27.04.21
manchester jazz festival took a trip down to Media City for our very own showcase as part of Digital City Festival with Stream GM.
Digital City Festival is an annual event series exploring what makes a leading digital city. Running from 12 – 23 April, it featured two weeks of keynotes, panels, the Digital City Awards, cultural events and more, all broadcast from MediaCityUK.
On Monday 19th April, artistic director Steve Mead and festival assistant Ash Doherty were joined by two emerging jazz acts on the mjf hothouse level-up programme, for a special live broadcast. The event began with an introduction to manchester jazz festival with an eye to our talent development programme, mjf hothouse, and a virtual appearance from Talent Development Associate Helen Goodman, before welcoming artists Lara Jones and Yaatri.
Lara Jones performed two pieces from her ever-growing body of work ‘Enso’. ‘St Panaras’ and ‘Tai Chi’ uniquely marry the emotional with the digital, with Lara’s solo lineup including her saxophone, synths, and midi controllers allowing her to manipulate audio samples live and to create a sound much larger than one human unaided by technology. She offered us an insight into the meanings behind the pieces, her upcoming installation piece with Cheltenham Jazz Festival in a geodesic dome and how mjf hothouse influenced her journey.
Following a video delving deeper into the mjf hothouse programme we welcomed Yaatri to the virtual stage. The five-piece are led by guitarist Liam DeTar and they performed songs both old and new. Tunes from their upcoming album arethe inspiration behind their newly revolutionised live set up which now incorporates far more elaborate technical processes to achieve the same heights as the recorded music. They discussed how expanding their use of technology was a natural evolution in line with their artistic growth and vision, and expressed their interest in imagining how this will integrate into their creative practice as time goes on.
We’d like to extend a warm thank you to Digital City Festival, Stream GM and the team at Badger & Combes who made it a pleasant and smooth experience.
