After a long and blissful time at home in Sydney, Mike and I are looking forward to getting on the road to play 7 concerts in NZ; Auckland, Dargaville, Whangarei, Bay of Islands Jazz/Blues Festival, Takapuna and finally Wellington.  These concerts will contain my favourite songs and instrumentals in a “Showcase” performance.  Over the past […]

I am working on a special collaborative show with actor/writer/comedian ALAN GLOVER called JUMP MUSIC and JIVE TALK. Alan is a master wordsmith, hilarious comedian, who also sings and blows a mean harmonica. We are feverously rehearsing, too many ideas springing forth, (it’s like that hanging out with Alan) discovering elements of piano music, poetry, […]

On Sunday 5th June, we held a special event in Sydney – a Benefit Concert event for Ukraine. We put on a show as a fund-raiser, with many local businesses making generous donations of their goods and services for auction.  Mic Conway did his exceptional best as Compere Extraordinaire, as well as performing his Captain Matchbox […]

All suspicious looking emails are not scams! I received one recently from a guy claiming to be an entertainment producer at the BBC wanting to use my piano composition “Trout Blues” as title music for his new BBC London Evening radio show. I was so close to pressing delete, but something made me read on. […]

We are so looking forward to travelling down to Victoria at last, renewing my contact with the MBAS (Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society) and the wonderful Phil Manning. Phil is not only one of my absolute favourite players and songwriters, but also a good mate. There’s a little known fact (as he keeps reminding me) that […]

We’re continuing on this amazing South Island tour and in Dunedin I was thrilled to go to the Alexander Pianos Workshop which houses the longest grand piano in the world. Utterly extraordinary that Adrian Mann started making this instrument when he was 16 years old, and completed it in four and a half years. A […]

So here we are having played one week of our South Island Tour. Huge thanks to the kind and hearty people of Motueka, Picton, Nelson and Murchison for being such amazing audiences. All those things that are said of South Islanders (friendly generous stoic etc) really are true. And I found a piano! On the […]

Hello Boogie friends, Mike and I beat a hasty retreat from Sydney in the nick of time several weeks ago which means our upcoming concert in Brisbane is not cancelled (like all those in NSW) and will go ahead on SAT JULY 24TH @ 6pm at the DONALD SIMPSON CENTRE in Cleveland. And even more […]

Hello boogie friends, We’re very excited to be launching the new CD “Piano Boogie Woman” next Sat night May 1st at the Leichhardt Bowling Club in Sydney’s inner west. The club has a lovely concert/stage area with a great sound system and an old lady friend in the form of an English Grand piano I […]

Hello boogie friends, Mike and I are finally emerging to play a special concert in our hometown on May 1st at the Leichhardt Bowling Club. This is the long awaited Sydney launch of my new CD “Piano Boogie Woman” and I so hope you can make it along to hear the new material (and some […]

We are revving up for 2021 at last! There’s a totally fabulous new film clip for “The Boogie Woman” as well as concerts coming up on the Gold Coast and in Canberra. We shot the clip at a studio in Auckland last year. Big thanks to the young cinematographer Jared Jones who filmed it under […]

We wish you a lucky and loving Christmas and New Year with your friends and whanau in Australia and NZ, with fingers crossed outbreaks are contained and that the Trans-Tasman travel bubble opens soon. My last professional outing for 2020 was with director Robynne Murphy at a sold out screening last week at the Events […]

After 4 months in NZ recording and touring we are home in Sydney and playing our last concerts of 2020 in NSW this weekend. For Mike and I to be able to hop in a cab from the airport and come home without needing to quarantine was a huge bonus. My beloved grand piano was […]

  Hello boogie friends, We’re having fabulous concerts and audiences so far on our tour and carry on this week to Mike’s hometown of Kaitaia on Friday night, followed by Whangarei on Saturday and The PumpHouse on Sunday afternoon. Please note the PumpHouse concert starts at 4pm, not 3pm as some advertising suggested. (Doors will […]

Hello boogie friends, Mike and I are on our last day of hotel isolation at Auckland Airport’s Novotel Hotel. 2 weeks have moved quickly until the last few days (with the end in sight) which have dragged. If someone had the vaguest thought of escape from behind the razor wire, they’d think again. Security are […]

What an exotic place name! Believe it or not it’s the little town of Quaama on the NSW south coast. The ABC is broadcasting a special radio program on bushfire affected areas this Thursday morning, 20th February. And we’ll be there playing live on Simon Lauder’s program, sausage sizzle and audience in attendance. We are SO […]

Rain, rain, rain, what a wonderful thing it is! Of course there are degrees of extreme that are harrowing, but considering no rain was forecast until March it’s great to have this soaking in many of the fire affected areas.We are driving through it to the Australian Blues Music Festival in Goulburn tomorrow for 2 […]

Hello Boogie Friends, Huge thanks to all who came out through cold, heat, terrorist events, general elections and more to attend our concerts throughout Australia and NZ this year. We barely touched base in Sydney through 2019, so are delighted to be finally spending Christmas at home. Today we are frantically purchasing for the whanau, […]

Finally we are returning to Tasmania! It’s been too long! My great-grandmother lived there, so I always feel a special connection. Evidently she was heavily pregnant whilst emigrating, so was put off the ship to NZ at Launceston, as it was felt she wouldn’t make it before the birth. And there she stayed in Tassie […]

Hello boogie friends, Having apparently driven to the stage in a 1909 Riley Sportsman at the Halswell Estate in Chrisctchurch, and added a painted piano to our show in Hanmer, we finished our current series of NZ concerts to a packed house in my beloved hometown of Greymouth this afternoon. We now return to Australia […]

