Thank You

Thank you to everyone who attended OzManouche this year. Despite the date change and the AFL final, we had full houses for every performance. Go, Lions!

I apologise for the delay in this post; I've needed time to recharge after the festival. This year was the most ambitious OzManouche yet, expanding from just four days of OzManouche to additional dates in Sydney and a first-ever show in Melbourne for Daniel John Martin, all while managing my guitar tuition business and freelance gigging. A huge thanks to my colleagues—Richard Ashby, Loretta Palmeiro, David Seidel, Adam Russo, Tom Flenady, Noria, Stephen Letts, Peter Baylor, Rick Caskey, Miranda Deutsch (now Fox), Ian Date, and Daniel Weltlinger—for their support, professionalism, and camaraderie, especially when I was under a lot of stress.

The date change created a tighter timeline this year. To quote one musician we all know and love, "It feels like it's only just happened", and to me, it did feel a little like we were doing the event back-to-back, and although I completed a lot of set-up work in February and March, I was very much under the pump from about June onwards. This meant working on the festival during a working/educational holiday in Europe. For example, the poster was designed on trains between Amsterdam and Paris and while sitting in cafes in Montmartre and the press release and 90% of all the copy needed for the festival was written on the long-haul flight home, thanks in part to a faulty entertainment screen that kept distractions at bay. I also leveraged a severe case of jet lag, which provided early wake-up times and the undistracted work time needed to redesign the website and social media accounts. No complaints here, though. Overall, it was an enjoyable and creative experience.

Having grown up attending rock and alternative music festivals, I've always loved anticipating the release of the annual theme artwork as much as reading the artist line-ups. And it's something that I've carried forward into my work for OzManouche. For the 2024 poster, I wanted to give a little nod of respect to both the Sinti/Manouche culture and the beautiful city of Brisbane. I drew inspiration from a model caravan that resides in pride of place in the home of my friend, Irene Ypenburg, built and gifted to her by the great Nous'che Rosenberg, rhythm guitarist for the Rosenberg Trio, and the floral emblem of Brisbane, the Golden Wattle. I finished with a sneaky picture of my Australian-made Piers Crocker guitar.

Despite all my efforts to stay ahead of the workload this year, there was a sense of rush and "needing this yesterday." As a result, I made many mistakes and typos, particularly in spelling names, filling in forms, and the music charts I made. I want to thank my friends and colleagues for quietly and gently pointing these out and suggesting corrections.

We took a different approach this year by highlighting the violin in gypsy jazz, showcasing Daniel Weltinger's beautiful original compositions, Phoebe Haselden's vibrant playing, Daniel John Martin's modern Parisian gypsy jazz, and Charlie McCarthy's engaging workshop, jamming and group leading. There are so few jazz violinists in Australia, and It was wonderful to feature so many of them and provide a forum to perform and inspire students and emerging performers.

Seeing the audience's positive reception to the bands and community groups performing on the deck was fantastic. The deck program has expanded to feature community groups from around Australia; this year, we had groups from Toowoomba, Sydney, and Hobart. I was particularly pleased to witness the growth in musicianship and confidence amongst these musicians and the formation of connections and friendships, which, to me, is the most important part of the festival.

The festival achieved several major goals this year, including some bucket list items for me.

1. Featuring New Zealand musicians with Djangonui delivering a unique show specially curated for OzManouche and giving a standout performance thank you to Richard Ashby, Sam Cooke, Phoebe Haselden, and Anthony Irving.

2. It has always been OzManouche's goal to invite a musician from Paris as it's one of the centres of gypsy jazz music. I first met Daniel John Martin at his regular haunt at Aux Petits Joueurs back in 2016. It has always been at the back of my mind to have him at OzManouche. I remember being taken by his musicianship and stage presence to the time as he is one of the few musicians at the forefront of jazz violin, modern gypsy jazz and the Parisian sound. I'm so grateful that he agreed to come and play for us and make the long flight to Australia.m

3. One of the fortunate things about the date change this year was that the festival dates lined up with Daniel Weltlinger's schedule, and we were able to welcome him back after a long absence, where he presented his compositions drawn from his masterpiece albums Koblenz and Samoreu.

4. A capacity audience for the Sunday afternoon session with the Gypsy Cats. Congratulations' Cats, for breaking the attendance record for the challenging Sunday slot.

This year, we hosted three well-attended workshops with Charlie McCarthy, Richard Ashby, and Daniel John Martin. While the gypsy jazz scene is predominantly guitar-focused, we always aim to ensure all instrumentalists find value in our workshops, irrespective of the instrument they play.

Festival favourite Noria Letts made a surprise appearance on Saturday night, sitting in with Daniel John Martin and letting the cat out of the bag that her group, Noria and the Parisians, will be making a welcome return to the festival in 2025.

OzManouche is a collaborative effort, and I want to acknowledge the incredible team behind it. Thank you to The Patron, Ian Date, for your virtuosity and timeless advice to Ronnie Woods for your trust, guidance, and forgiveness when I spend too much money! Thank you to the BJC committee and operations team: David Herbert, Alan Western, Mal Wood, Karli Westley, Rachel Grant, Irene McLeod, Helen Abrahams, Michael Osmond, Lisle Kelly, the duty officers, bar staff, and volunteers. Thanks to Mark Smith for his sound production, Mary Brettell for photography and social media support, and Alex Crighton for his assistance and moral support. Special thanks, as always, to Ewan Mackenzie's family for their unwavering support. As you know, this is Ewan's festival, I just send the emails.

To our sponsors, thank you for helping us give our favourite music and musicians a platform. A special shout-out to Michael Smith of Gypsy Jazz Australia for showcasing his instruments and bringing a little bit of Festival Django to Brisbane and to Rick Heritage of Radio 4EB for his support.

We are looking for gypsy jazz groups from Brisbane, Victoria, South Australia, Far North Queensland, Northern Territory, and Western Australia, as well as any bands with musicians under the age of 21. If you're interested in participating in 2025, please email us at info@ozmanouche.com. Please note that I no longer answer DM's or Facebook messages for festival business.

A couple of the shows were filmed for upload to YouTube. As soon as I learn how to do video editing, I'll share them on our social platforms when they're ready or as soon as I learn video editing.

Thank you all, and see you next year!

-Cameron