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Date: Sunday 25 May

mjf30 Wrap Party Jam, ft. The Ed Kainyek Quartet

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Matt and Phreds

Ed Kainyek saxophone / George King piano / Grant Russell bass / Colin Lamont drums  

And just like that, mjf30 (it’s special anniversary edition) will draw to a close… but not until we go out the only way we know how… one last Wrap Party Jam featuring The Ed Kainyek Quartet. 

A legend on the Manchester jazz scene, Ed Kainyek has helped launched the career of many local artists, often giving them their start right here at Matt & Phreds. His own gigs embrace a range of styles from pop and soul to hard swing and Latin.  

The stage is open for musicians of any level to get up and play a tune or two with the band and other jammers. Whether you’ve been a part of mjf’s line up throughout the festival and fancy one more hoorah, or if you’re a musician who wants to put their mark on the festival, this is for you. With genres encompassing jazz, blues, soul, funk, and pop – anything goes, and anything could happen. 

Did we mention it’s a bank holiday…? See you on the dance floor! 

Call 0161 273 5495 to reserve a table 

Doors: 6pm 

Happy Hour: 6-8pm 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Price: Free

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Band on the Wall Jazz Workshop Band

Band on the Wall (Copper Bar Stage)

Band on the Wall’s Jazz Workshop is the longest running of its kind in Manchester. 

Taught and directed by renowned saxophonist Munch Manship, it has become a creative hub for amateur jazz musicians from across the northwest who are passionate about the music and get together to play on a regular basis. 

For this festival gig, the workshop’s band will be performing some of the hottest and coolest numbers from the giants of jazz, at Manchester’s iconic music venue. 

 

 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Price: Free

Young Pilgrims

Aviva Studios: The Undercroft

Aaron Diaz, Sean Gibbs, Sam Wooster trumpets / Richard Foote, Kieran McLeod trombones / Chris Maddock baritone saxophone / Michael Owers sousaphone / Euan Palmer, Jonathan Silk drums 

Young Pilgrims are an addictive young brass band brimming with jazz-rock energy and rhythmic groove. 

Growing out of the thriving Birmingham jazz scene, Young Pilgrims have drawn fans from across Europe and beyond with their intense live performances – from beer-soaked dance floors to London’s South Bank, the Paris Jazz Festival to Love Supreme Festival.  

The Pilgrims’ adventurous, brass-heavy, rock-influenced sound is brought together by their explosive nine-strong line-up, with improvising invention set against infectious melodies, inspired by renegades, Scottish cities, skateboarding and even a brief and murky incursion into a local canal… 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

Time: 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm

Price: Free

N∆bou

Aviva Studios (The Social)

Nabou Claerhout trombone / Gijs Idema electric guitar / Trui Amerlinck double bass / Daniel Jonkers drums 

UK debut 

N∆BOU is a breath of fresh air on the Belgian jazz scene. Band leader and composer Nabou Claerhout is looking for a sound all her own: by means of all sorts of effects, she creates a dreamy musical framework with a strong atmospheric and melancholic resonance. 

After their debut EP Hubert – for which Claerhout was nominated for Jazz Composer 2019 at the Sabam for Culture Award – the band refined their special sound further on their album You Know. 

Lush and intimate sounds alternate with strongly rhythmic compositions, whilst groovy bass riffs, elaborate drum patterns and virtuosic guitar all add to the musical adventure.  Claerhout’s distinctive trombone playing “sings, cries, pulsates, tells and knows how to make many hearts weak, through well-constructed contemporary pieces.” 

The total musical picture is endlessly intriguing and truly kaleidoscopic from the very first listen. 

“…creates a transcendental mood and is a stunning offering from a brilliant composer and bandleader.” – Jazz Sensibilities

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm

Price: Free

Quincey May Brown

Band on the Wall (Copper Bar Stage)

Quincey May Brown vocals, harp / James Kruszelnicki tenor saxophone / Joel Harries guitar, backing vocals  

Quincey May Brown is a Manchester-based songwriter and harpist with a penchant for shirking convention. Together with her band, they combine elements of folk, jazz, ethereal sounds and darkly playful lyrics. 

Her debut album Basic Surgeon was released in November 2023.  

“Distinctive, atmospheric and haunting in all the right ways.” – Roddy Hart, BBC Radio Scotland 

“One of the most quietly original albums I’ve heard in a long time.” – Chris Evans, The Curve Ball 

“Quincey May Brown’s performance shone with measured intelligence, witty one-liners and a captivating mix of harp and sax.” – Andy Reilly, Snack Magazine 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Price: Free

Lou Barnell + Neighbourhood Voices

Aviva Studios: The Undercroft

Lou Barnell creative director / Neighbourhood Voices vocals / Hazel Thompson collaborator 

Lou is an award-winning vocalist, sound and performance artist, one of Sound and Music UK’s New Voices 2022 composers, and an mjf hothouse 2023 artist alumnus. She was also a 2021 Oram Award-winner, in recognition of innovation in sound and technology.  

