From Castlemaine’s home of Cool live jazz we bring you five great concerts, from a new tradition of starting the year with The Anticlinal Fold [25 Jan], and return of Jack Pantazis Trio [1 Feb] during the Castlemaine Guitar Weekend, to the world premiere of a new live sound track to accompany Greta Garbo’s last silent film, The Kiss [8 Feb]. Then Gianni Marinucci returns with a band and his sublime trumpet playing to celebrate the music of Louis Armstrong [15 Feb]. Finally recent graduate and rising star Greta Williams [22 Feb] brings her intimate, collage-like lyrics to create songs with evocative specificity + fearless honesty. Greta is joined by her band three fantastic musicians from Melbourne.
Sat 25 Jan 7.30pm, The Anticlinal Fold A big evening of modern jazz and song. This event will include world premieres, jazz favs & music from the band’s leader, Jem Challender.
Sat 1 Feb 7.30pm, Jack PantazisTrio The JPT will again be presenting original music of Jack’s along with a selection of other great tunes and even a few new originals.
Sat 8 Feb 7.30pm, Sun 9 Feb 2.30pm, A world premiere! Greta Garbo’s The Kiss with live music by Maggie Jackson NY Jazz Trio, composed by band leader, Castlemaine’s Maggie Jackson
Sat 15 Feb 7.30pm, Swing that Music: Louis Armstrong. Gianni Marinucci & Band A truly stellar band will showcase the music of one of music’s most loved performers + many of his hits.
Sat 22 Feb 7.30pm, Greta Williams Jazz Quartet Greta Williams is an emerging performer whose work pairs intimate, collage-like lyrics to create songs with evocative specificity + fearless honesty.
Supported by the 10,000 Gigs Program from Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund & Creative Victoria delivered by Music Victoria.
Castlemaine Guitar Weekend
Duration: Friday 31 January - Sunday 2 February
We have recently announced the inaugural Castlemaine Guitar Weekend to be held from Friday 31 January to Sunday 2 February and includes three concerts – [blues & roots; jazz; and rock], three workshops – [acoustic blues guitar, acoustic jazz guitar, and songwriting for guitar] featuring the guitar talents of Geoff Achison, Jack Pantazis, and Eric McCusker [Mondo Rock], and Gerry Smith. Jazz Pantazis will also host our Free Secret Movie Matinee on Sunday.
Cost for each Concert is $25, and workshops $25. And we are pleased to announce a special Golden Guitar Ticket for $95, a saving of $55. Tickets can be obtained at: https://bit.ly/maineguitars
Concert and Workshop details Fri 31 Jan 7.30pm Geoff Achison in Concert ‘Geoff is one of the finest blues guitarists I know with a completely individual style’ Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna).
Sat 1 Feb Noon Acoustic Guitar Workshop – Geoff Achison Geoff will discuss & demonstrate his approach to acoustic guitar including fingerstyle /flat-pick techniques plus tips on arranging & songwriting. Learn trade tricks, crafty chords + lightning riffs! BYO Acoustic Guitar.
Sat 1 Feb 3pm Jazz Guitar Workshop – Jack Pantazis This workshop aims at unlocking a few skills & tools that can help beginners or intermediate guitarists on their jazz guitar journey. BYO Acoustic Guitar.
Sat 1 Feb 7.30pm Jack Pantazis Trio in Concert The JPT will again be presenting original music of Jack’s along with a selection of other great tunes & a few new originals that will be premiered. Stay tuned!!!
Sun 2 Feb Noon Songwriting for Guitar Workshop Eric McCusker & Friends In this special, intimate workshop, experienced songwriters Eric McCusker, Jessica Paige & Gerry Smith will explore the fundamentals of songwriting for guitar before an extended Q/A.
Sun 2 Feb 2.30pm Free Secret Guitar Movie Hosted by Jack Pantazis Join Jack Pantazis to watch a movie about a world class guitarist over a drink amongst fellow guitar enthusiasts. The Coolroom Cinema is a lounge type room full of comfy eclectic lounges chairs.
Sun 2 Feb 6.30pm Eric McCusker (Mondo Rock) & Gerry Smith’s Well-Oiled Machine in Concert Eric McCusker is an award-winning iconic songwriter & musician who showcases his incredible guitar & bass skills. Gerry Smith is a Melbourne disabled singer-songwriter whose indomitable spirit & positive energy is an inspiration to all who meet him.
