Jazz
In August 1984 pianist Tommy Flanagan was on holiday in Ireland with his wife, Diana, and drummer John Wadham set up a trio concert for him in the John Field Room of the National Concert Hall and, afterwards, a session at RTÉ’s studios, with Wadham himself on drums and bassist Lindsey Horner. That studio session, unreleased until now, is “Made in Dublin”, which Livia Records put out on 5 November. Flanagan was born in Detroit in 1930 and died in 2001.
The tape was in the late Wadham’s archive, where another drummer, Irish jazz archivist Conor Guilfoyle, found it. Horner, the only one of the three still alive, wrote the liner notes. He recalls that Flanagan was in a bluesy mood and wanted to keep the session loose, and that it was Wadham who suggested he play a few tunes on his own.
The trio tracks are Charlie Parker’s “Relaxin’ at Camarillo” and “Donna Lee”, Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser”, George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Oscar Pettiford’s “Blues in the Closet”. On solo piano there’s Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight”, Thad Jones’s “A Child Is Born” and Gershwin’s “Lady Be Good”. The tracklist on the label’s shop adds a ninth, John Coltrane’s “Naima”, which the description leaves out. According to Livia, “Blues in the Closet” was also on the album Flanagan released that same year with Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Livia was founded in 1977 to record guitarist Louis Stewart, and Dermot Rogers revived it in 2022. Its archive releases include “The Dublin Concert”, Stewart’s duo with Jim Hall from 26 December 1982. “Made in Dublin” is out on CD at €15, catalogue number LRCD2603.
Text by Aina Torrents