Hello Boogie friends,
A huge thanks to the Broadbeach Blues Festival in Queensland and the NZ Jazz and Blues Festival in Christchurch for having ‘Jan Preston’s Boogie Circus’ in their programs. Both festivals had a generous musical spirit at their hearts, excellent sound, lighting, technical and production staff, and it makes performing music pure joy when we musicians have such positivity and help surrounding us.
And wow, the audiences were amazing!
Being back in the South Island of NZ (where I was born) was obviously very special for me, and traveling through that landscape, always with the river in view, gave me a very powerful feeling of belonging.
The Playhouse Theatre Café at Mapua near Nelson lived up to it’s fine reputation, our last show being in my birthplace of Greymouth, after which a woman came up and asked me if Tui Macdonald (maiden name) was my mother? When I replied yes, she told me Tui was her Sunday School Teacher! (My mother must have been very young at that time.)
Finally Mike and I thank the 2 acoustic bass players on this Trans Tasman tour, the fabulous Andrew Shaw from Brisbane and the ever brilliant Nigel Masters from Tauranga.
Boogie is a challenge for bass players since there’s so much going on in my left hand, and it’s rare to find guys like these who have just the right groove and feel.
So now we’re off on the archetypal long road trip to North Queensland!
Days of driving, heat, exotic places, and music lie ahead for us, first at the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival in Winton, where, along with our Boogie show, we will perform the iconic Australian Silent movie, ‘The Kid Stakes’. Another long drive finds us in Rockhampton where we have been invited by the Livingstone Council to play 3 concerts (one being my show about Winifred Atwell) and a Boogie piano workshop.
What happened to my early retirement?!