Supported by the 10,000 Gigs Program from Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund & Creative Victoria delivered by Music Victoria.
The Anticlinal Fold ASRC Fundraiser
Duration: 6 December 2024
The Anticlinal Fold is coming back to The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine on the 6th of December for another big evening of modern yuletide jazz and song, and this time, with another very important ingredient — Christmas spirit. Proceeds from the gig will be donated to theAsylum Seeker’s Resource Centre so come down and join a bunch of local jazz musos in supporting a great cause.
Featuring Jo Huf, Jem Challender, Ben Gibbons, Arron Light and special guests: Gretas Williams, Pip Avent, Thomasina Challender, Mary Challender, Matt Colin and many more …
There will be the quartet’s usual complement of swinging standards and their own contemporary Jazz compositions. But the event will pivot around one particular piece of Yuletide genius that has been fascinating them for more than one festive season and that’s the “Carol of the Bells”, written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914.
The band welcomes back Jo Huf to the fold. Jo is a Castlemaine-based singer and guitarist, and a Brazilian music wiz. Jo has featured in Triple J’s Unearthed and is making an impact everywhere she performs with her virtuosic skill and raw talent. Jem Challender on piano is the Anticlinal Fold’s MD and a past winner of the Australian Songwriters Competition.
The lineup boasts the remarkable talents of Bendigo-based double bassist, Ben Gibbons, known for his time with the folk band The Waifs, and the exceptional jazz drumming virtuoso, Arron Light, whose work with the band Husky has been shortlisted for an ARIA. Plus, there’s a huge list of special guests including violin star Thomasina Challender, tuba virtuoso Pip Avent, crooner and country singer Matt Colin plus many more. Expect some brand new Jazz compositions and some progressive jazz arrangements of the most swinging Christmas songs, and a lot of surprises besides.
Tickets will sell fast so make sure you fold this event into your plans for the silly season.
Tickets $25 Preshow order 2 tickets and bottle of wine $65 [saving of $15]
if You wish to make a direct donation then you can do so:
The Anticlinal Fold will perform two sets on stage. Doors open from 7pm. The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St Castlemaine Friday 6 December at 7.30pm.
The Maine Piano Guerrillas are coming to Castlemaine Fringe 2025 and now beyond! During Castlemaine Fringe 2025 and now beyond, The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel are joining forces with an underground piano movement to put donated upright pianos in prominent locations around town to encourage a new movement targeting the spontaneous mellifluous, mesmerising and melodious machinations of music in public places. The Program see: bit.ly/pianoguerrillas
PIANOS AT LARGE During the Festival and now beyond we will perpetuate piano mayhem at eight locations around Castlemaine.
Stay tuned for regular concerts and sometime milk crate seat popups.
MAINE PIANO GUERRILLAS PIANOS AT LARGE LOCATION
Market Building Front Portico44 Mostyn St Castlemaine, 24 Hour access outside Piano: Hapsburg, Hugo Wertheim Melbourne made – nice instrument # 3396. Tuned to 320hz
Castlemaine Senior Citizens Centre next to Castlemaine Library Open only for specific events. Piano: Ronaldi, Berlin Piano [20s-60s] Beale Agents. Tuned to concert pitch 440hz.
Castlemaine Community Housethrough foyer 30 Templeton St Castlemaine, Open 9-3pm Monday to Friday but not Tuesday morn cooking classes. Piano: Klingmann, Berlin [Honky Tonk] Not being tuned.
The Tap Room,The Mill 9 Walker St Castlemaine, Open from 12 noon 7 days. Piano: Hans Rose Berlin, #12271, Tuned to 320 Hz.
The Mill Castlemaine Bazaar9 Walker St Castlemaine Open 9-5pm 7 days. Piano: Thürmer #35689 Existing in-situ: was workers piano for the Mill when a carpet factory. Tuned.
To Be Advised Piano: Thalberg Player Piano #8750. Historic Piano purchased in 1974 from Carriage Arms Hotel Castlemaine (Original XXXX Brewery)
Northern Arts Hotel 359 Barker St Castlemaine. Accessible on request. Wertheim Piano tuned to concert pitch.
