The Laika Bar: A couple of hot weeks coming up…

Thursday night at the Laika was … well, weird to start with. Absolutely no one there, so the Sevil Sabah trio decided to hold a private concert for Manuel behind the bar. Which went pear shape as more and more people piled into the bar – ended up a busy night and we left the joint pumping at 10.30 when we finished.

The Sevil Sabah Trio every Thursday at The Laika Bar – 8.00pm – 10.00pm (or later apparently…)

Friday at the Laika Boris has put in a request for two singers over the next two weeks

This week Ruby Rogers! – with Daniel Pickard on bass, not sure who on sax and meself on keys. Melinda Traves will be sulking in the tour bus as usual, but the rest of us will be having a ball – if you haven’t seen Ruby, you should, if you have, you will want to see her again..

And next week, the return of Katerina Myskova.

Laika Bar, 6 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, Friday 24^h April, Ruby Rogers with the Captain Chaos Quartet from 7.30pm to 10.00pm

The Laika Bar and the CCQ

The Laika Bar CCQ Sessions:  Ruby Rogers Returns!

That’s right, long time Jammer Ruby Rogers will be tearing up the Laika this Friday with the Captain Chaos Quartet – Daniel Pickard the lucky bass player, and trumpet virtuoso , well virtuous anyway most of the time, Brae Grimes. I shall be lowering the tone on keys…

Ruby Rogers and Friends, at the Laika Bar, 6 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, Friday 27th^h February from 7.30 – 10.00

 

What’s On, What’s Not

Rubys Music Room: The Captain Chaos Sessions: Not Now Hortense…

Risa duly packed ’em in last week, for a cracker of a session as promised.. So if you missed it, you will almost certainly be heading down to Ruby’s Music Room this Friday to see Sevil Sabah do her sultry little thing. Don’t – RMR will be closed for a private function for Friday night (at which the Sevil Sabah Trio will be playing) …. for a Lithuanian wedding reception.

Next week, Amy Jaulin hits the stage Friday 21^st March, followed by Ange Strickland on 28^th March. Should be some gems between them. More anon…

Ruby’s Music Room, Bennett\’s Lane, Friday March, CLOSED.

The Castlemaine Jazz Festival June 7^th and 8^th 2014:

The rush of band applications continues – Captain Chaos and moi will be struggling with the mighty spreadsheet whilst the rest of the Committee do the real work… Band applications will be closing on April 15^th, so get yours in now. Then go out and sell your grandma some tickets…

www.castlemainejazzfestival.com.au

Kojo Brown: Group du Jour

Richmond’s finest lamb shanks continue to appeal. Kojo Brown provides Saturday night spots for the Jammers – Buddy has been singing there for years, Anne Hayres is a regular, and in more recent times, Ruby Rogers, Amy and Sevil have all had a number of nights without scaring the locals.

Whoever is there (and this week it might be Chelly Parisi) the shanks will be fabulous.

Kojo Brown, Church Street, Richmond, Saturday 7.00 – 10.00pm

What’s On: Rubys Music Room: The Captain Chaos Sessions

5.30 – 8.30 every Friday, this week with Ruby Rogers, accompanied by Doug Kuhn (bass) meself, and Dean Constable on drums. Rubes likes the place so much, she is doing it all again the next night, with Avi, Ben, Sam, and Dean. The Friday sessions see the Divine Miss Smith on 24^th January, and Anne Hayres on 31^st January.

Ruby’s Music Room
cnr Little Lonsdale and Bennetts Lane
(enter from rear Bennetts Lane)
ph 9654 9292

The Leinster Arms: stuff and muffins… and an invite.

