LADIES OF JAZZ - A Fiesta of Female Jazz Talent

Mon 21 Dec 2009 @ 8:00pm

Admission Members $15 Student members $8 Non-members $25

Put on your sparkles and arrive early - the doors open at 6:30pm for tonight's show.

Ladies of Jazz is the highlight of your Christmas calendar - the annual PJS Jazz Awards will be announced and the new Alan Corbet Fund for Musicians will be launched, with a huge raffle and many prizes to be won.

Tonight, Ali Bodycoat and Libby Hammer share their power and experience with Allira Wilson and Tiaryn Griggs who represent a new wave of young vocalists.

This annual fiesta of music has always been big on female vocals - but this year the fairer sex also swell the band, filling the rhythm section.
And of course, musical director Alice Humphries has pulled the whole night together.

Billie Holliday's was one of the sounds that first drew her to jazz.
"I love the bluer songs, and standards." she says, "but there won't be too much of the former tonight."

That's right, Ladies of Jazz is a fun night, a traditional pre-Christmas knees-up at the club.

And Alice makes the point that revisiting standards, already perfected by great artists, is no way for jazz to progress. There will be a range of songs, duets, some instrumentals, she says.

"We have an excellent line-up, and it is good to have extra women in the band. But I didn't want it to be an `all-girl band' just for the sake of it.

“I have called on the best people I could find for the gig – male or female. We have so many talented musicians in Perth.”

The cast
Djuna Lee (bass), Tiaryn Griggs (piano and vocals), Naomi Tan (drums) make up an all-female rhythm section.
Dan Thorne (tenor sax), Ben Collins (alto), Ricki Malet (trumpet), Alex Benn (trombone) make up the horn section.
Vocalists Allira Wilson with Ali Bodycoat and Libby Hammer.