It’s back! One of the most popular events in the Canberra Blues calendar – This time Blues Piano Night will feature FIVE different players, playing solo and together, offering the audience different takes on the many genres of blues piano styles. Our world class line-up, Jan Preston, Don Hopkins, Carolyn “Pinecone” Packer, John Black & Ali Penney are signed up and ready to bring you all the blues piano goodness they can muster! Don’t miss this show!
Pre-sales: CBS members $20 / General $25
Door: $30
Doors: 7pm Show: 8pm
Jan Preston - Known as Australasia’s Queen of Boogie Piano, Jan Preston has a reputation as an astonishing piano player with a rich resonant voice who is a magnetic live performer. Jan captivates, moves and uplifts audiences around the world with her original songs, compositions and her mastery of boogie woogie.
ABC Music ’s Winner of 5 Music Awards for her CDs and soundtracks, she plays festivals and concerts throughout Australia, NZ and Europe and writes music for film and TV such as the Theme to ABC ’s Australian Story. Recently her piano composition “Trout Blues” became the theme to BBC London ’s Evening Program.
Don Hopkins - Oozing the barrelhouse, good-time fun of a blues party night, with the emphasis on New Orleans piano styles, a Don Hopkins performance will most likely get you singing along, dancing or just having a good time to his music. Don came 2nd place at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, 2012 (with drummer Rob Grosser as Dr. Don’s Double Dose) in the solo/duo category. The duo was also Blues Performer of the Year 2012 for NSW & ACT. Don’s repertoire draws from the rich vein of blues and jazz of the 1920s and 30s through to the R&B, soul and gospel sounds of the 1950s and 60s.
Carolyn Packer is a highly sought-after jazz performer, deeply imbued in jazz, deep blues, New Orleans swing, and funky Latin grooves, with decades-long expertise in song-writing and performing to her credit. Carolyn's playing is imbued with a depth of musicality only seen in a musician devoted to craft and delivered with a fiery passion and infectious energy that rearranges the atoms of the spaces she performs in, rendering her audiences enthralled.
John Black - John worked full-time as a musician in Sydney before moving to Canberra in the mid-80s to lecture at the School of Music. Today he works as a piano player, singer, arranger and composer. Recent collaborations have been with Ben Schumann in the BlackSchu Band with shows at the Street Theatre, Canberrang, the Australian Blues Music Festiva and Thredbo Blues Festival.
Before that John worked as Musical Director for Sweet Mischief with performances at the Manly and Thredbo jazz festivals and the Island Jazz Festival in Samoa. And back in the dark ages in Sydney he worked with people such as Simon Gallagher, Judy Conelli, Marty Rhone and Tommy Steele.
John is currently working with Gaye Reid and Lisa McClelland in a trio called Two Blondes + a Bloke, playing a whole range of styles including blues, jazz, latin and contemporary
Ali Penney - “She’s gotta lotta soul” says Andrew Junior Boy Jones. Ali has opened for an impressive list of legends including Johnnie Johnson, Chris Cain, Lucinda Williams, Cephas and Wiggins, The Tailgaitors and Chris Wilson.
Ali has been performing, recording, and composing music in bands for over 25 years. These bands include The Hippos, Midnight Ramblers, Supro and Wayne Jury’s Dry Bones as well as international acts such as Andrew Junior Boy Jones (Freddy King’s guitarist), Kid Bangham (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Lloyd Jones and Todd Sharpville. She has recorded with Fiona Boyes, Dom Turner, the Cyril B Bunter Band and those west coast hipsters, The Vibrolators
Ali scooped the 2014 Australian Blues Music 'Chain' Awards winning: Female Artist of the Year, and her band The Money Makers: Best Band, Best Album and Best Producer. Her band also won Sydney Performer of the Year in 2009 and represented Sydney in The International Blues Challenge in Memphis 2010. The band also received The Australian Blues Music “Chain” Award for Best Band 2010.
Ali plays her brand of Blues, Jazz, Soul and Boogie at festivals across Australia. She loves West Coast Jump, Swing and New Orleans music, and she has recently won 'Favourite Keyboard Player' in the Sydney Blues Society Awards 2024.