Stuff: A mixed bag of a jam session for the aficionados, with a large turnout of jammers some of whom do not refer to themselves as real musicians, and sadly, some who do…

Well, it all started innocently enough, even Hortense would have been impressed, had she been there, which she may well have been. Or not as the case may be.. The music soon got up and swung all by itself. I seem to remember renditions of Chameleon, Four, Mercy Mercy Mercy, and quite possibly Watermelon Man. Hortense has apparently  retired to a stud farm in Uruguay in search of beef.. We expect her back any day now, lightly sauced, seared to perfection, and otherwise somewhat disappointed. But I digress…

The Jam Session (part 2): An early stanza, somewhat dominated by Julian da trumpet, followed by a very nervous newcomer, Erin, who actually sang rather well, and the usual horde of saxophonistes, all of whom were roundly put in the shade by Melinda’s friend Damien, who, we are promised, will be lending a touch of class to Ruby Rogers’ Grand Hotel session  on 13th December….

Here comes the The Invite…

…To which all of the musos who have played the Grand in the past year are warmly invited. Captain Chaos has arranged for drinks and nibbles. Probably scones  and petit fours. Anyhoo, the deal is Miss Rogers does the early set, and anyone who wants to can join in afterwards.

Did you get that?

The Jam Session (Part 3) Meanwhile, back at the Jam, Celeste, singing the terminally unsuitable Hey Big Sspender (as in hey, small ensemble…) but entirely forgiven for her subsequent rendition of a sly Eva Cassidy number…

And the sublime Miss Smiff to top it all off. Mixed muffins indeed.

And if I had to pick a performance du jour,which I don’t.  it would be Mr T, who played bass rather well, or Mr Peter Bennett, equally good, or Damien, even better. Or Miss Hortense, because she never gets picked for anything.

Ya wouldn’t be dead fer quids….

The Grand Hotel: Parisi runs hot, Rogers to come

Last Friday, Chelly Parisi put in a stylish and confident set of jazz standards, directing the rhythm section with aplomb, and drawing a good crowd. Kip Dale and Dean Constable were also to blame. Nice.

This week, Ruby Rogers will be swinging it up in her own unique style, supported by Rene Tessmer on bass and Putna Mondrum. Ben Stewart (ukulele or something) will be soloing, and I will try not to get in his way on the piano forte. The Rogers sessions are a favourite with the locals and the  Bar staff, always different, and invariably good fun.

The Ruby Rogers Experience at The Grand Hotel, Cnr Flinders and Spencer Streets, Friday May 24^th from 5.30pm

Castlemaine Jam Session at The Comma

A packed house at “The Comma”: lots of people turning up expecting to be entertained – maybe they hadn’t fully grasped the concept of a jam – and the rhythm section of Geoff Sayer (on drums); Doug Kuhn (double bass) with meself on keys,  kicked off at 3.23pm sharp with a slow burn on Swingin’ Shepherd Blues – audience seemed to like that one, maybe we did spot a saxaphone case or two down the back of the room, maybe a guitar. Second number, “All Blues”... a couple of choruses, and up stepped Ruby Rogers to sing…..

Three and half hours later, after seven other singers, Ruby Rogers stepped back up to the microphone and closed a memorable session with a smokin’ version of  “Don’t Go To Strangers”.

Singers: this was a real surprise – the standard was scary good, with a couple of professional singers leading the way – and the instrumentalists were not far behind – there is some amazing talent in and around Castlemaine. Standouts (for me, anyway) were Tania Vida Petrini, Ange and Lena (see it wasn’t too hard…), with Meg Corson’s great take on Round Midnight probably the pick of them (for me anyway). Terry and Gillian Murray (guitar and tonsils) rocked the joint big time and the saxes  (Bren and, I think, Tim) traded some hot licks,. Barry proved to be an ace drummer, but Indefatigable Doug Kuhn played throughout the session – we need at least one more bass player!

Props to the Melbourne Jazz Jammers regulars who turned up and supported the locals: Rob McCue (piano) Lee (trumpet) and of course Melinda Traves, who had to stay in the Ruby Rogers Tourbus all afternoon whilst Rubes was out and about…

If I didn’t get your name, it was because you are young, good looking and talented and I was too shy to ask…

So… the whole shebang was well organised and promoted by John Hannah, and Ken Turnbull, and it looks as though this will become a monthly event. They already have a substantial mailing list of contacts – and this will form a starting point for organising the proposed Jazz Festival.

