That our ‘Bringing their music back home’ international mini-festival was a great success can be seen from the above photo of the combined musicians enjoying a standing ovation at the end of the concluding ‘Jam Session’.

Kade Brown, Carl Morgan and Alex Stuart returned from Melbourne, Sydney and Paris with their eight first-class Australian and French bands to present their original music (some of it inspired by our region) to a home audience in our partner Four Winds’ Windsong Pavilion.

The event sold out in advance, the bands gave standout performances, the audience responded with rapt attention and enthusiastic applause and the venue’s intimacy and acoustics also helped bring the musicians and audience together. Bands shared musicians, and all the musicians came together in the final Jam Session to improvise their way brilliantly through three jazz standards and to another standing ovation.

Our audience included jazz industry professionals Gerry Koster (Melbourne’s PBS 106.7FM jazz program host and former ABC Jazz presenter), local jazz maestro Ken Vatcher (who also generously lent us the drum kit) and jazz photographer Brian Stewart of CyberHalides Jazz. The photos are Brian’s and the following observations are Gerry’s and Ken’s.

Gerry: ‘I took in an afternoon of music in one of the most beautiful parts of Australia. It featured three regional sons returning to their roots with their bands, giving inspiring and exhilarating performances to a full house. With food and wine in between in the sunny surrounds! A perfect warm up for me for the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.’

Ken: ‘Three exceptional sets of original jazz (including one cover) were brilliantly presented. Kade Brown, Carl Morgan and Alex Stuart took the audience on a wonderful journey of superbly crafted compositions. Eleven amazingly talented musicians delighted a packed house. A wonderful day.’

Brian’s photos below are in the sequence of the event’s four sets. To see his complete collection for each set click on the following links:

Kade Brown
Carl Morgan
Alex Stuart

The Jam Session