Une Soirée Folle: In Walked Piet Album Launch

Join Emilie and her trio for the launch of her 3rd ablum, In Walked Piet, with Johnny Taylor on piano and Dominic Mullan on drums and Barry Donohue on double bass.

The 1920s, The Jazz Age, Les Annee Folles, The Roaring Twenties, the Charleston, Swing Orchestras, Surrealism, DADAism, Jazz. A time of casting off the stays and corsets of old ways of life for the new, the modern, self-expression, freedom, and release following the restriction and destruction of WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic. The Arts bristled with iconoclastic and rebellious artists like Joyce, Dali, Josephine Baker, and Mondrian, fearless and uncompromising in their experimentation and drive for innovation.

Once Mondrian discovered jazz in Paris in the 1920s, the music became a seminal influence on his work lasting right up to his death in 1944. He was passionate about swing, boogie woogie and in his last years in New York City, was to be found in Minton's at the birth of bebop.

This concert celebrates the launch of Emilie's album within the frame of music from the 1920s, The Charleston, Ain’t Misbehavin, Blue Skies, Stardust etc. Compositions in which she ask questions on the role of art for social change and equality. And compositions from her commission with the National Gallery to respond to modern artist, Piet Mondrian.

It was, after all, in the infamous Green Mill, Chicago, a prohibition Speakeasy frequented by Al Capone in the 20s, where Emilie got her start in jazz, singing My Secret Love with Kurt Elling’s band in an after-hours jam session. And so, the audience is invited to dress up in 20s-style clothes – experimentation and freedom of self-expression through dress are welcomed!

Emilie will be joined by her long-time musicians, Johnny Taylor on piano and Dominic Mullan on drums and Barry Donohue on double bass.
Quotes
“Star of the show is Conway’s voice,” – Hot Press
“Splendid.” – The Sunday Independent
“Her own vocalese to Coltrane’s solo demonstrating her abilities to their fullest, flitting through the lyrics at a tempo most rappers would be envious of, while maintaining a bouncing melody and clarity of diction throughout.” – GoldenPlec

Bio

Emilie Conway is an award winning jazz singer, composer and lyricist. Her music is informed and complemented by her love of literature, poetry, sound and silence. She blends her own compositions with improvised or composed music and her interpretation of familiar and less familiar jazz standards.

Her work centres around three areas of focus: jazz and art/literature, jazz and disability and jazz and children.

Emilie was commissioned by the National Gallery to respond to the work of Piet Mondrian and this work is in its final stages of production.

She created Solid, Space Sound experience for the Ark in June which brought children from Child Vision to experience the Ark in an interactive musical, highly sensory, participatory, creative way.

In recent years she has been heavily involved in campaigning for disability rights and equal access especially in the Arts. Keeping music to the fore she so she has sang her message at meetings and presentations including to Oireachtas members. She is founder of DADA, Disabled Artists, Disabled Academics.

She also bring her musical, writing and artistic skills to her works with artists and galleries to create multi-sensory experiences which poetic audio description, sound/music, braille and tactile creations.

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