At The Jazz Band Ball: The Roaring 20’s Balmain Battle Of The Bands

About At The Jazz Band Ball: The Roaring 20’s Balmain Battle Of The Bands

A “Roaring Twenties Jazz Age” Themed Charleston / Lindy Hop / Balboa / Blues Extravaganza, featuring 21 of Sydney’s and the Central Coast’s top jazz musicians playing together in various combinations throughout the evening, playing many of the hot jazz tunes from the 1920’s (including those of the legendary King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band of 1923 with the young jazz genius Louis Armstrong playing second cornet) and the post-war worldwide classic jazz revival of the 1940’s and 1950’s, as also further revived by such great bands as Tom Baker’s San Francisco Jazz Band of the mid-1970’s.

The fabulous line-up of bands that will be playing at this spectacular not-to-be-missed event are:

(1). “Geoff Power’s Classic Jazz” Plus 6: This band will recreate the marvellous two-trumpet sounds of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band of 1923 and Tom Baker’s San Francisco Jazz Band of the mid-1970’s. The musicians will be: Geoff Power (trumpet), James Power (trumpet), Jack Wiard (clarinet / saxophones), John Bates (trombone), Paul Baker (banjo), Michael Brady (banjo), Rachel Hamilton (piano), Jim Elliott (bass saxophone), Craig Goeldner (sousaphone) and Lawrie Thompson (drums / washboard).

(2). “Licorice Allsorts” Plus 2: This band will feature the fantastic multiple clarinets / saxophones sound, inspired by such famous 1920’s jazz bands with two or more clarinets / saxophones as Duke Ellington’s, Clarence Williams' and Jimmie Noone's bands. The musicians will be: Paul Furniss (clarinet / saxophones), Jack Wiard (clarinet / saxophones), Peter Buckland (clarinet / saxophones), Ben Jones (clarinet / saxophones), Paul Baker (banjo), Peter Boys (string bass), Rachel Hamilton (piano) and Lawrie Thompson (drums / washboard).

(3). “Geoff Bull’s Olympia Jazz Band” Plus 3: This band will also recreate more of the marvellous two-trumpet sounds of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band of 1923, and also the authentic sounds of such 1920’s New Orleans-based jazz bands as Papa Celestin's and Sam Morgan's. The musicians will be: Geoff Bull (trumpet), Bob Barnard (trumpet), Paul Furniss (clarinet / saxophones), John Bates (trombone), Eric Gibbons (trombone / alto saxophone), Paul Finnerty (banjo), Gary Walford (piano), Stan Valacos (string bass) and Anthony Howe (drums).

(4). Simon Tedeschi (world-famous classical pianist, who also loves playing hot jazz piano): Simon will play a short set (about 20 minutes) of hot jazz piano solos and piano / trumpet duets with Geoff Power and the legendary Bob Barnard (who even played with Louis Armstrong!).

Entertainment will include a dance routine by the Harbour City Hoppers to a 1920’s classic dance tune!"

The additional features or points to note about this event include the following:

(1). Recommended Dress Code: This will be a formal dress-up event featuring the clothing styles of the 1920’s to the 1950’s (i.e. the Roaring Twenties, the Thrifty Thirties, the Ferocious Forties and the Fabulous Fifties), with 1920’s style clothing particularly encouraged in view of the “Roaring Twenties” Great Gatsby Era style jazz that will be featured throughout the evening.

(2). There will be great prizes worth hundreds of dollars at the end of the night for “best dressed” (man, woman and couple) and “best dancers” (lead, follower and couple), and also great prizes for the runners up in each category.

(3). The judges for the “best dressed” and “best dancers” awards will be Janice (Jan) O’Shea and Charlotte Smith. Jan O’Shea won the award for Australian Champion of Jitterbug in 1957 (“Jitterbug” is a synonym for “Lindy Hop”), was a champion of Rock ’n’ Roll dancing several times between 1959 and 1964, and also conducted workshops with Frankie Manning (one of the famous American pioneers of the “Lindy Hop” at the Savoy Ballroom in New York in the 1930s) from 1999 to 2009. Jan, who recently judged at the Sydney Lindy Exchange and also judged at last year’s “Balmain Battle Of The Bands Ball” which featured most of the same musicians playing this year, described that event as follows: “The musicians were fantastic and I enjoyed every minute of it: it was jazz ecstasy!" Charlotte Smith is the custodian of the famous Darnell Collection, which consists of over 8000 pieces from 32 different countries representing every aspect of a woman's wardrobe from 1720 to the present day: see http://www.thedarnellcollection.com. Charlotte is also heavily involved with the annual “Roaring 20s & All That Jazz Festival” (http://www.roaring20s.com.au) held in the Blue Mountains every February.

(4). The theme tune for the evening will be “At The Jazz Band Ball” (several versions of which will be played throughout the evening), one of the very first jazz tunes ever recorded (in 1918).

(5). This is a “bring your own (BYO)” event, including (if desired) food and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

(6). The seating capacity (including tables in between the seats) at this venue, with its large dance floor in use as it will be on the night, is limited. Depending on the number of tickets that are sold, some degree of seat sharing will be necessary, so please co-operate in this respect as much as possible whilst you are out on the dance floor “strutting your stuff”.

(7). This event has the support of Jazzology Records (http://www.jazzology.com.au) and Riff Raff Jazz (http://www.riffraffjazz.net), but sole responsibility for the running of this ball lies with the event organiser, Robert Scheltema de Heere.

TICKETS: $48 (^plus 3.85% booking fee of $1.85) at www.ticketebo.com.au/battleofthebandsball, otherwise $50 cash at the door. Further enquiries: please contact the event organiser Robert Scheltema de Heere: Ph. 04 0984 2839 (M) / Email: robertsdh@hotmail.com.