Coffee Day 17th August 2009

Coffee Day at the Evans' beautiful home in Campbells Bay - just strides away from the sparkling Hauraki Gulf beach. With 27 attendees plus Brodie the resident host dog, this had to be close on a record attendance. How could you not wish to attend such a great occasion with the veritable feast of magnificent keyboards to play or just relax and listen to. We were not disappointed with everything from Bach to the Beatles all compressed into about 5 hours of musical bliss! Thank you Roy and Evelyn for sharing your lovely home with the Club. Evelyn also very generously donated some great items for the Club Night raffles - very much appreciated Evelyn. It was good that Doug Farr could be with us on a business day and play some great music for us.

 

 

Our host, Roy Evans, playing his Clavinova piano

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roy Evans playing his magnificent Rodgers for us

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surrealistic! Another shot of Roy playing his Rodgers - "Let the Sun shine in"

 

 

 

 

 

Roy with the 'boss' Brodie dancing with the music

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin Crann with some nice arrangements on the Clavinova

 

 

 

 

 

Pam Rea giving the Korg Pa1X a whirl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Skip Eade making great music on the Korg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dorothy Waddel with great touch and arrangements on the Clavinova

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Brophy playing the Korg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Farr familiarizing with the Clavinova

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Nicholson played some great arrangements on the Clavinova

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Wilkins playing the Tyros 3 with Rob Powell and Peter Brophy showing keen interest in the proceedings.

 

 

 

 

Colleen Kerr played the Clavinova and the Korg beautifully as always

 

 

 

Ngaire McRae is a great sight reader and played very nicely for us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June McCrorie tackling this 'big baby' Rodgers - well done June!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Watt feeling at home on the Rodgers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ngaire Lonergan enjoyed playing the Tyros 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon Sutherland on his Korg Pa1X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Powell at one with the Clavinova

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snapshots of some of the members relaxing to the great music and lovely surroundings of Roy and Evelyn's home

 

 

 

 

Apologies to any players that did not get photographed as a result of all the excitement and distractions of the day.

Club Night 4th August 2009

Members were treated to a wonderful variety of music on this mid-winter Club Night. Despite many apologies for being unable to attend, about 35 members and visitors were 'wined and dined' with some great music! The evening started off with the arrival music played by Ian Jackson with his inimitable jazz/blues style on the Clavinova - a great way to get the enthusiasm flowing.

Ian Jackson doing the 'honours' for the arrival music. Lovely to hear as always Ian. Great blues feel.

 

 

 

 

Next up Alan Wilkins played his Tyros 2 keyboard to a lively boogie beat and followed by George Watt on the Clavinova and then on the GA3 organ - nice selection George.

 

 

 Alan Wilkins playing his Tyros 2 to a lively boogie beat.

 

 

 

 

 

          

Above: George Watt with his usual polished performance. It was great to hear the lovely sound of the GA3 as George put it through its paces.

Next came Jim Nicholson who showed-off his knowledge of the Clavinova by  using some great style arrangements to accompany his excellent choice of pieces.

 

Jim Nicholson on the Clavinova CVP-305. Terrific choice of styles to complement the great selection of songs.

 

 

 

 

To finish off the first half, Peter Jackson played and sang along with his Korg Pa1X and as always couldn't resist some non-PC jokes that had us rolling in the aisles.

 

 

Peter Jackson delighted us with his playing, songs and jokes.

 

 

 

 

The raffle was won by Ian Jackson, a large size torch and battery set - just the job for dark winter's nights.

The second half saw our member and for the evening our guest artist, John Stent, entertain us on the Clavinova. This is always a treat to hear John create on-the-fly his own arrangements of songs in his jazz style of play. Tony Vinton joined John for a few duets. Tony brought his Yamaha PSR 9000 along and the combination of orchestral voices on the PSR 9000 and the piano from the Clavinova made for pleasant listening. Thanks all for a great night which carried-on until about 10.15pm due to John's enthusiasm. As he said, by the end of the evening his fingers were just warming up!

           

 

 

 

 

John Stent during his hour-long performance. Really giving the Clavinova a good work-out. Wonderful stuff John.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, the Club extends its thanks to the Committee for their enthusiasm and dedication to making the Club Nights such great fun.

Coffee Day 20th July 2009

Carol Littlejohn and Peter Littlejohn jamming on the Korgs whilst the washing machine played on! Carol and Peter share the same surname but are not related. But music is obviously something else in common.