The next Jam at the Comma is Sunday 2^nd June and already quite a few people have said they are going: all you have to do is turn up, tune up, join in and blow the tits off ya fave toon.
TW

Jazz Jam at Castlemaine Sun 5th May

The inaugral Jazz Jam at The Comma in Castlemain happens this weekend.

On Sunday from 3.30pm Ruby Rogers sings with Ted Woollan on keyboard together with a group of Jazz Jammers.

The website for the Comma is http://www.thecomma.com.au.

You can see some pictures and a news article on Ruby Rogers on Picasa here.

 

What’s On at The Grand Hotel

A great set by Chelly Parisi last week, with a tight rhythm section and the Driscoll in really fine form on his Flugel.

This week, Ruby Rogers will be singing up a storm. After rocking out Kojo Brown last week, she will be supported by Rene (bass), Putnamondrums and meself on piano filling in the fiddly bits.  It is not impossible that the evening will descend to a surprise  appearance by Captain Chaos himself, and if you must come, you are requested to be seated nicely by 5.30pm, so as to cushion the blow.

The Grand Hotel, corner of  Spencer Street and Flinders Street, Friday 26 April from 5.30 onwards

Next week…

The Captain Chaos Quartet gets booked for a function, and big news on Castlemaine…See ya round the traps..

McCue AWOL for a Month! The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum, Rogers Rocks The Grand

Bear with us on this one … The esteemed Editor has taken a month’s leave of absence – he might get out earlier for good behaviour, but there again, probably won’t. So the Newsletter is being updated by a technophobic recidivist Luddite – just when there is rather a lot of stuff going on..

Captain Chaos’ latest ridiculous idea: A Jazz Festival in 2014. The concept is so patently absurd that it could almost work … so far, we are looking at Maldon and will be meeting with the Local Council in early March. We will then be holding a aession at a restaurant in Maldon: the idea being to get the various Maldon people who have expressed an interest all in the one room at the one time, come up with some plausible excuses, and then listen to their ideas.

In outline, we are looking at a two day festival, with 35 – 40 bands, and providing opportunities for the hundreds of enthusiastic musos who may no longer be able to get a spot at the major festivals – and yes, we are thinking of having an extended Leinster Arms style jam session running. We will probably be seeking expressions of interest from Bands from July onwards.

If it happens, and you would like to be involved in the organisation of all this, drop an e-mail to melbournejazzjammers@gmail.com

What’s On at The Grand Hotel, cnr Spencer Street and Flinders Street

Friday 1st March sees the return of Miss Ruby Rogers, singing up a storm probably, with a whole bunch of new material, and her old crew: Avi Ganesan (bass), Tom Doublier (drums), some ol fart on piano and newcomer Izumi on saxaphone. We are all going to have fun, feel free to turn up and join in… 5:30 – 8:30pm

Other Stuff

Melinda Traves’ alter ego Ruby Rogers has been in and out of Phat Sounds Recording Studio in 4 hours, and laid down six or seven tracks –  https://www.facebook.com/rubyrogersexperience?fref=ts  gets you there.

Phat Sounds must be the world’s grottiest studio, but it is run by Barry Stockley, who is an absolute gun recording engineer and not exactly expensive. He can be contacted on 0433803535 – mention the Jazz Jammers and get a special rate.

What’s Cookin’ at The Grand Hotel

It has been a bit up and down these last couple of weeks, so great to get some good audience feedback on both Chelly’s first Friday session and a particularly good Ann Hayres set on Saturday. 

Friday 7^th, Rachel Camarino will be singing, Dean Constable on drums and Kip Dale on bass. On Saturday 8^th September, the effervescent Ruby Rogers will be swinging from the chandeliers, accompanied by Bruce Packard (double bass) and Tom Doublier on drums. 

Take your pick and turn up for a cocktail , a canape and the Captain Chaos Quintet….