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Us Two 5
Us two...
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BOUT 40 years separates Jenni (pronounced Yenni) Brennan and John Meir. When they perform jazz together, time seems to melt as they delight with their spontaneity and almost sublime rapport. Jenni:
Music is what activates me. I was born in the Finnish town of Hameenlinna, my grandfather used to play the accordion and my sister is a violinist. I always sang and was encouraged by mother to sing, but because of the recession I missed out on music class, although I took piano lessons. I never bothered about theory because I always wanted to play. I was always involved in school music projects and sang at events such as relatives’ weddings. Also, I was brought up listening to my mum’s LPs of great '80s music. So with school support and her pushing I was gently treading towards a career in music. To have it as part of my life felt necessary, but I haven’t always had the necessary courage. I believe, however, that if you have a form of art, whether it is writing, painting or music, you can’t properly live if you don’t express it. I feel a responsibility to share one’s talent, but with a four-year-old and a sixyear-old life is very busy, being based around them. I wonder if I have the energy and capacity to do this, but I can’t push it away. I had been a nanny in Luxembourg and moved to Sydney to do that, but became a waitress where I met Michael, who was a two-hat chef. He was just fun. Michael’s parents had run a bed-and-breakfast place in Daylesford for 10 years, so we moved here knowing we were going to bring up a family. John and I met two years ago when my husband Michael did a kitchen renovation for him. I had just got a piano and took some lessons from John. This turned into a “sing-a-ling”. We began with two songs. John had to move his grand piano, which found a home in the Belvedere. I had taken singing lessons with Geoffrey Williams, and Tania Petrini from La Vida Jazz, while my stepdad has been inspirational with guitar playing. I sang with a Finnish jazz group in Daylesford after singing for the promoter and his wife and being asked for three songs. I can hear music well, but John: put any notes in front of him and he can play them. I am ambitious, no doubt about it. It is such a delicate, important thing to me that I’m almost afraid. You try to fit music gently into your life, but I can see myself being involved in it forever.
John:
I started playing the piano at five. My father was a classical tenor and my grandmother a church organist. I was shipped to the country from Halifax in England during WWII and returned home when four. At 14 I was quite a talented pianist but my mother couldn’t afford to keep up the lessons. So I then joined Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Band where I did my schooling and musical training. By 18 I could play the violin, saxophone, flute and piano.
I left the marines at 24, going to Manchester, then the London Royal Academy of Music. While head of music in Huddersfield, Yorkshire I met Mike Cox, the saxophone player with the John Barry Seven, who started the “pop” side of my career playing alongside him for Roy Orbison and Neil Sedaka on their British tours. I saw an ad for a job in Hong Kong and moved there in 1981, joining the International School as head of music. I played in top hotels and composed original musical productions which were performed there. After 12 years I moved to Portugal to be head of Expressive Arts in Lisbon. I returned to the UK in 1996 to be head of Expressive Arts in Somerset before returning to Hong Kong for a four-year spell in 1998, during which I met my wife Karen. We moved permanently here in 2002. My worst moment telling a musical joke was at a Yorkshire Workingmen’s Club shortly after the death of Elvis. I told the audience I had good news for Presley fans: he has lost weight! I have also won many awards at the Melbourne Camera Club. In Daylesford I volunteer at Lumeah Lodge Hostel once a week and am a member of Daylesford Men’s Shed. I also like cooking and travelling. It’s really ignited me working with Jenni, awakening the grey cells that had faded away. We hit it off very well, performing together on songs such as Fever, All of Me, Summertime, Unforgettable, and The Girl from Ipanema. It’s been absolute bliss being up here after a lifetime surrounded by buildings and noise. The only difficult thing is that we can’t find a good bass player. If there’s one out there who likes jazz we want him or her!
John and Jenni will perform at the Belvedere Social, Daylesford, on Saturday October 29 from 8pm to 10pm. As told to Kevin Childs | Image: Bess Mucke
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