For 11 months of the year, Hobart is the epicentre of the Tasmanian jazz scene. But, each July, the town of Devonport steals the spotlight with a festival that turns the community into a jazz Mecca.
This year’s Devonport Jazz Festival will feature all stripes of music, from classic gypsy-swing to blues and jazz-tronica in the midst of markets, vinyl swap-meets and a food truck festival-within-a-festival. And along with the 31 rostered programs will be a number of secret pop-up events discoverable through the festival’s social media.
This year’s program will also offer something for hardcore and casual listeners alike, says festival producer Maree Brodzinski. “Balancing the program is always a real challenge,” she explains. “You can go sit at the town hall and have a very focused musical experience, or you can go have a beautiful three-course meal and a show, or you can just go have a bite at a local café and there will be a live performance there, there are lots of different experiences.”
The festival takes place in the middle of a municipal facelift that has provided Devonport with a new civic building and an expanded arts centre. “Devonport is a small city that’s going through a lot of changes,” Brodzinski says. “We’re a city that’s looking towards a great future and becoming a bit more grown-up.”
Along with staple Tassie acts like Django’s Tiger and Thomas Mitchell, Devonport has captured some high-profile artists from mainland Australia, including velvet-voiced Sydney vocalist Gregg Arthur. Rarely glimpsed without a suit and pocket square, Arthur made his name with virtuosic interpretations of standards from the Great American Songbook. The only thing more remarkable than how frequently Arthur is compared to Sinatra is the fact that Arthur doesn’t particularly like it. Recognising the greats doesn’t mean copying them, and staying grounded in tradition shouldn’t mean burying yourself in gauzy nostalgia, he says.
“I’m not interested in reminiscing about some golden era of music,” Arthur says. “I’m trying very hard to make it relevant to today. That’s how I approach walking onstage. Music should be expressed by the person performing it, not replicating something that’s been done before.”
Though he’s worked alongside many elder statesmen of American jazz, Arthur considers himself an artist in an Australian tradition, helping to build a uniquely Aussie jazz sound. “I hope people will come away with pride in Australian musicianship,” he says. “There are some songs written in Australia in the ‘20s and ‘30s that are truly beautiful. When I was in the US, I used to like sneaking them into a set – American audiences would think they were from Hoagy Carmichael or Cole Porter.”
Gregg Arthur will appear at Devonport with the Peter Locke Trio, performing material from his upcoming album, In a Sentimental Mood. “I’m working with what I think is the absolute cream of Australian jazz,” Arthur says. “It’s a beautifully balanced band, and I think that the audiences at Devonport are going to pick up on the artistry.”
Also making their first trip to Devonport is SKETY, a six-piece Czech a cappella group in the mould of the Manhattan Transfer. Using live looping technology, sound technician Lukáš Prchal builds the singers’ voices into a complex structure of sound during concerts.
“Our sound is quite unique,” Prchal explains. “Most people, when they first encounter a cappella music, it’s a jaw-dropping thing that it’s all done by vocals, only by lips and throats. It’s a huge experience for everyone, especially for the first-encounter people.”