The Albion Hotel,152 Duke St Chewton Inside accessible during open hours unless gig on. Thur & Fri 5pm-10pm, Sat 12pm-10pm, Sun 2pm – 6pm Piano: Yamaha Upright. Tuned to 440 hz.
Maldon Bakery,51 Main St Maldon Contact: Rebecca Barnett. 24 hour access. Piano: Gors & Kallmann Piano Tuned to 312hz
Rail Underpass:Corner of Forest & Kennedy St on way to Camp Reserve, 24-hour access Piano: F Bauer, Hamburg #18812 total honky tony untuned, possibly untunable, but great echo!
MAINE PIANO GUERRILLAS LAUNCH CONCERT Friday 21 March at 7.30pm, with a launch of a piano music fundraising concert at The Coolroom Northern Arts Hotel.
PIANOS AT LARGE GRAND FINALE CONCERT Sunday 6 April at 6pm, end with a public perfectly played grand piano Concert at The Coolroom Northern Arts Hotel.
MUSIC GROUP OR CHOIR – JOIN IN! Are you a community musician, choir, or small group that would love to be part of our planned and or spontaneous program? Get in touch as we want to program some weekend and mid week gatherings.
Contact Helen 0431 747 504 or mainepianoguerrillas@gmail.com https://bit.ly/pianoguerrillas
ABOUT THE PIANO PALS
PIANISTS AT LARGE [PIANO PALS] first appointed for Castlemaine Fringe 2025.
Maggie Jackson: Our patron and well known local jazz pianist who can be seen playing piano and many local events including with her NY Jazz Trio, At Arcare for the residents and families, for the IWD Concert, at the Castlemaine Secondary College where she plays for students., Castlemaine Jazz Festival and more. Maggie enthusiastically joined us on this journey as great lover of the piano. Her baby grand Steinwayand Maggie have had a 30 year love affair.
Jem Challender: Jem plays with a variety of other musicians around Castlemaine and is a passionate Jazz pianist. He is the leader pianist and songwriter and inspiration behind the Jazz group The Anticlinal Fold, He has presented many concerts at The Coolroom , raised money for Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, presented our 2024 Christmas Concert involving his three children, Thomasina, violinist and Castlemaine Secondary College Musician of the Year, Mary another talented violinist, and his youngest is Albertine, who recently commenced her piano journey and is already showing promise.
Paul Ryan: Paul started this journey for our group leading conversation about the need to save pianos been given away and put them to good use and proposed project to put them on our street and so The Maine Piano Guerrillas was born and now we have the Fringe project. Paul is also pianist who is presenting a unique show during Fringe with a colleague Victor O Circumstance where they usedigital piano, and recorded sounds and projections to explore original poems and musical landscapes based on a range of related themes, traversing fanciful, poignant and sometimes surreal spaces of imagination.
Jude Russell: Jude says ‘I would dearly love to take advantage of using these pianos in the street. I’m wondering if you could give me more info on their locations so that I may consider my accessibility to them beforehand. I’m highly qualified as a classical pianist, have had a major career in jazz but these days I prefer to freely improvise from the heart and I can imagine in this situation taking inspiration from surrounding environment and people. I’m an Australian Art Orchestra Alumni and these days am mostly involved with their events and their affiliation with Castlemaine-based Punctum.’
John Meir: John is well known local jazz musician both on guitar and piano and leads the local group John and The Meircats. [more to come!]
Castlemaine Jazz Festival once again comes to The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel. We are just one venue with38 bands performing in the 6 venues – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine Bowling Club, Phee Broadway Theatre, Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel and this year two nights at the Boomtown Winery.
You can wander from venue to venue at your leisure and enjoy some beautiful Jazz this Kings birthday weekend (June), or you can stay at just one! The Program at The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel includes some current favourites and some new to the venue.
