Monique Savin: “I love music and food… at home I have dinner parties where I invite some friends and everyone cooks together. The day or occasion doesn’t matter. I go shopping just for that meal and I don’t start cooking until people actually arrive — preparing food is part of the party.”

Tickets €18/€16, doors 8pm.