The inaugural Eight Oclock Sharp featured a grand piano, and a selection of Sydney's greatest improvising pianists.

1st may

Bill Risby trio

Our first official night. Bill was the perfect choice. The music was very beautiful. Steve Elphick recorded the concert and Bill released it as an album, which you can buy on his website. www.billrisby.com

8th may

Alistair Spence

Alistair is a very musical pianist, and a very unique and dedicated composer. He invited the Australian Jazz Musician of the Year award winning saxophonist Sandy Evans to join him for a wonderful performance of some of Alistair's most beautiful compositions.

12th may

Barney Wakeford

Barney is the dark horse of the Sydney jazz scene. His compositions are moody and evocative. This concert was filled with all the wonderful things that Barney brings to his playing, melody, surprise, space, joy and groove.

15th may

Gerard Masters

22nd may

Judy Bailey

Judy played some amazing solo pieces in her own wonderful style, and then invited some guests to play some lovely long formed and twisting jazz standards. The guests were David Symes on double bass and Spike Mason on saxophone.

29th may

Mike Nock

John Harkins, Kevin Hunt, Barney Wakeford, Gavin Ahearn

16 solo pianists over four weeks.  This series was largely responsible for our decision to host concerts more often.

Craig Scott is one of Sydney’s most amazing Jazz double bass players... and probably the most influential. He is the head of Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has taught most of the musicians who have been through the course in the past 20 years.

For this special duo concert he teams up ex-student Spike Mason on saxophones. Together they will play a collection of songs they love.

PJ Wolf finds bios either make him sound cooler than he is, or alternatively; in trying to achieve exactly that end, far less cool than he'd like people to imagine him. That being said…

Drawing on an eclectic range of musical influences from Erik Satie to Bob Dylan, PJ Wolf explores the beautiful, the terrible and the profound through his unique alt-pop sound.

In 2008 PJ was a winner of the triple J unearthed Top Song competition. His winning track was described on the Unearthed website as:

“… indie pop… while still being serious. And Seriously Good. The quirky instrumentation and lush harmonies make PJ's winning track "Skin And Bone" a standout winner”

This win came after a number of his demo’s were picked up and played on the station. Just prior to receiving the Triple J honour PJ was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Young Australians to help produce his current EP Arcadia Street, an collection of pop songs about death.

For years we've loved his last album, Storms Dreams and Flying Machines, and the new Arcadia Street is beautiful.