Chasing the Moon
Chasing the Moon brings alive the exuberant and romantic sounds of Gypsy Jazz in the tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.
There is a fresh flavour to the way different styles are combined, – a mouth-watering mix of hot club and the blues, a dash of folk, lashings of swing, flirting with Latin rhythms and modern elements too. The joy is infectious. The arrangements of Hot Club classics, jazz standards, French musette, Piaf and the occasional pop tune provide a framework in which each performer has a chance to shine.
Lead vocalist and violinist Kathy Bluff delivers her distinctive style of soulful vocals and swinging jazz violin with warmth and charm. The violin intertwines with the glittering soprano and tenor sax of Paul Burjan who is also a dab hand on the flute. Well known gypsy jazz guitarist, John Blenkhorn provides the rhythmic pulse as well as Djangoesque solos played with flair and attention to detail. That essential Parisian ambience comes with the piano accordion of Garry Steel who is also a mesmerising performer.
Jessica Dunn on double bass delivers intricate and memorable solos and along with drummer Mike Quigley lays down the best of grooves, playing sweet and in the pocket.
Chasing the Moon has wowed audiences at Newcastle, Dubbo, Wagga, Illawarra and Moruya Jazz Festivals and has twice won the People’s Choice Award at Moruya Jazz festival.
They have also created many memorable nights at Sydney’s popular boutique venues the Camelot Lounge and Foundry 616 and featured twice in the Randwick Council Twilight Concert Series.
Chasing the Moon’s CD, Nuages features a selection of gypsy jazz classics, Latin and swing and is available through CD Baby and iTunes.
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Dapper's Delight (Netherlands)
Dapper’s Delight is the combination of classically trained recorder player Susanna Borsch and the recorder maker and concertina player Adrian Brown. Their obtuse musical backgrounds provide the inspiration and gel for their musical collaboration, which they founded as an informal duo in 2009, primarily to play music on the streets. Following highly positive reactions from listeners, they expanded this concept into a programme for the concert hall. Their approach has resulted in two widely acclaimed albums: Indoors (2011) and Disguisings (2014), and a third CD, Vernacular, was released in November 2017.
The main focus of Dapper’s Delight has always been on the English Vernacular -‐ song and dance tunes from around 1550 through to, and including the 19th century music hall tradition. Where possible they like to combine oral “traditional” sources with historical printed versions and try to make their arrangements show another side of well-‐known and loved classics, to open this repertoire to new audiences.
With their unusual and somewhat anachronistic instrumentation, the duo has found friends and admirers from both the folk and early-‐music worlds and Dapper’s Delight has performed in the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Norway, Portugal and Canada. In 2018 Dapper’s Delight will be artists in residence at the Canberra International Music Festival, Australia.
Susanna Borsch – Recorders, English Concertina and Voice Susanna is one of the few instrumentalists able to interpret both contemporary and early music with complete ease. She studied at the Amsterdam Conservatorium with Walter van Hauwe. Her solo CDs “off-‐limits” (2006) and “Susie, tell me a Story! ” (2014) feature many new works for recorder and live-‐electronics written especially for her. Her other ensembles include Mezzaluna (Renaissance polyphony) ; the band Hexnut; ELECTRA (all-‐ female modern music ensemble) ; BRISK Recorder Quartet. Dapper’s Delight provides Susanna with the space to explore improvisation, and a freer approach to performing, in a repertoire full of beautiful melodies and invigorating dances. Since April 2014 she teaches at the Trossingen University of Music in Germany.
Adrian Brown – Anglo Concertinas and Voice A musical instrument maker by calling, Adrian Brown has conducted extensive research into the history of the recorder, measuring many original instruments, making reconstructions and has written several organological studies. In parallel, he has played the anglo concertina since his teenage years and teaches the instrument both privately and at the annual German Concertina Meeting. He has developed a very personal style on the instrument and his playing has been widely admired both for its originality and technical competence.
The name “Dapper’s Delight” is a reference to the Dutch humanist and armchair explorer Olfert Dapper (ca. 1635 – 1689) who despite never having travelled outside Holland published several geographical tomes, amongst which Description of Africa (1668) is still a key text for Africanists. A famous Amsterdam street market is named after him and it was here that the duo first performed in 2009.
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Chasing the Moon
“like walking through a music festival in an Eastern European village” - Simon Marnie, ABC Radio
“Chasing the Moon provides wonderful entertainment. Kathy Bluff’s violin and vocals make Chasing the Moon really swing – not to be missed!” - Doug Saxon, Band Coordinator Newcastle jazz festival
Dapper's Delight (Netherlands)
"The recorder virtuoso Susanna Borsch, together with Adrian Brown on the anglo concertina take a new approach to music found along the historically ambiguous border between classic and folk music in 16th and 17th century England. As Dapper’s Delight, they present their enchanting arrangements of these timeless songs and invigorating melodies."
"Since 2009, Dapper’s Delight has won friends and admirers with their programmes of historical popular music played on the unlikely but earthy combination of recorder and concertina."
