Susan Gai changed the way i understand jazz singing.  She's a pillar of the Sydney jazz scene, and her generosity of spirit glows through every song she selects.

Susan will sing with Carl Dewhurst on guitar - an incredibly versatile player of jazz, funk, glitch, grindcore, theatre and anything improvised.  Another great supporter of the jazz community, Carl has played everywhere and with everybody.

And Bernie McGann on saxophone.  A legend of Australian jazz, one of our most awarded, most recognised, most original musicians.  He'll be bringing home fifty years pushing the boundaries of the alto sax.

Three icons of Sydney jazz, distilling decades of experience into their totally distinctive jazz standards and original songs.

Born in Melbourne sometime last century, Evan started his musical journey on drums, then played both trumpet and piano before finally specialising on piano. Best known for his arranging skills, he has written charts for some of the biggest names in Australian jazz - Don Burrows, James Morrison, John Morrison, Dale Barlow, Ian Cooper, Emma Pask, Marlene Richards, Monica Trapaga, Susan Gai Dowling. He is composer and arranger for the modern jazz big band “Evan Lohning Jazz Orchestra”, an ongoing project, influenced by the writing of Duke Ellington, Thad Jones and Gil Evans, and featuring some of Sydney’s best jazz performers.

For this evening’s concert, Evan is accompanied by Australian jazz legend John Pochee on drums, and young lion Noel Mason on the bass. The great Susan Gai Dowling will join Evan in a duo bracket of rare gems and seldom-heard classics.

here's an ABC recording of the big band sound, with a photo of a surfer: youtube.com/watch?v=O_OXLAFnyPk

and his mySpace page, with some great recordings: myspace.com/evanlohningjazzorchestra/music

The musical lives of pianist Alister Spence and reedsman Paul Cutlan regularly cross in groups like the Australian Art Orchestra and Steve Morley's Squall. They have recorded together as a duo for the ABC and performed in Canberra and Sydney. Tonight they will combine their love of tradition with natural curiosity and playfulness as they explore a widely varying repertoire of originals and standards.

In the second set they welcome the wonderful vocalist Susan Gai Dowling for renditions of rare and beautiful songs.