For 20 years Catriona McKay and Chris Stout have captivated audiences with their exhilarating and virtuosic live performances: the cascading rhythms of McKay’s harp dovetailing perfectly with Stout’s swooping, soulful violin.

Magnus Öström is one of Sweden’s top jazz stars, a band leader whose music is effortessly beautiful, drawing its influences liberally from jazz, electronica and rock.

For fifteen years Öström was the drummer with the Esbjorn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.), the most successful jazz band in the world at the time.

Seven-piece Bray band Retrofix will cook up a recipe of 60s soul or 70s funk when they play their first Bray Jazz show on the Harbour Stage, this year.

Their eclectic mix of jazz, funk, soul, bossa and originals has earned them a growing following, and led to an appearance at Mermaid Arts Centre during the Bray One-Act Drama Festival, earlier this Spring.

Bray Jazz will host the Dublin premiere of an innovative new composition written by jazz musician and composer Ronan Guilfoyle to celebrate the role that his late grandfather played in The Rising and Ireland’s War of Independence.

The two Celtic jazz guitar virtuosi, natives of Dublin and Glasgow respectively, propel the guitar duo format to new heights of musicality, technique and imagination.

Their musical rapport is tangible and there is joy and even occasional madness in the bravura of their combined brilliance.

One of African music’s top stars, Dobet Gnahoré is a Grammy Award-winning singer, dancer and charismatic stage performer whose thrilling live shows have wowed audiences across the globe.

Chromb! are a thrilling young French band who combine their love for catchy pop with avant garde music to create scene-stealing high energy music that they describe as a ‘fat mutant sound.’

Tongue Bundle’s music ranges from pop flavoured stompers through free jazz, mad grooves and noise.

Using drums, percussion, guitars, bass, horns, keys and vocals they attempt to marry disparate influences together in a thoughtful and expressive way, while imbuing their live performances with high energy. There’s emphasis on improvisation in the group focusing on originality and humour.

Labels aren’t easy when it comes to Vernon Jane. Are they a rock band with jazz sensibilities, or a jazz combo who seriously know how to rock out?

Who cares! What’s certain is that they’ve been generating quite a buzz on the Dublin scene over the past year, and the momentum is starting to build.

A piano trio with a difference, Swiss trio Vein create exciting, dynamic and innovative music with a nod to deeply held traditional values.

The group play classy, powerful music played with passion, drive, superb interplay and improvisational finesse, and are joined here by New York saxophonist Greg Osby, a figure who has made an indelible mark on contemporary jazz.

Nils Økland is an innovative violinist and Hardinger fiddle specialist who is creatively expanding the range of the traditional music of his Nordic homeland.

The creator of a series of acclaimed albums on the prestigious ECM recording label, Økland is joined here by fellow countryman Sigbjørn Apeland for what promises to be a compelling virtuoso performance that includes traditional, folk and classical tunes from their native Norway.

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Kenny Werner is a fluently inventive pianist and leader of one of the most acclaimed and influential piano-trios in contemporary American jazz.

With a decade-and-a-half of shared experiences and several strong albums already under its belt, the music of Werner’s trio morphs frequently, as rhythms prance, flow, stutter and stride in unexpected ways to take audiences on a lyrical journey through the vast seas of improvised music.

Classic jazz tunes are given the Cuban treatment, and Cuban classics a twist of jazz in the able hands of Ireland’s newest exponents of irrepressible Latin groove, Conclave.

With the energy and power of a punk rock band and a broad range of influences, this five-piece jazz band from Dublin stretch the boundaries of the form.

Led by guitarist and composer Chris Guilfoyle, Umbra features some of the most well-known jazz musicians in Dublin who find their inspiration in the lush harmonic textures of John Hollenbeck and Jim McNeely or the cyclical grooves of Meshuggah and Aphex Twin

CC Brez is an Irish singer and guitarist, familiar to most as the guitarist and a founding members of Irish funk rock band Republic of Loose.

Relaunching last year as CC Brez, he delivers finely crafted grooves and slick, soul infused pop.

Kenny Werner is one of the foremost educators in contemporary improvised music. He has taught his own brand of intermediate and advanced theory at New York University, has served as artistic director for the Banff Center Jazz Programme, and as the artist-in-residence at the Berklee School of Music. He is currently artist-in-residence at New York University.

The author, of the critically acclaimed ‘Effortless Mastery – Liberating the Master Musician Within,’ his book has become a must-read for students of music and musicians in the 20 years since it was first published.

We will have 20 shows taking place at a dozen different venues on this year’s Bray Jazz Festival trail, brought to you with support from local producers