Jazzing up the town

TOE tapping, finger clicking, head bobbin’ – welcome to the 28th Inverloch Jazz Festival.

Friday night’s opening kicked off with a bang to Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood”, and it sure fired up the crowd for an evening of big bands, incredible solos and smooth genre-jumping.

The littlest crowd member may have had earmuffs and be sleeping as The Hub blasted out the cobwebs, but it was searingly obvious the crowd was dancing in their seats, in particular one man with his white hair under an Inverloch Jazz cap as he rocked away to each number.

Local Streeton Court Big Band opened the proceeding with spectacular numbers including Norah Jones and Count Basie.

Dave Durrant also took to the stage with a beautiful performance of “Come Fly with Me”. 

With many multi-talented musicians switching between instruments and even vocals, the crowd was wooed by Alison Landmeter’s vocals.

Ron Anderson took to the stage and formally opened the evening at 8.30pm as president, and as the crowd later discovered an incredibly talented musician on at least four instruments.

“It’s not Labour Day, there’s no Monday picnic and it’s winter outside,” Ron smiled.

“Welcome to the 28th Inverloch Jazz Festival Series 2!”

Filling the room with laughter Ron continued his introduction and welcome to a crowded Hub.

“You see it’s not a winter festival, given climate change, series two is an early spring festival!”

From Margaret Drummond’s hard work arranging volunteers to the Inverloch Men’s Shed for their fantastic effort in helping set up the hall, Ron also thanked their sponsors and festival friends (Alex

Scott and Staff Inverloch, Bass Coast Shire Council, RACV Inverloch, First National Real Estate Southcoast, Inverloch Tourism Association and Sea Books Press) for enabling the committee to run the festival across four venues with three grand pianos.

Member for Bass Jordan Crugnale officially opened the festival that saw over 40 bands, including 160 musicians play across the four Inverloch venues over the weekend.