Tommy Halferty’s Voices at The Sofa Sessions

Tommy Halferty’s Voices brings original music arrangements of Beatles, Paul Simon, James Taylor and Brazilian music to the stage with new compositions by Halferty.

Tommy Halferty – guitar
Izumi Kimura – piano
Derek Whyte – bass
Jenna Harris – Voice

Tommy Halferty

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, he began his musical career in the late 70s taking Jazz Guitar lessons with Louis Stewart, a world class jazz musician. Some of his earliest appearances playing public were with bands such as `Jump' - a jazz fusion group and later on `Nunn' - a trio of flute, double bass and guitar. Most of the material here was drawn from classical, folk and jazz music. Tommyhalferty.com

Izumi Kimura

Japanese born, Irish resident Izumi Kimura has performed extensively throughout the country and abroad since moving to Ireland in 1995. She has worked with some of the leading performers and ensembles from both disciplines of classical and jazz, including RTE Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Michael d’Arcy, Mia Cooper, Ken Edge, Benjamin Dwyer, Bill Dowdall, Cora Venus Lunny, and many more from the world of classical music, and with jazz and improvising musicians including Barry Guy, Gerry Hemingway, Tommy Halferty, Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Joe O'Callaghan, Oki Itaru, Dominique Pifarély, Benoít Delbecq, Stéphane Payen, Sarah Buechi and many more. izumikimura.com

Website: https://izumikimura.com/

Derek Whyte

Derek Whyte is currently a lecturer on the Jazz and Contemporary music course in Dublin City University. He has been teaching ensembles, rhythm, transcription and instrumental skills in many different music schools for over 15 years and during this time he has been heavily involved in the Dublin Jazz scene as a performer.

He has played consistently with many of the leading jazz musicians all over the country and has more recently been playing in some of the U.K’s more recognised Jazz Venues. Derek is also involved in many of the Dublin Jazz scene's more experimental Jazz groups, many of which experiment extensively with unconventional approaches to Rhythm and Harmony. These groups include The Mike Nielsen Quartet, Electric Freeplay, Redivider and The Fuzzy Logic Ensemble. In more recent years, Derek has also begun orchestral playing with the Dublin Orchestral players.

Jenna Harris

Jenna is a vocalist, composer and lecturer from Dublin who specialises in jazz and improvised music. Jenna lectures on the BA in Jazz and Contemporary Performance in DCU. Her research in MMT Trinty College Dublin involved building a computer application designed to counteract vocal tension caused by performance anxiety in improvising vocalists. Jenna regularly performs with her band Berri, with leading creative musicians Matthew Jacobson and Derek Whyte where Jenna frequently loops and processes her voice, “a group that makes clear the difference between a jazz singer and a singer of jazz songs" (The Irish Times). Jenna is a member of guitarist Tommy Halferty's quartet Voices. She is a regular collaborator with guitarist/electronic musician Zoid, and the founding member of vocal ensemble Claritas.

Website: https://jenna.ie/