About this concert
Meilana Gillard: RBG Trio
Meilana Gillard saxophones / Dave Redmond double bass / Kevin Brady drums
Meilana Gillard – “a gutsy, inventive player” (The Irish Times) – presents Chasing Comets: a 4-movement suite of new music themed around the cosmos and outer space, commissioned by the BAN BAM artist development programme in Dublin.
The four movements are I. Solar Flare, II. Supernova’, III. Dark Matter and IV. Moontide and the music is also a nod to Gillard’s love of video game music of the 1980’s. Using different effects such as a harmoniser, space echo and loop station, RBG Trio improvises within these movements, sometimes through-composed, other times free, presenting a variety of grooves from triumphant to mysterious and with textures flowing from the very open to thick and dense. Audiences can look forward to a feeling of fun, play and possibility throughout the set.
BAN BAM is a biennial commission and development opportunity for female and gender-minority artists from across Ireland from Improvised Music Company (IMC) Dublin and Moving On Music (MoM) Belfast.
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RBG Trio Biography
RBG Trio is a collective of 3 of Ireland’s top improvising musicians, Meilana Gillard - Tenor Saxophone, Dave Redmond - Double Bass, and Kevin Brady - Drums. Together they have been lauded for their exciting live performances and recordings, which feature deep ensemble interplay as well as lyrical and expansive compositions. They continue to express themselves over various styles of improvisation, groove and textures ranging from swing through free jazz and grunge - more recently adopting an electric treatment featuring effects and electric bass creating their own brand of experimental space funk.
“Rhythmically grooving and tightly tethered one moment, loose and exploratory the next, RBG Trio’s aesthetic was both familiar in a rootsy way and thrillingly free-spirited.” All About Jazz
Meilana took the opportunity to call upon Ireland’s top rhythm team (Redmond and Brady) in early 2019 for a Dublin show, and their first time playing together was a natural fit. The sax/bass/drums trio format can be tricky; however, there was an effortless flow about their collective sound which would make them all excited to keep performing as a trio. They continued to bond over shared influences and inspiration culminating in a performance at Mexico City’s ‘EuroJazz’festival just a few months later, solidifying their auspicious start.
RBG Trio initially released two singles: ‘Black Hole Sun’ (2020) and ‘Neither Here nor There’ (2022), the latter of which Stephen Graham (Marlbank) referred to as “a calling card of rugged weight” and “quite the statement of intent’. ‘Neither Here nor There’ was released at the JPN Conference in Belfast during a showcase for Irish Jazz; “The trio’s tunes had catchy melodies opening out into full-bloodied collective improvisation rooted by solid swinging grooves.” Nigel Slee (Jazzwise)
RBG Trio is fearless in their direction - equally at home playing bop, swing, and free jazz as they are embracing their grunge roots through Soundgarden and Nirvana covers. Always bringing pocket and groove to their R&B, soul, and space funk experiments. Their sound has a consistent undercurrent of the blues, paying homage to the sax/bass/drums trio canon and learning from the fearlessness of the masters who created it—instead of cosplaying it.
RBG Trio released their self-titled debut in September 2023, featuring 12 original tracks and 2 alternate takes. All but 2 of the compositions (penned by all Redmond, Brady and Gillard) were brand new at the recording session—a risk that really paid off. The compositions feature haunting ballads, free elements, swing, rhumba, gritty blues, tango, and odd meter grooves that are lyrical, melodic and full of interplay.
RBG Trio has attracted shining reviews from Jazzwise, All About Jazz, The Irish Times, and many other outlets featuring on Jazz FM and RTE Lyric FM. The album release was followed by a successful tour in Ireland and concluded with their debut at the London Jazz Festival with a performance at the Barbican earning them a shout-out in Jazzwise Magazine as a 2023 festival highlight.
Gillard composed a suite of 1980s SEGA chipset-inspired tunes for her Ban Bam Composers Commissioning Award,entitled ‘Chasing Comets’. Premiered by RBG Trio in January 2024, this music propelled the band into an exciting new electric direction. The movements, ‘levels’ featured a saxophone sound played through a number of deeply expressive effects, with Redmond on electric bass and Brady’s tight drum and bass groove. “If Joe Zawinul and Bootsy Collins had a band, it might have sounded something like this[…] Jazz Funk at its sexiest.” Ian Patterson (All About Jazz)
RBG Trio equally love performing acoustic contemporary jazz and exploring new sounds and textures with their electric configuration and are currently booking festivals and venues across the UK and Ireland with aims to book Europe and further abroad with a focus on the electric band. Their second album is currently underway.
About the Album:
“…a deeply simpatico dialogue” {…} “…a far more lyrical and languid sound that can cool-strut or simmer in equal measure”
- Mike Flynn, Jazzwise Magazine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"..a powerful trio capable of navagating these rugged uplands of melody and rhythm with agility and purpose"
- Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"as impeccable a jazz trio to come out of the Irish scene in a long while."
