After a sold-out performance for Castlemaine Jazz Festival last year, the Theatre Royal is excited to welcome back a true icon of Australian jazz – Vince Jones – this Sunday September 14.
Nicknamed Australia’s national treasure, multi ARIA-awarded Vince Jones – vocalist, trumpeter and songwriter – is one of the most beloved iconic voices in Australian music.
For more than five decades he’s carved out a singular space in our musical landscape, blending cool jazz, soul and sophisticated song writing with a lyrical honesty that speaks straight to the heart.
From his breakthrough in the early 80s to creating the highest-selling Oz jazz album to date, Come in Spinner (much loved ABC TV Series soundtrack), to performing at leading European and US festivals, Vince is recognised as one of the country’s most influential artists for his trumpeting as much as his deeply expressive vocals he doesn’t just interpret songs he inhabits them! With 25 albums to boot, he continues to set the benchmark for Australian jazz.
Vince told the Express his love of jazz music was nurtured from an early age.
“My father and mother were jazz lovers, the music in the house was jazz or classical. My dad told me he took me to see Louis Armstrong as a young boy sitting on his shoulders in Glasgow. My love for jazz improvisation has flourished as I’ve gotten older,” he said.
Vince started out playing trombone and then the cornet in the brass band at age 10.
“My dad loved trumpet and he taught me to read music. My mum was a singer, she could sing any song ever written, she had extraordinary natural music ability. My dad and her had a duet where they both played together. I saw them playing at parties, it was then I knew I wanted to be singer,” he said.
Vince has gone on to perform around the world through Europe and the US, and said performing at Montreaux would have to be among his favourite gigs.
“It was a wonderful feeling playing alongside the world’s great musicians and being introduced by Quincey Jones.
“I love to play original music, the band has become well known for its original songs. In Europe we were becoming successful for our original sound/songs. I was in Los Angeles and I heard the our music on the radio and I felt so proud,” he said.
When asked about his top three favourite albums and artists of all time, Vince said there were so many great albums it was hard to pick from them.
“I think John Coltrane’s Blue Train, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ On the Ginza but if you ask me tomorrow I’d pick three different albums!” he laughed.
Vince’s Come In Spinner won the hearts of thousands of Australian households, selling over half a million copies in the decade of its release and making history as the highest-selling Australian jazz album of all time.
For tickets to this afternoon matinee performance, which swings into action at 4pm, visit theatreroyalcastlemaine.com.au/music
