The Monthly Jazz Rag
THE HERVEY BAY JAZZ RAG
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF
HERVEY BAY JAZZ CLUB INC.
P.O.Box 5236 Torquay, Hervey Bay, Qld. 4655
Website: www.herveybayjazzclub.org.au
VOLUME No 5 ISSUE No 5 MAY 2009
President: Allan Risk – Tel 4125 4091 Secretary: Ray Soulsby – Tel 4125 51743
Address all mail to the above postal address
PRESIDENT AL’s COLUMN
Hi there jazz lovers.
Well another birthday has been reached and didn’t we celebrate it in style. The
music was sensational with a rousing standing ovation at the end of the evening
and I would refer you to a separate report elsewhere in the journal.
Five years is quite a milestone and indicates to us that Jazz is alive and well
here in the Bay providing it is high quality an objective we have tried to maintain,
but staying within our means.
We have already announced that we are not having a gig in May and this due to
experiencing a severe fall-off in patronage in past in Mays. Why? I don’t know.
It might be the clash with the local show not necessarily by date but maybe by
competing financial commitments/demands. I remember a few years back when we had
to have a garage sale with donations of goods from members to get some money in
the bank to carry on.
However on the brighter side we have the return of “The Duck” in June and am
confident that the support will be there.
Ray and I with wives have been Rocky to attend our Rotary district’s annual conference
and whilst there Sandra and I stumbled on to a jazz concert held on the riverside
walk on the Sunday (17th May) and I have written some words about it elsewhere.
It was great to see Bob Carlson at our fifth birthday gig. Bob’s health has not
been too good of late so it was good to see him out and about other than for medical
attention. It was Bob, Ray, Mike and myself, who formed the club after several
meetings in Bob’s hair dressing salon. We adopted a constitution adapted from
the Brisbane Jazz Club’s version and there being more than the minimum requirement
of 7 in attendance, we peeled off $15.00 each and the club was formed a little
over five years ago.
Well that’s all for now. See you at “The Duck” gig on 29th June. Get your tickets soon as we may sell out like last time…………………Allan.
MAY GIG – A REPORT
The May gig was a resounding success with some fantastic music from Ewen MacKenzie
and his Gypsy Manouche group playing some great Gypsy jazz .
A lot of people responded to the French theme and some photographic evidence
is provided below:
And the winners are: Keith King & Henny Duxbury
Even Tooloose Lawreck was there but unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of him.
The lovely Georgina dressed up as did the male winner Keith’s wife. Most people
found a striped tee shirt, a scarf or a beret and there were lots of oo la la’s
and other French phrases. A great night was had by all. Lucky members draw went
to Keith King, Marsh Robinson and Shirley Mitchell.
ROCKHAMPTON JAZZ CONCERT
As I mentioned earlier Sandra and I stumbled on to a jazz concert last Sunday
(17th May) in Rocky and spent almost three hours listening to some fine Jazz on a
river walk stage with a lovely river backdrop.
The music varied and came from a range of groups and featured the combined Rockhampton
and North Rockhampton stage bands to form a 21 piece big band featuring seven
trombones, four trumpets, seven reeds, plus bass guitar, drums, and keyboard ably
lead by a local music teacher. They were impressive. Then the Central Queensland
Uni’s music pupils of around 11 players gave some avant garde and latin numbers
and featured a wild (electronic trumpet). They were followed by a Nonet from Richmond
Virginia USA who had only just arrived in Australia for studies at Central Qld
Uni who now have a music (jazz) faculty.
They were very good also even though they were suffering from jetlag.
There was another group playing Latin music featuring Cuban rhythms of which,
we were told, there are 20 or more. The final group were different in that they
played blues including some of Lee J. Hooker’s better known numbers.
Anyway it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon and it was free.
THE DUCK IS COMING – (I can hardly wait)
They will be here on 29th June and please note that it is a Monday. The line-up is the same as last time and includes Greg Foster on trombone etc,
Willy Qua on reeds and occasionally drums, with John Conley on guitar, clarinet
and double bass, Rod Ford on drums, percussion and vocals and Matt Baker on keyboards
and vocals.
All other aspects of the gig are normal with a 7.30pm start in the Auditorium
at the Boat Club, with the usual raffle, lucky door prizes etc. Note that the
seating arrangements are theatre style, not our usual cabaret arrangement with
tables which is how we coped with the very large crowd that came last time.
BITS AND PIECES
Did you notice that we have been getting some good coverage in the local press
lately. Ray has been pumping out some press releases and the two local papers
have been picking them up. We made front page recently and this week got some
coverage on our May gig. A big thank-you to Ray for his efforts.
In July we have Ingrid James to sing for us and she is bringing her keyboard
player, John Reed, and we are adding our own Steve Wright on drums plus Ralph
De Silva on Bass. It should be another great night. Ingrid was most impressive
at the Hervey Bay Jazz Festival.
***********
Bill Frisell the very accomplished guitarist from USA, was in Australia in late
April and early May, where he played at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival
and also the Sydney Opera house. He has played on more than 150 recordings and
has been leader on 25.
The Melbourne Jazz festival included some not-so-jazz groups but there were plenty
of the best locals including Paul Grabowski, the Jazzgroove Mothership as well
as Kristin Berardi playing with James Muller who played for us last year with
Steve Newcomb.
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