The Mace Francis Nonet tour was short and sweet, much like myself, but we had a lot of fun and played some great gigs.

We left for Melbourne from Perth at 5:30am on Thursday (yes the guys loved me for that!) and were there ready and primed to play at The Paris Cat Jazz Club in Melbourne’s CBD.  Not a big club at all but has a huge vibe and the people running the club are great.  We had a full house of friends, family, Perth ex-pats and punters.  Thanks for coming down!

Playing Tonight!

After a relatively early night (for tour standards) we head up to Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.  This is was very exciting for me as it was the first time performing in the main program.  We played in the WPAC Hall which is the smaller room off the main hall.  I have seen a lot of great music over the years at that festival.  Our performance was received well and got a pretty good REVIEW from John McBeath in the Australian Newspaper.

“Unusually for a jazz combo, the Mace Francis Nonet has leader and composer Francis out front, this time directing nine fine young Perth musicians, all capable of impressive section playing and soloing. His compositions were interesting and intelligent with something to say, while the voicings, using tenor and alto sax, bass clarinet with trombone and trumpet, were remarkable.” John McBeath

another great review from Sydney vocalist Jacki Cooper;

“Compositions – Intriguing; Tuning – impeccable; MCing – hilarious”

Despite being on at the same time as one of the headline acts we still got a great crowd.  It was so good to see Greg Waugh and Doug McKenzie there as they were my first real jazz teachers when I first studied in Geelong.

It was also great to see and hear so many other Listen/Hear Collective artists at the festival.  The Sam Anning Trio with Julien Wilson and Allan Browne were an absolute highlight for me.  The Callum G’Froerer Group were strange and wonderful effortlessly weaving in and out of soundscapes and structured compositions.  Peter Knight performed in a few ensembles but I only caught his solo set in the cathedral which was the perfect place for his solo trumpet and laptop set.  Gian Slater, although not at the festival this year with her Invenio Choir, was also at the festival singing with pretty much everyone.

It was a lot of fun and I really hope I can get the nonet or MFO back there again soon.