And All That Jazz

 While it rained through the week we took the opportunity to preview online some of the artists attending the Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival - they'll get the chance to enjoy a famed  'Wang hang' this coming weekend. The organisers have had to instigate a wet weather contingency plan due to the continuing rain which is not expected to stop until the following week. There will be no outdoor stage this year but six indoor venues and another couple of options on the Sunday. We are looking forward to seeing Thando, Fiona Boyes, The Black Sorrows, Horns of Leroy and Ali McGregor to name a few. 

On the Friday night we attended the official opening of the festival at the Wangaratta High School PAC followed by The Continental Party featuring Rob Susz (top left) who describe themselves as a down-home, funky, blues and soul combo. They were good and set the scene for the rest of the weekend. For the life of me I can't think who Rob reminds me of, but one day I'm sure it will come to me. In the school grounds surrounding the performance hall were caravans and stalls selling food and local wines or beer and cocktails. Next up we saw Karen Lee Andrews (top right) and her band who played more blues and soul though the sound quality wasn't terrific. Eric bought her latest cd and it sounds so much better than the live performance in the school hall. It was getting late and we still had to drive home to Glenrowan but we stayed for about half the Black Sorrows' set. They had the audience on their feet and crowding the front of the centre in no time. How long has Joe been performing? I still remember him at the Healesville High School Social in 1973!

The performances began at 10am and went all day until 11pm at 6 different venues around town. We had a house to inspect in the morning. Its in an area of town we like, has everything we had on our list of needs (though none of the other desirables) but I just didn't get a vibe for it. I wanted to, as I could see immediately that Eric was very keen. It put a real downer on the rest of the day as we were at odds. We went back to Glenrowan West, via a short stop at the very muddy Oxley Market,  to think it all through. In the afternoon we returned to see Thando (pic left) followed by Jess Hitchcock. Both of them were terrific but we could immediately appreciate the acoustics of the Performance Hall Theatre where Jess played. We had intended to stay on and listen to Fiona Boyes and the Fortune Tellers but we were both done in by then. 

Sunday brought sunshine for the first time in days. We didn't sleep well, contemplating the 'what ifs' of the house inspection yesterday. I left messages with the agent requesting another inspection and also contacted the conveyancer just in case we were going to need an appointment on Monday. Meanwhile we attended the Sol-Cats, Wangaratta High School's Jazz Band fronted by Gracie York (daughter of good friend Robyn and ex-teacher KSA). They were pretty amazing for a school band and Gracie sang with confidence despite being unwell all last week. 

That performance was followed by Jazzamatazz featuring Ali McGregor. We hadn't read the program that closely regarding this event, and just assumed we would be listening to one of Australia's leading soprano voices from Opera Australia performing some cabaret style jazz numbers. Turns out she has developed this Jazzamatazz show for kids that was nominated for an Aria. Despite it being pitched at kids, we were thoroughly entertained by this amazingly talented mother of young children, performing jazzy beats to 'Who let the dogs out' while encouraging everyone to join in singing and dancing. So talented, she managed to make children’s favourites and pop classics sound sultry and sophisticated. Horns of Leroy were on much later in the afternoon but we decided we had left Clover, the dog, on her own too much already lately and we were a bit jazzed-out. Great weekend though and we're already looking forward to more live music.  

After the weekend we had a second inspection of the house we'd seen on Saturday but it didn't suit our purposes. Eric was less enthusiastic and although we are both keen to get on with settling permanently, we just have to be patient a little while longer. I spent the rest of the day with Yve sewing up curtains for the puppet show and we delivered them to the venue on time for rehearsal. Eric spent that time back at Kate's place where he has now got the lawns looking good. I'm off to Melbourne for the rest of the week. I'll be catching the train so Eric can have the car and hopefully play some golf. I was expecting that by this visit with Jude we would be enjoying some sunshine for walks along the coast but the weather forecast is looking glum until the weekend.