Melanie will be joined by Sean O'Nuallain
on guitar. Melanie will also be joined by one
of California's top piano players, Frank Martin. Melanie’s first performance at Auburn House Concerts was so successful we have asked her back.
Melanie O'Reilly and Sean O'Nuallain appeared as guest artists on the Rights of Man track on Michael Mullen's CD, Fiddler's Creed. Michael writes: Jazzy versions of this tune have been recorded before—it seems to lend itself to that—but this is a string jazz 'Hot Club of County Clare' take on it. Michael's new group GreenBridge will be performing at the Auburn House Concerts in the future.
Internationally performing singer/songwriter, recording artist and radio broadcaster Melanie O’Reilly is now firmly established in the great pantheon of creative Irish artists. Her unique Celtic Jazz sound creates an exhilarating blend of Irish traditional music and jazz—a powerful and exciting soundscape, exploring untouched frontiers—captivating audiences worldwide. Awarded as one of the “Best Of the Bay Area” by East Bay Express in 2007, she has also just won a National Radio Award (Ireland) for her own radio show “Jazz on the Bay,” on RTE Radio 1, as Music Specialist Program of the Year; and is chosen as one of Ireland’s foremost jazz ambassadors by Downbeat magazine. Join her and her guests Frank Martin (piano) and Sean O Nuallain (guitar) for an evening of “spellbinding uplifting music, from a true innovator enriched by the ancient spirit of Ireland.”
As an arranger/conductor/keyboardist Frank Martin has performed and/or recorded with a variety of pop stars that include Sting, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Chris Isaak, Cheryl Crow, Philip Bailey, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Billy Joel, Madonna, Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle. Currently on staff as an educator at the University of California at Berkeley, as well as The Jazzschool in Berkeley, California, he is in demand as a clinician both in the United States, having taught at the Naropa Institute in Boulder Colorado, Stanford Jazz Workshops at Stanford University, as well as in Europe at the acclaimed “SAMI” Institute in Sweden.
Born in Kilkee, Ireland, guitarist Sean O Nuallain has been immersed in the wealth of Irish Traditional music of West Clare since he was in his early teens, and became widely respected as a trad music Irish session player. He then studied classical guitar as well as the bossa nova tradition for 3 years in Canada, and went on to form a duo with Melanie O’Reilly merging bossa nova, Irish and jazz. With Melanie he has performed at the Lorient Festival Inter-Celtique in Brittany, the Cork International Jazz Festival, Andernos Festival Internationale France and many other venues. As a highly respected academic of note, Sean also merges Lecture with music presentations in the area of Irish Music history and development, including a series at UC Berkeley CAL Extension, entitled “Irish Music: From Sean-Nos to Jazz”.