 

Oh what a day! A tale of two halves. The morning session was in Peter and Lizza Littlejohn's spacious garage. There sure was a choice to play as well, what with the: Korg Pa1X; Korg Pa60; Technics KN3000; and the Technics GA1 organ. It was great to catch up with Carol Littlejohn and her sister Gail. Carol is in town preparing to go on a cruise next week - lucky girl!
It was also nice to catch-up with Zak and Emily Bacon. After a sumptuous lunch downstairs, we all trouped upstairs into the lounge and dining areas where we had a Weinbach grand piano to feast on together with a Technics GA3 organ and Skip Eade's Korg Pa1X keyboard and not to be out-done, Ian Jackson brought along his drum kit to accompany the keyboard playing. For those that could remain, our hosts, Peter and Lizza then laid-on a great banquet in the evening. What a wonderfully memorable day. Thank you Peter and Lizza for your superb hospitality.

Carol Littlejohn, Peter Littlejohn and Ian Jackson jamming to our delight. Former Club President George Watt can be seen in the foreground with Delyse Whorwood studying some 'dots'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol, Peter and Ian from a different perspective.

 

 

 

                                                                  

 

Emily Bacon enjoying the Weinbach grand piano.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Club Secretary, Colleen Kerr playing the Weinbach grand piano for one of several sessions on the day. In the morning Colleen entertained us on the Korg Pa1X arranger keyboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Jackson got a good work-out accompanying all the keyboardist's to great effect!

 

 

 

Hey, that's not fair - a drummer that plays piano that good! Ian Jackson tickling the 'ivories'.

 

 

 

 

Ken Mahy giving the Korg Pa1X a go. Ken has been taking lessons with John Bercich for a couple of months now and boy the playing is improving in leaps and bounds - good stuff Ken.

 

 

Ken Mahy watched-over by Peter Littlejohn with Alvin Fitzgerald, Jeanette Beamish, visitor Val and Ngaire Lonergan listening on in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

Emily Bacon got a bit serious here What with Mr Beethoven on her left and Liberace's candelabra on her right!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former President of the Club, George Watt giving the Weinbach a work-out.

 

 

 

 

George Watt playing the Technics GA3 organ. George has one of these 'babies' at home - lucky fellow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not to be out-done by Ian Jackson, Emily Bacon had a go at accompanying the keyboard player and did it very well too! Apparently, Emily has a drum kit which she brought from South Africa with her but has not yet had a chance to unpack it.

 

 

 

 

 

Skip helped Ngaire Lonergan set-up the Korg Pa1X for her session which was terrific. What a great player Ngaire is - so smooth!

 

 

 

A rose amongst the thorns? Not really all nice guys really! Here we see Ian Jackson and Skip Eade helping Ngaire Lonergan whilst she is quietly accompanied by the Club Treasurer, Jim Nicholson on the Weinbach grand piano.

 

 

 

Carol Littlejohn not only played the Weinbach grand for us but delighted us with her lovely voice as she sung along with many of the many pieces that she played for us on the day.

 

Carol Littlejohn accompanied by Peter Littlejohn on the Technics GA3.

 

 

 

Here we see Peter Littlejohn accompanying Carol Littlejohn on the Weinbach and Carol is singing also. Not to miss the opportunity, Skip Eade and Desiree Barrows gave us a great exhibition of the art of line dancing. Good stuff guys (and gals).

 

 

 

 

 

 


Getting serious now! Carol singing from the lyrics in the sheet music whilst Peter and Ian formed the rest of the band for this session.

 

 

 

 

What a gem! Peter and Carol duetting on the Weinbach grand piano. Delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

"Smile for the birdie" - Carol and Ian enjoying the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

Colleen Kerr gave us some wonderful music in the cocktail hour as we awaited the preparation of the evening's banquet. Colleen thrilled us with her semi-classical playing on the Weinbach grand piano. What was equally impressive was that Colleen managed to play some of her classical pieces from memory - no mean feat with pieces that she played such as: Autumn Concerto and Russell of Spring. Lovely music Colleen and played with great 'touch' and very well done for freeing yourself from having to read the dots!

 

 

    

Gordon Sutherland giving Ian Jackson's drum kit a 'going-over'. Looks pretty slick but... good job photos don't have ears! Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr, Club Secretary.