Just what’s in store at the upcoming Clarence Jazz Festival - a highlight of Tasmanian jazz scene? Taking place from 1 to 5 February, the festival has loads to offer, as Fiesta Tasmania finds out here, in this conversation with the team of directors who are making this exciting event happen.

1.     What are the highlights of Clarence Jazz Festival (CJF) this year?

Clarence Jazz Festival (presented by Clarence City Council) presents five days and nights of music, food and wine over eight family-friendly incredible locations in the Clarence municipality, from beautiful coastline to serene vineyards and pastoral locales. Most of our events are free, and the rest are very affordable. Our particular highlights include:

Our jazz ambassador Sandy Evans OAM is a multi-ARIA winning saxophonist and composer, and is one of Australia’s most prolific and respected jazz musicians. She’ll be appearing at many events across the festival, along with her own Indian-Fusion ensemble Ahimsa on Friday the 3rd in the Rosny Barn, featuring Bobby Singh on tablas, Sarangan Srirangathan on sitar, Brett Hirst on bass and Alon Ilsar on drums.

Sechelles-born Perth-based bassist and singer Grace Barbe brings supreme Afrobeat goodness with her trio AfroKreol, appearing at the Grace Centre on Friday the 3rd of Feb and Kangaroo Bay on Saturday the 4th of Feb. Grace has just been named the bassist with the Cat Empire, and she’s definitely a quickly rising star on the Australian music scene.

As always, the Big Day @ Kangaroo Bay returns with 10 hours of live music over two stages + kid’s activities + amazing local food and wine + a big jazz parade with dancers, stilt walkers and a massive brass band!

2.     What can the audience expect at this year’s jazz festival that’s different from last year’s or the previous years’ festival?

The inaugural Clarence Food and Wine project offers festival goers a smorgasbord of hyper-local gastronomical delights from many of the Clarence Region’s award-winning vineyards, cheese makers, produce farms and food producers all curated by internationally recognized chef Rhys Hannan.

Along with a great selection of everyone’s favourite jazz styles from our island’s best established and emerging musicians, this year’s lineup will be the most culturally diverse the festival has ever seen, bringing the sounds of music from South America, India, East and West Africa, Eastern Europe, the Philipines, Indonesia and lutruwita/ Tasmanian first nations people.

3.     What went on behind the scenes in the decision making to have Sandy Evans as this year’s Jazz Festival Ambassador?

Sandy’s an Australian Jazz icon, not only as a performer but as an extremely well-regarded composer and educator. We’re excited for the opportunity for her to work with our emerging jazz scholars, as well as seeing her interact and jam with our local jazz legends across the week. We had the opportunity to meet Sandy at our program launch party back in November, and she’s just so warm hearted and generous with her time and energy.

Sandy has been a tireless advocate for promoting gender and cultural diversity and equality in the Australian music sector for close to 40 years, and we’re extremely proud to be working with her to highlight the excellent work being done in these areas in our own local scene.

4. What will she perform for the audience? What kind of special sound awaits?

Sandy appears with her own Indian jazz fusion ensemble Ahimsa on Friday night in the Rosny Barn. Featuring a dazzling combination of Indian classical instruments (tablas and sitar) and western jazz instruments (sax, drums and bass), the project will offer local listeners a distinct and special sound not often heard in lutruwita/ Tasmania.

Sandy will also appear as a featured soloist on the opening night, closing night party, long table lunch and with many local bands across the festival!

5. When did the Jazz Scholars Program first begin, and why? Who are they? What sort of funding or support do the recipients receive?

The scholarship program was first introduced by the Clarence City Council in partnership with the Hobart Jazz Club and the University of Tasmania in 2005. It aims to provide development and performance opportunities for the island’s next crop of jazz talent. Previous scholars have gone on to forge successful musical careers across the world, and many have achieved huge successes in both jazz and other styles of music!

Each year Clarence City Council supports three young musicians (around 16-18 years of age) to engage in one-on-one tuition with local jazz legends of their choosing, along with masterclasses with some of lutruwita/ Tasmania’s finest Rhythm Section players (Konrad Park, Sasha Gavlek, Kelly Ottaway), mentor and renowned vocalist Katy Raucher and our jazz ambassador Sandy Evans.

This year’s very talented scholars are Jode Brewster (sax), Finnie River (vocals) and Louis Monaghan (piano).

6. When and where can we see these scholars perform?

You can catch them at the opening event, the closing party and in a feature set at the Big Day at Kangaroo Bay.

7. The live recording event of mulaka milaythina sounds incredible. In what ways is this show important, and what is to be expected?

This project is funded by the Clarence City Council with support from Festivals Australia.

Special project mulaka milaythina (the Hunting Grounds) (funded in partnership with Festivals Australia) sees collaboration between first nations woman and historian Nunami Sculthorpe Green and award winning composer Louise Denson to tell stories of the Aboriginal history of the Clarence Region, an important step in the journey to recognizing the true history of this place. The world premiere of the work will open the festival at piyura kitina on Wednesday the 1st of Feb, and a live recording will take place in the Rosny Barn on the 5th of Feb.

The work has been arranged by Louise for a nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble, and features spoken word from Nunami. We’re expecting it to be a real festival highlight!

8. What did you the team at CJF wanted so badly to bring to this year’s event?

This is our team’s second Jazz Festival.

We’re particularly motivated by the principles of gender and cultural equality and representation, both on stage and backstage, meaning that our performers and crew come from a wide variety of genders, backgrounds and experience. We believe this makes our programming more interesting, of a higher quality and much more engaging, and safe for a wider cross section of the community.

Our festival also leads the way in terms of ensuring proper pay for artists across the program. We’ve adopted the minimum wage guarantee of $250 per musician per set + superannuation that the Musician’s Union of Australia mandates, and we’re proud to create unique and safe experiences for our musicians, crew and audiences.

9. Which gigs should party animals look out for?

Jay Jarome and his seven-piece funk soul band will be rocking out at the opening event at piyura kitina (free event).

The Block Party at the Grace Centre will feature some seriously groovy Hammond organ and big band music, along with the rare afrobeat goodness of Grace Barbe and AfroKreol (free event).

Friday night’s jam session at the Barn will be a whole lot of fun, giving audiences the opportunity to check out some of the festival’s big names having a blow in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere ($10)

The Big Day at Kangaroo Bay will offer great party fun for the whole family - make sure to check out the big parade, Grace Barbe and the Nadira and Friends Big Band, along with all the other excellent local bands ($20 full, kids free).

The closing party at Simmons park will feature Tassie/Melbourne darlings the Stitch, along with a super-fast paced jam session featuring the best established and emerging talent from across the festival

10. What should everyone attending CJF take the time to do?

Sit back and enjoy some of the wonderful locally-produced food and drink in the stunning summery surrounds of the Clarence municipality while enjoying some of the country’s best jazz!

Download the Clarence Jazz Festival 2023 Programme here.