Welcome to the first Blind Date Jazz episode of IMC’s Creative About Music Podcast. For this musical blind date, we paired up vocalist and pianist Olesya Zdorovetska with percussionist Matthew Jacobson.

Blind Date Jazz brings listening and creative improvisation into focus, with some of Ireland’s leading improvisers coming into the studio to create an exciting, new, musical conversation.

The twist?

Neither musician has any idea who they are playing with. 

Hear the musicians reflect on what improvisation means to them, and then join them on the journey into the studio, completely hidden from each other by a curtain. 

Unseen, unknown, unrehearsed, they can only interact purely musically, until at some point, the curtain drops and they can continue their musical conversation face-to-face. Does the interaction change? Listen to find out.

Matthew Jacobson is an Irish drummer, improviser, composer, educator and producer. As well as leading his own groups Insufficient Funs and ReDiviDeR, he regularly tours, performs and records with foremost improvisers all around the world. He is also co-director of independent Irish record label Diatribe, a jazz lecturer at Dublin City University. Find more of his work at his website http://www.matthewjacobsonmusic.com/ 

Olesya Zdorovetska is a powerful and innovative voice in new music as a soloist, collaborator, and composer crossing the fields of improvised, jazz, Afro-Caribbean, contemporary classical and experimental music. A dynamic figure on the Irish scene, she is noted for her curation of the Phonica series, and her work with Diatribe Records on the critically-acclaimed Haivka recording by Yurodny Ensemble. Find more of her work at https://zdorovetska.com/ 

You can watch this Blind Date Jazz in full video form on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ZM7hKM1mmBU 

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Improvised Music Company (IMC) is an Irish Arts Council funded resource organisation for Irish and Irish-based jazz musicians, and a specialist promoter of jazz, improvised and ethnic music in Ireland. 

www.improvisedmusic.ie

Thanks to Justin Carroll's Togethernessfor our podcast theme - the track is their 'Feelgood Factor' from 2009 album 'Togetherness'. You can listen to the rest here: https://justincarroll.bandcamp.com/album/togetherness