Here’s where all of our JWA bands will be playing at the Merimbula Jazz Festival 2025. The festival runs Friday 6 June to Monday 9 June at the seaside town of Merimbula on the far south coast of NSW. It is an annual pilgrimage for us and we’re very excited to be returning.
Where & when to see our people at Merimbula
| FRIDAY 6 June | SATURDAY 7 June | SUNDAY 8 June | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jazz Workshoppers combo | 6pm Lakeview Hotel lounge | 11am Merimbula RSL Function Room | |
| Sydney Youth Jazz Orchestra (SYJO) | 2pm Merimbula RSL function room | 12pm Merimbula RSL function room | |
| Generations in Jazz Workshop combo | 4pm Club Sapphire - sapphire room | 8pm Merimbula RSL function room | |
| Snap, Crackle, & Bop (feat Saul Richardson, Eric Dunan, Simon Ert) | 8pm Club Sapphire auditorium | 7pm Club Sapphire auditorium | |
| Paul Dion Quartet (with Saul Richardson) | 10pm Lakeview Hotel lounge | 9pm Lakeview Hotel lounge | |
| Musicians from SYJO & JWA | 6pm Satay House Malaysian restaurant | 6pm Satay House | 6pm Satay House |
Here’s a link to the full program on the Merimbula Jazz Festival website.
Who’s in the bands?
We’ve got three bands from JWA playing in the festival. Two other bands also feature our people: Firstly, our principal Saul Richardson (guitar), regular teacher at Jazz Camp Eric Dunan (trumpet), and workshop presenter Simon Ert (drums) are playing with their own group Snap, Crackle & Bop, a swing band that Saul and Simon co-led in the 1990s, quite busy in the 1990s and early 2000s around Sydney. Saul Richardson will also play with pianist & reeds player Paul Dion’s quintet featuring Peter Poole on trumpet.
Jazz Workshoppers
This is one of our advanced teen combos. They are:
- Jasper Kameron – trumpet
- Lottie Marland – alto
- Filipe da Costa – trombone
- Alex Hahn – guitar
- Josh Weatherall – drums
- Saul Richardson – bass
See them Friday 6pm at the Lakeview Hotel and Saturday 11am at the Merimbula RSL.
Generations in Jazz Workshop
This is a very special group featuring, and celebrating, three generations of Jazz Workshop Australia students at the Merimbula Jazz Festival! Richard & Anna Savery, plus ‘Uncle’ Jono Savery all played at MJF as teens and young adults. Jono, on tenor sax and clarinet, has become a regular at MJF with several Canberra bands, including Traxion. Their daughters Keira (age 10) and Zoe (age 7) will be joined in this family combo by some of their young bandmates ages 9 – 11 who play in our junior combo on Saturday mornings. Playing with them will be (musical) Grandfather Saul Richardson. They are:
- Keira Savery – alto & drums
- Petros Calokerinos – trumpet & drums
- Coen Atkins – drums & piano
- Cody Liow – guitar
- Zoe Savery – guitar
- Jono Savery – tenor & clarinet
- Anna Savery – violin
- Richard Savery – bass & saxophone
- Saul Richardson – guitar & bass
Sydney Youth Jazz Orchestra
The Sydney Youth Jazz Orchestra (SYJO) will also be playing at the Merimbula Jazz Festival 2025. They’ve been regulars for many years now and it’s a real highlight of the year for this top-class youth big band. They are school-aged students from lots of different schools around Sydney who all rehearse together at JWA in St Leonards every week, led by conductor & JWA principal Dr Saul Richardson.
SYJO prides itself on playing diverse big band music with real, improvising soloists and a great spirit. This band is for helping keen young musicians develop and excel as jazz players and all-round musicians. For the Merimbula festival, SYJO focuses a bit more on traditional swing style repertoire, but with a few interesting surprises in for variety. They are:
- Alexander Duggan – alto & soprano
- Lottie Marland – alto
- Dominik Keil – alto
- Itsuki Usami – tenor
- Noah Lane – tenor
- Jesse Drake – bari & clarinet
- Jasper Kameron – trumpet
- Jarvis O’Heart – trumpet
- Louis Withford-Cave – trumpet
- Wren Costello – trumpet & vocals
- Brody Roberts – trombone
- Iori Tani – trombone
- Sabastian Kameron – trombone
- Arlo Holbert – trombone
- Miles Street – trombone
- Nathanael Dunn – guitar
- Zac Lam – piano
- Noah Taylor – bass
- Josh Weatherall – drums
- Saul Richardson – conductor
Satay House restaurant, Waterfront Cafe, & Jazz Quest
As well as our programmed sets in the official jazz festival program, look out for us at the Waterfront Cafe, Satay House Malaysian restaurant, and in Jazz Quest.
Look out for us on the boardwalk outside the Waterfront Cafe mornings and afternoons, weather permitting! It’s a really nice place to stop for a coffee or lunch and they let us play there so stop by.
By night, small groups of our musicians will be playing at the Banga Raya Satay House Malaysian Restaurant in the arcade at 33 Market St. We play from about 6:30pm to late. Why not book for some nice music, great food, and wonderful people?
Members of SYJO and the JWA combos also participate in Jazz Quest, a mini festival of young players with prizes awarded in different age groups to those a panel of judges deem best on the day. There’s always a lively atmosphere, with plenty of excellent playing and a good energy in the room. A shout-out to young local musician Marco Ostali (age 9) who’ll be making his debut at Jazz Quest this year. Marco is an occasional long-distance student of Saul at JWA and a promising musician from Merimbula. You might also see Marco sitting in for a tune or two with one of our bands.
Snap Crackle & Bop
Snap, Crackle, & Bop is a group founded in the 1990s by drummer Simon Ert and guitarist Saul Richardson. The band was very busy playing around Sydney up until the early 2000s and the 2025 Merimbula Jazz Festival will see its relaunch for a 30th anniversary reunion.
It’s a swing band playing small-group music from the Kansas City swing and early-to-mid Count Basie style. Think the Basie ‘Fives’ and ‘Sevens’ as a starting point.
Snap, Crackle, & Bop 2025 will be led by Saul Richardson (guitar) and Simon Ert (drums) and will feature Eric Dunan (trumpet), plus special guests Gary France (vibraphone), and Barnaby Briggs (bass). See them Friday and Sunday evenings at the Club Sapphire auditorium.
Back in the 90s, the original band over the years included Col Nolan (piano), Anita Thomas (reeds), Glenn Henrich (vibes), John Conley (bass), Natalie Risby (bass), Ben Jones (sax), John Pennings (trumpet), and a young Alex Silver (trombone). The reborn Snap, Crackle & Bop is back and swinging harder than ever.
Paul Dion Quintet
Saul Richardson (guitar & JWA principal) will also be playing with a band led by multi-instrumentalist Paul Dion. For the festival, the front line will be (the amazing) Peter Poole on trumpet, trombone, and vocals, and Saul on guitar. Paul Dion leads the band and plays piano, sax, flute, and clarinet. The rhythm section is anchored by Barnaby Briggs on bass and Ken Vatcher on drums.
See the Paul Dion band Friday and Sunday nights at the Lakeview Hotel.
