RAY JOHNS’ BAKER BOYS STILL SWINGIN’ Ray Johns’ Red Hill Baker Boys jazz band provides fantastic entertainment and roaring ‘20s music, as well as a touch of rock ‘n roll, each Sunday afternoon and for a very special event in late July. The band features a great line-up of the country’s finest jazz musicians. Drummer Ron Sandilands’ professional career has included such highlights as the musical director of Hair when it first came to Melbourne. He was also the resident drummer on Channel 9’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday. Denis Ball, on clarinet, is well known in the New Orleans style, having played with the Yarra Yarra Jazz Band. Bassist Leon Heale has travelled widely with well-known cabaret band Gary Hyde Tradition. On the piano, John Adams started his musical career in the first TV variety show The Cool Katz and has continued playing in the best jazz bands in the country. Ray Johns himself is in charge of trumpet and vocal duties, and has been playing on the Peninsula for 24 years with such greats as Bob Barnard and Roger Bell. Alongside his wife Jill and their daughter Jess, Johns is the proprietor of the Red Hill Bakery at Balnarring, where the band performs every Sunday afternoon from 1pm until 4pm. Many other great artists pop in during the course of the afternoon to perform with the boys, making it an afternoon not to be missed. Ray Johns and his Red Hill Baker Boys swing and jazz band will be donating their time to play at this year’s Charity Mayoral Dinner on July 27. The line-up will be augmented by guitarist Don Stevenson and trombonist Don Santon, with the night raising money for local charities The Disabled Surfers Association and Foundation 59. So if you’re after some amazing swing and jazz entertainment on a weekend, check out the boys at the Red Hill Bakery in Balnarring every Sunday from 1pm, or head to the Charity Mayoral Gala Dinner on July 27. The event will commence at 6.30pm, with tickets $110 a person and group bookings available, for music, exciting live and silent auctions, pre-dinner drinks and canapés followed by a superb three-course meal and drinks. It will be the roaring ‘20s at its best. Grab your seat or make a donation through the Mornington Peninsula Tourism Information Centre on 5987 3078.
with PATRICK ELLIGET
On Sunday June 3, the Bay Hotel (Mornington) featured one of Australia’s premier blues guitarists Shannon Bourne, who performed with his band as part of the Sunday blues sessions that continue to thrill and delight blues fans here on the Mornington Peninsula. Bourne, now something of a veteran of the Australian live music scene at the age of 32, started to come into increased prominence some years ago when he partnered with another Aussie blues legend, Chris Wilson, to play an arduous and prodigious schedule of live gigs, studio session work, several tours overseas, TV appearances and many festivals around Australia including the Port Fairy Festival in 2009. After producing two albums, Spiderman and King For A Day, with his partner in crime, Wilson, he released his first solo blues album Burn It Down in 2005 to considerable acclaim from music critics and blues fans alike. With this, he announced his arrival as a serious player in the Australian blues scene. Bourne’s second solo album Dark Things saw a departure from the confines of mainstream blues to a brave and more personal interpretation of the genre. As his official bio notes Dark Things “attracted a new group of enthusiastic listeners, whilst managing to challenge the perspective of existing fans.” Bourne, while widely regarded as a blues guitarist, has never been someone afraid to challenge the boundaries of the genre and
on this basis is regarded as something of an innovator within the scene. Geoff Achison, a blues legend in his own right, gave his stamp of approval to Dark Things, once describing it as “impressive stuff; lyrically engaging and knitted together with very creative and original audio sounds ... amazing guitar work too.” To Bourne, he commented “You have certainly wrung the full gamut from your instrument; from beautiful to hideous, from gentle and inviting to violent and threatening and all points in between.” Bourne is currently working the Melbourne and Peninsula live music circuit mainly as a soloist, but has plans to head back overseas to the US to continue his blues education. A new album is also in the wind for sometime soon. The Bay Hotel is to be congratulated for providing musicians of Bourne’s calibre for their Sunday blues sessions and will continue the world class standard with an equally impressive line up in the coming weeks and months. To find out exactly who’s performing, and when, just check out PEARL Magazine’s gig guide. Until next week remember that blues rules and in the words of the Dutchman “Keep the faith”. If you missed Shannon Bourne, you can check him out at the ‘other’ Bay Hotel, in Mordialloc, on Sunday June 24, from 3pm. For the latest on the Sunday blues sessions in Mornington, check out bayhotel.com.au or find them on Facebook. PAT ELLIGET
MUSIC AIN’T NOISE
(Correction from Bob Valentine…) In last month’s edition, I incorrectly stated that the Deloitte report on live music had only surveyed about 70% of the industry. I put this the wrong way round, they only surveyed about 30%, basing their findings strictly on the live original scene. This ignores the input of cover bands, duos, solos, corporate events, weddings, private functions and charity work, thus grossly underestimating the true value of live music to our state – but we still came in over the AFL! Maybe we should start taking some TV’s out of bars where we play!
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PEARL magazine
JUNE/JULY 2012 MID YEAR DOUBLE ISSUE
MORNINGTON PENINSULA & BAYSIDE