Jazz In The Gardens This Friday

Following last week’s change of venue due to wet weather, our fingers are crossed that music in the gardens will return to the glorious Orange Botanical Gardens this Friday.

As part of Orange Regional Conservatorium’s contemporary combo “Orcmented” I will be back on piano for a set with Mitch Davis, Luiz Ortiz and James Buchanan featuring the music of Wes Mongomery, John Coltrane and Burt Bacharch to name a few………

Music in the Gardens is a joint venture between Orange Regional Conservatorium and the Botanical Gardens and is in its highly successful eighth year. We present a diverse offering of music from Baroque to jazz and pop.

The concert starts at 6.30 - be early to secure a nice lush piece of grass for your picnic rug.

2010 with Jasmine

This year is shaping up to be a huge year for Jasmine Rae as she hits the road with the Lee Kernaghan tour as his opening act and backing vocalist. Jasmine and Trav will be doing all of Lee’s shows acoustically, so Mish and I will be sitting these ones out. Not that we’ll be idle - we’ve got loads of gigs with other artists and will be joining Jasmine for her bigger headline shows.

This year’s Tamworth was great. We added a bass player and I shifted onto keys for Jasmine’s show. It’s nice to play her stuff on piano as well as my usual role on bass. It’s great music.

Next shows with Jas are in Thredbo on March 5&6. Come on down, and “chill”

The Tamworth post-glow

After completing my tenth Tamworth festival this year, it was time to reflect on how some things change and some things just stay the same….

I guess the festival itself is changing quite a bit. Guy Sebastian was headlining the free concert in the park, and The Screaming Jets and Potbeleez also made appearances in local venues. So the organisers are starting to look outside the square to other genres in the hope of replacing their ageing (and kinda dying) audience. Personally, I would rather see a big name International act like Keith or Joe Nichols draw in COUNTRY fans, but hey what would I know?

My 2010 festival was memorable. Nine gigs in six days with some great artists and even some rockin’ cover shows. The highlights were Playing Wests with the gorgeous Jasmine Rae, performing in the Maton showcase at TREC with THE SOUTHERN GREEN and a guest spot with Jonah’s Road on Giddyup.

Part of the hilarity was the TAMROCK CITY BLASTERS gigs at the Coyote Ugly Bar. Pat, Mish and I teamed up with Vaughan Jones from Troy Cassar Daley’s band to pump out some rock covers. Our guest artists included Matt Fell (Josh Pyke, Adam Brand), Kellie O’Donnell (The Southern Green), Jay Collie (Jonah’s Road) and Jase Byrne (Jericho).

I pulled a couple of all-nighters with my old mates Joe Bananas, Paris McLeod and the boys from The Basics. My head still hasn’t recovered - hopefully it will by January 2011 when I no doubt do it all again……..