Hello Boogie friends, Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our show at the Frankston Arts Centre and also the Lomond Hotel in Melbourne. Both concerts were fabulous. I’m still on a high from the special musical moments with Nick Charles, he’s amazing to play with! We go to NZ tomorrow for 2 […]

Hello boogie friends, Are you finding it as impossible as I am to stop consuming chocolate this Easter? Honestly I’ve had so much my jeans are bursting! Here’s a short reminder of next Sunday’s show at the Frankston Arts Centre, Wonderful Winnie Atwell in which I recount her fascinating life’s story and perform her boogie […]

Hello Boogie Friends, We have emerged from our NZ tour tired, ecstatic and slightly crazy as you can see in the selfie of the band on our last night. About 1000 people overall turned up to our concerts throughout the North and South Islands, and my heartfelt thanks to the wonderful audiences who have supported […]

Hello Boogie Friends and welcome to this Year of the Pig! I hope you had a welcome break over the Christmas hols, alas all too soon forgotten as we charge into 2019, during which Mike and I will test out our fast disappearing Kiwi accents on an extensive tour of NZ. We’ll be there for […]

Hello Boogie Friends, I have an exciting upcoming collaboration with the wonderful Sydney soul singer Sally King, and guitarist Shane Pacey from iconic blues band the Bondi Cigars. Hope you can make it along to Petersham Bowling Club on Sunday Oct 21st, my special Boogie Circus show complete with saxophone and a short tribute to Aretha […]

Hello boogie friends, Big news this month is the release of a tutoring book called SHE PLAYS Boogie-woogie and Blues Piano which I co-wrote with my German friend Ulrike Gaate. This book is particularly helpful for women or girls with small hands, and takes the reader through many boogie left hand grooves from simple to more advanced, as […]

Hello Boogie Friends, Winter has snuck up on us here in Sydney, and we are (wisely) touring north for 2 concerts in Northern NSW, before ending up at the fabulous “Blues on Broadbeach” festival on the Gold Coast. Our concerts in NZ this month were brilliant. Tauranga Jazz Festival outdoor stage was magical, Waihi Beach […]

Hello boogie friends, What a blast it was to attend the Australian Blues Festival in Goulburn this past weekend! Not only playing our own concerts, but also to hear the wealth of fantastic blues musicians and songwriters from throughout Australia, many of whom I hadn’t heard before (Geoff Achison, Lloyd Spiegel, Bonnie Kay) as well […]

Hello Boogie friends, Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our concerts in Sydney, South Australia and Victoria. I’ve been really happy with the response to the new songs from the ‘Play It Again Jan’ CD (Mr Mogo Man and The Sun Shines being two particular crowd favourites). We are wrapping up the tour […]

Hello Boogie friends, It’s been a long time coming, 4 years in fact, but from the adversity of breaking my wrists I have risen, like a piano playing Phoenix from the ashes with my new CD, PLAY IT AGAIN JAN and an Australian Tour beginning at Illawarra’s fabulous “Folk By The Sea” festival next weekend […]

Hello boogie friends, Exciting news – my “Play It Again Jan” CD is in the finishing stages! This new baby is very precious to me, I have taken time, attention, as well as passion and hard work in all aspects from the songwriting to the recording and mastering. A huge thanks to Nigel Masters, (co […]

Hello boogie friends, Many thanks to the people who came out to our short North Island NZ concert series recently; Napier was a particular highlight. The consensus of opinion seems to be unanimously that I’m playing as well as ever and singing better, this probably due to my implementing the New York Taubman piano technique method […]

Hello Boogie Friends, Much composing and performing activity this month and next, so I am back on my bike, indeed pedalling hard! First up, the wonderful Yackandandah Folk Festival in Victoria next weekend where we are playing three concerts. It’s a beautiful rural town, an extremely well run festival with a special heart to it, […]

Hello boogie friends, Yes, I can play it again and, I think, better than ever! 5 months after breaking both my wrists, you’ll be delighted to hear that everything is now back to normal and I cannot tell you how relieved and happy I am to be back at those wonderful 88’s. Having been a […]

Hello boogie friends, Thank you thank you thank you sooooo much for your emails, apologies for the group reply to let you know that my wrists are healing. I’ve got the casts off and am in removable splints; see the groovy purple numbers in the photo! I can do just about everything, i.e. dress myself, […]

  It was the 1980s and having been a popstar with a number 1 hit single in New Zealand I relocated to Sydney, and was living in a flat in Glebe with two other people; my then husband, Martin, and Carl Ecke. Carl Ecke was a big, brown, muscular, magnificent and vibrant German-made upright piano […]

THE DAY MY WRISTS BROKE I knew when I’d done it, I’d really done it. I’d really really really done it. Well, the fact that my right wrist was at a strange angle was a bit of a giveaway. I was stuck ignominiously, stupidly and downright dangerously in a driveway, unable to get up, right […]

Hello Boogie Friends, Well, accidents do happen! I managed to trip over and broke both my wrists. I hear the gasps…..yes, boogie friends, not one wrist but both! Needless to say, all my concerts for the rest of this year are cancelled. I will be having operations on both wrists in a few days to […]

I am surfacing from what has been an amazing adventure indeed at the Street Theatre in Canberra. Many thanks to those who came to my show, ‘Adventures in Pianoland’ to make this a sold out season. We were, quite literally, turning people away! Huge thanks to my amazing sister Gaylene for her expert and inspirational […]

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 […]