Jazzed up for concert

CRITICALLY acclaimed and renowned Australian jazz band the Syncopators will be swinging by Swan Hill next Thursday for a jazz high tea at the Town Hall.

Leader and founder of the Melbourne group Chris Ludowyk, said audience members don’t need to be jazz connoisseurs to enjoy the show.

“We won’t be doing anything esoteric,” Mr Ludowyk said.

“We play music from the 20s right through to the 50s without trying to label ourselves.”

The band will be performing all time classics from some of the greatest names in jazz including Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and much more.

“Most of them won’t just be straight covers but our own interpretation of them,” Mr Ludowyk added.

Formed in 1984 as Society Syncopators by Mr Ludowyk, the band was made up of some of the best jazz talents in Melbourne at the time, and quickly catapulted to success.

Since then they have toured the world, and also toured the Asia Pacific as cultural ambassadors for the Australian Government early in their career.

Australian jazz superstars including pioneer Graeme Bell have praised them for being one of the leading bands in the Australian jazz scene.

Now known as The Syncopators, the band is in its 40th year.

After decades of being on the country’s jazz scene, Mr Ludowyk said he has seen the genre decline in popularity.

“Many festivals and events centred around jazz have disappeared,” he said. “There are still some, but it’s not much compared to 20 years ago.

“Fewer people are exposed to jazz these days, but we’re hoping people in Swan Hill can come and experience jazz, even if it’s for the first time, because you never know if you like it if you haven’t been exposed to it.

“We just need a new generation of people who can realise that this is music worth listening to.”

Mr Ludowyk who is now considered a legend in the Melbourne jazz scene, fell in love with jazz as a 13-year-old boy in Sri Lanka, growing up in a classical music loving family as a Burgher – a minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka descending from the Dutch and Portuguese traders settling in the country in the 16th and 17th centuries.

“My cousin came to stay at our house in Colombo, and he was a jazz fan who bought his LPs with him,” Mr Ludowyk said.

“And he used to listen to them on our radiogram with his eyes shut, nodding his head and swinging his fingers with the music.

“And that’s how I started listening to jazz.

“But I didn’t take it seriously until I came to Australia. I took up trombone and double bass in high school.”

Mr Ludowyk came to Australia in the 60s as a high school student, and mostly taught himself the instruments he plays now.

The Jazz High Tea featuring The Syncopators will be held on Thursday, October 10, at 11am to 1pm at the Swan Hill Town Hall PACC.

Tickets cost $30 and can be bought at: swanhilltownhall.com/events/jazz-high-tea-with-the-syncopators/