Saturday 8 June | 12-10pm 12.00noon Steamboat Whistlers [T]
1.20 pm The Django Fretts [T]
2.40pm Rebecca Barnard [T]
4.00pm TMT (Tamara Murphy Trio) [C]
5.20pm Meg Corson & Cam Scott [M]
6.40pm Nigel Maclean [C]
8.00pm Hargreaves Jazz Quartet [M]
9.20pm Stat [C]
Sunday 9 June | 12-8pm 12noon Ben Nieuwkerk’s Strange Awakening [C]
1.20pm The Anticlinal Fold [C]
2.40pm The Bird Conference [C]
4.00pm Kind Of Blue Trio [M]
5.20pm. The Clunk Orchestra [F] [cancelled]
6.40pm Maggie Jackson NYJazz Trio [M]
The Sentimental Bloke [1919] will be presented in-cinema with a music score by Jen Anderson, which is performed live by Jen Anderson & TheLarrikins [Dave Evans and Dan Warner]. The film, an icon of Australian silent film, is based upon the best-selling verses of C.J. Dennis. It humorously tells the heart-warming story of Bill – the Sentimental Bloke – and his sweetheart Doreen
“The pièce de résistance of Australian feature film-making from the silent era” The Guardian
About the Film
The film is the digitally restored version which incorporates new footage found in the vaults of the George Eastman House (Rochester, New York), and restored with the vibrant colours of the original tinting and toning. Director. Raymond Longford was one of the Australian silent era’s most prolific and successful film directors.
An adaptation of C.J. Dennis’ verse narrative of life set on the backstreets of inner Melbourne in the 1910s, The Sentimental Bloke is a tale of redemption, depicting the social rehabilitation, courtship and marriage of the titular ‘Bloke’, Bill (Arthur Tauchert) to his sweetheart, Doreen (Lottie Lyell). Lyell, an international star of the Australian silent era and a filmmaker in her own right, co-wrote and edited the film with Longford, her partner and key creative collaborator until her premature death in 1925, from tuberculosis. Lyell was 35.
For the film, Longford and Lyell relocated the setting from Melbourne to Sydney, shooting on location in Woolloomooloo, which then enjoyed a well-earned reputation as a tough inner-city neighbourhood, as well as at Manly Beach and the Hornsby Valley (the orchard scene). Longford’s direction – Longford was himself an actor before becoming a director – elicited a remarkable naturalness from his talented cast, which also featured Gilbert Emery in the role of Ginger Mick.
A hit when it opened at Melbourne Town Hall on the 4th of October 1919, The Sentimental Bloke broke domestic box office records and screened to packed houses for some years. It subsequently disappeared without trace once ‘the talkies’ took over until the 1950s when it was rediscovered in a film library in NewYork!.
*The Digitally remastered versions is presented courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Jen Anderson and The Larrikans
About The Band Jen Anderson Jen has earned an international reputation as a composer and improvising violinist. With a strong classical training background and many years of professional performance improvising with numerous bands, she has also composed music for film, television, theatre and dance.
Jen has enjoyed national success with her score and live performance of string quartet music to the silent film ‘Pandora’s Box’, and further national and international success with her score for the silent film ‘The Sentimental Bloke’. Jen and her band the Larrikins accompanied the screening of the film at several prestigious screen events including the London International Film Festival (UK), Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Italy), Telluride Film Festival (Colorado USA), Tokyo Film Festival (Japan) and Chungmuro Film Festival (Seoul, Korea).
As a composer for film and television her many credits include Ablaze (documentary feature film, 2021) The Show Must Go On (documentary 2019), Hunt Angels (documentary feature film) The Goddess of 1967, Simone de Beauvoir’s Babies (ABC television mini-series), and the silent movies Pandora’s Box and The Sentimental Bloke.
The Larrikins Dave Evans Dave Evans is one of Melbourne’s most acclaimed musicians, widely recognised for his mastery of all musical genres. He performs regularly in Northern Europe and has performed and recorded with The Band Who Knew Too Much,Bric-a-brac, and Jen Anderson & The Larrikins. Dave Evans has performed across Australia in mainstream theatre shows and avant-garde works. He played the featured accordionist in the stage musical Warhorse. His interpretations of tango on the accordion bring his jazz improvisation skills to the fore as well as showing an authentic understanding rarely heard outside native Argentina.
Dan Warner Dan Warner is a songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. In the 80s and 90s, Dan sang and played rhythm guitar in several local bands including The Warner Brothers, Overnight Jones, Dan & Al and The Largest Living Things. Dan now plays with his band The Night Parrots featuring Marcel Borrack, Clio Renner, Nathan Farrelly, Adam Simmons and Ash Davies. Dan has contributed to The Sentimental Bloke project as one half of The Larrikans with Dave Evans.