In collaboration with the 25-strong Neighbourhood Voices inclusive choir from Sheffield, Lou will immerse the audience in a ‘Live Dream’ using embodied deep listening to bathe listeners in sound, inviting people to luxuriate in the here-and-now as music and sound from the city merge. 

Lou’s music communicates her synaesthetic experience of sound, hyperfocus and sensory overload, celebrating her qualities as a neurodivergent woman. She creates constellations of materials, wearable music technology, voice and movement. 

She is currently working with the concept of ‘Live Dreaming’, which explores how musical performance and dreaming have the same functions: to help us know ourselves and find our way. Lou’s work is inspired by the work of Pauline Oliveros, Neuroqueer materialities, feminisms, quantum futures and imaginings

Photography Credit: Hannah Lovell 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm

Price: Free

Sanem Kalfa’s Miraculous Layers

Aviva Studios (The Social)

Sanem Kalfa voice, cello, electronics / Marc Alberto saxophone, electronics / Chaerin Im piano / Sun-Mi Hong drums 

UK debut 

Sanem is a Turkish vocalist living in Amsterdam, and if you caught her mjf 2019 duo set with violist George Dumitriu, you’ll recall her virtuosity, effortlessly blending technical ability with free, raw passion. Her performances always touch on the primal grounds of the human soul. 

Originally commissioned by Amsterdam’s pioneering jazz club, the Bimhuis, to explore the conflicting emotional shifts encountered during lockdown, Miraculous Layers has evolved – with contributions from artists each born in different countries – to explore the spectrum of human feelings, yearnings, fears and delights contained in and expressed by the human voice. Delicate, intimate and powerful, the results are spellbinding.  

The ensemble’s sound and concept are compelling enough, but Miraculous Layers also boasts enthralling performances from some of the strongest international voices on the Dutch contemporary music scene. Sun-Mi Hong and Chaerin Im – both South Koreans resident in The Netherlands – lead their own projects and are fast becoming the most in-demand players across Europe; the uncategorisable Euro-Caribbean sound artist and musician Marc Alberto adds drama and texture through impassioned saxophone and spoken word, bringing a highly personal searching stamp into any setting.  

“… the most convincing testimony to the power of the musical voice ….” – All About Jazz 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm

Price: Free

Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock

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Band on the Wall (The Venue)

Emma Rawicz tenor & soprano saxophone / Gwilym Simcock piano 

This new duo brings together the talents of celebrated pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock and rising star saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz. This musical collaboration has a special depth and freedom that has blossomed in just a short space of time, maturing rapidly into a unique and exciting musical force. Emma and Gwilym have composed for each other and collaborated on arrangements, drawing on the many common influences they share. Such has been the success of this musical venture, they have already been into the studio to record their first album as a duo, for the prestigious ACT label.  

Emma and Gwilym will be performing music from their latest release, including original works and arrangements of a variety of other music from the Great American Songbook to Stevie Wonder! Their collaboration has been a cross-generational revelation, but an unsurprising success – given they both had a similar classical and jazz training at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and Royal Academy of Music in London. The duo’s connection as labelmates makes a collaboration even more fitting, and they are very excited to see where their adventure will take them.  

Their love of engaging, energetic and joyful music is evident throughout this set, and the intimate chamber concert is a perfect setting for this very special duo.  

Doors 2 pm

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Price: £18 advance, £20 full price

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International triple-bill: Sylvain Rifflet: We Want Stars

Aviva Studios (The Social)

Sylvain Rifflet tenor saxophone, clarinet / Bettina Kee keyboards, synthesizers / Vincent Taeger drums, percussion  

Rounding off our international debut triple-bill, French saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Sylvain Rifflet is a remarkable musician on the European jazz scene – one who likes to explore unchartered territories and side roads. Building an unlikely bridge between his hero Stan Getz and the minimalist influences of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, his music is always daring, conceptual, and entirely rewarding.  

For this new sax-synths-drums trio, Rifflet joins forces with two indie pop figures trained in jazz, to create fantastical, energetic landscapes of high-octane saxophone and clarinet, swirling synths, and poly-rhythmic grooves. Jazz with pop energy – for the body and the mind! 

Since graduating from the Conservatoire de Paris, Rifflet has won several prestigious awards, including the Victoire du Jazz and a Django d’or, and has performed and recorded with some of the most famous performers on the European scene, including Henri Texier, Paolo Fresu and Louis Sclavis, as well as American musicians Joey Baron, Jon Hollenbeck and Jim Black. 

“One of the most beautiful records of the autumn. An ode to inventiveness, melody, and fertile repetition.” – Jazz News 

Date: sunday 25 may

Time: 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm

Price: Free admission, no ticket required