-Stephen Graham, Marlbank ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"the standard of playing is exceptional."
-Ian Mann, The Jazz Mann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Compositions from the trio all sound fresh and exciting, well-paced and varied.."
-Nick Lea, Jazzviews.net
Quotes from Live performances and singles:
“catchy melodies opening out into full-bloodied collective improvisation rooted by solid swinging grooves”
Jazzwise
https://www.jazzwise.com/news/article/where-pathways-meet-jpn-conference-belfast-2022
“Rhythmically grooving and tightly tethered one moment, loose and exploratory the next, RBG Trio's aesthetic was both familiar in a rootsy way and thrillingly free-spirited.”
All About Jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz-promotion-network-irish-showcases-at-black-box
Read More“Rhythmically grooving and tightly tethered one moment, loose and exploratory the next, RBG Trio’s aesthetic was both familiar in a rootsy way and thrillingly free-spirited.” All About Jazz
Meilana took the opportunity to call upon Ireland’s top rhythm team (Redmond and Brady) in early 2019 for a Dublin show, and their first time playing together was a natural fit. The sax/bass/drums trio format can be tricky; however, there was an effortless flow about their collective sound which would make them all excited to keep performing as a trio. They continued to bond over shared influences and inspiration culminating in a performance at Mexico City’s ‘EuroJazz’festival just a few months later, solidifying their auspicious start.
RBG Trio initially released two singles: ‘Black Hole Sun’ (2020) and ‘Neither Here nor There’ (2022), the latter of which Stephen Graham (Marlbank) referred to as “a calling card of rugged weight” and “quite the statement of intent’. ‘Neither Here nor There’ was released at the JPN Conference in Belfast during a showcase for Irish Jazz; “The trio’s tunes had catchy melodies opening out into full-bloodied collective improvisation rooted by solid swinging grooves.” Nigel Slee (Jazzwise)
RBG Trio is fearless in their direction - equally at home playing bop, swing, and free jazz as they are embracing their grunge roots through Soundgarden and Nirvana covers. Always bringing pocket and groove to their R&B, soul, and space funk experiments. Their sound has a consistent undercurrent of the blues, paying homage to the sax/bass/drums trio canon and learning from the fearlessness of the masters who created it—instead of cosplaying it.
RBG Trio released their self-titled debut in September 2023, featuring 12 original tracks and 2 alternate takes. All but 2 of the compositions (penned by all Redmond, Brady and Gillard) were brand new at the recording session—a risk that really paid off. The compositions feature haunting ballads, free elements, swing, rhumba, gritty blues, tango, and odd meter grooves that are lyrical, melodic and full of interplay.
RBG Trio has attracted shining reviews from Jazzwise, All About Jazz, The Irish Times, and many other outlets featuring on Jazz FM and RTE Lyric FM. The album release was followed by a successful tour in Ireland and concluded with their debut at the London Jazz Festival with a performance at the Barbican earning them a shout-out in Jazzwise Magazine as a 2023 festival highlight.
Gillard composed a suite of 1980s SEGA chipset-inspired tunes for her Ban Bam Composers Commissioning Award,entitled ‘Chasing Comets’. Premiered by RBG Trio in January 2024, this music propelled the band into an exciting new electric direction. The movements, ‘levels’ featured a saxophone sound played through a number of deeply expressive effects, with Redmond on electric bass and Brady’s tight drum and bass groove. “If Joe Zawinul and Bootsy Collins had a band, it might have sounded something like this[…] Jazz Funk at its sexiest.” Ian Patterson (All About Jazz)
RBG Trio equally love performing acoustic contemporary jazz and exploring new sounds and textures with their electric configuration and are currently booking festivals and venues across the UK and Ireland with aims to book Europe and further abroad with a focus on the electric band. Their second album is currently underway.
About the Album:
“…a deeply simpatico dialogue” {…} “…a far more lyrical and languid sound that can cool-strut or simmer in equal measure”
- Mike Flynn, Jazzwise Magazine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"..a powerful trio capable of navagating these rugged uplands of melody and rhythm with agility and purpose"
- Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"as impeccable a jazz trio to come out of the Irish scene in a long while."
-Stephen Graham, Marlbank ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"the standard of playing is exceptional."
-Ian Mann, The Jazz Mann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Compositions from the trio all sound fresh and exciting, well-paced and varied.."
-Nick Lea, Jazzviews.net
Quotes from Live performances and singles:
“catchy melodies opening out into full-bloodied collective improvisation rooted by solid swinging grooves”
Jazzwise
https://www.jazzwise.com/news/article/where-pathways-meet-jpn-conference-belfast-2022
“Rhythmically grooving and tightly tethered one moment, loose and exploratory the next, RBG Trio's aesthetic was both familiar in a rootsy way and thrillingly free-spirited.”
All About Jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz-promotion-network-irish-showcases-at-black-box
Bebop
Experimental Jazz
Space Funk Jazz
Contemporary Jazz
Grunge Jazz
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