Month: April 2015

It should be outlawed!.

Having this much fun and calling it work.

We played to a lovely audience of residents and their family and friends at the Manningham Centre – Cassia House.

Lots of great tunes, sing-alongs, and Wendy doing some great War Time favorites, and I got to play some of my favorite flute tunes too.

A lovely afternoon!

 

25th April, 2015

After the busy afternoon at the Ringwood RSL, I was really looking forward to just relaxing, playing some gentle ballads, some bossa, a bit of classical music and some pop tunes with my favorite guitarist and Jazz Note partner, Kevin Blaz�.

That’s pretty much what we did.

A lovely early evening set, very nice audience and we finished the night enjoying the lovely cr�pes from Open Studio.

Thanks to Marion for making sure we made

it on time from our previous gig.� It was a little rushed.

We’re hoping to be back at Open Studio soon.

The Swingmasters are the regular entertainment every year on Anzac Day at the Ringwood RSL.

This year we added a few Jazz Notes and some friends to the day.  It was great fun.

The RSL has had some renovations of late, so we were a little short of space, but that certainly didn’t stop us from filling the room with lots of great music, songs and a whole lot of good spirit.

Thanks to Wendy Craig (Vocals – doing an amazing job & she’s my Mum!), Wade Morgan (the newest Jazz Note, and a pretty cool crooner), Graeme Howie (master keyboardist), Kevin Blazé (guitar) and Me (Ann Craig – flute).  A great afternoon of music.  We also had Jan Blake sing a few with the band, then Jimmy Fong (vocals & guitar) rounded the afternoon up just before the Pipe Band arrived.  Hope my father (John Craig – Saxophone) is repaired and ready for next year – I think it’s going to be huge.

Kevin and I had to race off to a second gig at Open Studio and left the hard work of packing up to Ashley and Andrew – Thanks you two, you did a great job.

It was our second event at the Ember Lounge.

A huge thanks to the management and staff.  They really look after us!

We had a super night on Friday 24th.

Over 80 people attended, lots of great open mic performers, and the jam’s are really popular. And a big thanks to Manny and his Gang who regularly open the night with some great tunes.

Some of our musicians have been learning their instruments for just over a year and they are enjoying the chance to participate in the Jams.

It’s really pleasing to see everyone having a go!

I really love the interaction between everyone – it’s definitely the place to be on a Friday night once a month!

Our next event is scheduled for the 22nd May.  See you there!

A little short???…..  Try quite a few.

Our Trumpet, Sax and Trombone players had all come down with the dreaded lurgy, our pianist was suffering and had to leave early, so I had to do most of the lead lines.

It was fun and pretty cool how everyone had to follow me for a change.  Hopefully my funky flute saved the day.

Everyone did a great job, Stan, Tim, Simon, Dean, Suzanne and Me – what a team!

It was a quick dash for me from Open Studio in Northcote, to Cranbourne to meet my Body & Soul friends for an 1 hour guest spot.

Glad to be invited.  We had a blast.

Jan sang some great jazz favorites and the audience really appreciated the music.

Special thanks to Jose for inviting us to play.

Also playing with us was, Brendan Elliot (drums) Douglas Scot Maxwell (piano), Frank Morgan (bass), Jan (vocals) and Me (flute)

Special thanks to Noel Blake for videoing duties.

Very happy to have the chance to play at Open Studio as Jazz Notes.

We had a lovely early evening set 5 – 7pm.  Nice audience really enjoying our music.

We played a mix of classical, pop, bossa and even some jazz!

For our 3rd set we took some requests and I played my new toy!

We’ll be back at Open Studio next week – Saturday 25th (Anzac Day) from 5 -7 pm – so if you’d like to come along, we’d love to see you.  Might even  bring out my new toy again.

Thanks to Marion for taking photos.

After a rather long evening at Altona with The Swingmasters & Jazz Notes I had to prepare for a studio recording.

Pughouse Studios was the location.  All Day, was the plan.  Funky music, was the order of the day.  Tick, Tick, Tick.

A long day but well worth it – I think the recording sounded pretty good.  Now there is all the technical stuff for others to deal with.

Standing Tall have set up a Pozzible campaign to help support the recording.

Please check it out, and help if you can.

http://www.pozible.com/project/194934

 

Now that’s something different!

My parents sometimes need a break – so they might actually take a few months off, but not before they help me train up some of my Jazz Notes friends.

Saturday 11th April saw Kevin and Wade thrown in at the deep end at Altona Sports Club – Wade sharing the stage alongside my very talented Mum and Dad, Kevin joining me at the top level with Graeme and Rob.  This strict tempo dance music is quite different than the more normal jazz, funky pop, and twisted music we normally play – but I am pleased to say Kevin and Wade did just fine.

In fact we’ve been asked to do it again and some of those times my parents will actually stay home and relax.  (at least – I hope!)  So look out for all the new events we have planned.