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A decade of work is contained in a new album, Drops of Jazz which musician Austin Durack launches next week.
The O’Briensbridge-based musician, a former presenter on Clare FM, has spent the last ten years arranging popular tunes for Spanish/acoustic guitar and producing his own compositions for the new album.
A mix of both standard classics and some of his own creations, the 15 track album follows his 2009 release A Guitar Journey one of the most played guitar CDs on Irish radio over the past three years.
Regular airplay on both national and local radio as well as TV appearances has brought recognition and he has featured on TG4, the Pat Kenny Show and the Arts Show on RTE Radio 1. He has also received positive reviews from guitar magazines such as Acoustic in the UK, Century Guitar in America and Hot Press.
Following the success of his last album, Austin appeared at Doonbeg and other Irish jazz festivals as well as performing in concert at the Irish World Music Academy in UL.
Among the tracks on the new album are his own creation Lisboa inspired by the Portugese fado singer Amália Rodrigues, while A Boogie Blues shows his love of the blues with the bass lines supplied by former Reform bassist Joe Mulcay, who often features with him in live performance.
The album features a number of top musicians such as Niamh Dunne of the famous Limerick traditional family and the band Beoga, who duets with Austin on Gershwin’s Summertime as well as featuring on an instrumental take of Imelda May’s Big Bad Handsome Man. Declan Masterson plays keyboard on Train of Thought, Austin’s lament for the fields where he worked and played as a boy, which are now lost to the M7 motorway.
He is joined by two guest vocalists, Limerick’s own Judy O’Connor who features on the title track and takes a vocal chorus on Cole Porter’s Everytime We Say Goodbye. Gearóid Ó Murchú, lead vocalist with Irish language rock band Na Fíréin also sings.
The album will be launched by Judy O’Connor and guest musicians and all are welcome to attend.
