Hitting the High Notes at Noosa Jazz Festival
John Caruso discovers a local Festival that has been hitting the right notes for more than three decades.
August is Noosa’s best-kept secret. The days start to get longer, the winter chills start to thaw and, for the past three decades, the music starts. The 2026 Noosa Jazz Festival runs from 28 August to 6 September – ten days in a program that moves from theatre to terrace to riverbank with enough live jazz to either convert the unconverted or confirm what the faithful already knew.
This year marks 32 years since Frank Johnson, a trumpet player from Melbourne with the gift of persuasion and the habit of acting on it, walked up and down Hastings Street with Richard Stevens, asking accommodation houses when their slowest fortnight was. They picked late August. They called it the Jazz Party and it struck a chord.
Richard is still involved. Frank passed in 2000, leaving behind a legacy that has outlasted most. What he started as an experiment to bring musicians together in Noosa, is now one of the most distinctive jazz events on the east coast, not because of its scale, but because of its format.
John Conley has been part of it almost from the beginning. He’s the bassist and guitarist from one of Australia’s most enduring jazz outfits, Galapagos Duck. Joining the group in 1981. John’s been returning to Noosa long enough to remember when James Morrison was playing Berardo’s on Hastings Street to a crowd that couldn’t believe what they had in front of them.
“It’s a great party with people coming from all over Australia to be part of it,” John says.
What draws them, beyond the music itself, is the Jazz Party concept. Musicians who wouldn’t normally share a stage, shake hands backstage, grab a couple of musical instructions and see what happens. It’s a format that asks something specific of its players, attentiveness, above all else.
“It’s like having a road map, but it’s not set in stone,” John explains of how jazz musicians navigate that kind of structured spontaneity.
“Quite often the piano player will change the harmony, because they have different ways of getting through a chord progression,” he says. “So, it’s a matter of using your ears, listening to what’s going on and reacting to it.”
He says this as though it’s obvious, which to a musician of four decades’ standing it probably is. But it’s worth noting that what sounds like spontaneity is a form of extraordinarily attentive listening.
Jazz doesn’t just happen. It’s negotiated, bar by bar, in real time, between people who may never have shared a stage before. The festival opens on the Friday evening at The J Theatre Noosa, with
a concert pairing the Australian Jazz Ensemble and the Noosa Chorale. It’s a collaboration John has been involved with for the past two years, and the one he mentions first when asked what he’s looking forward to.
“How often do you get to work with a 40 or 50-piece choir?” he says. “Something completely different from the normal run of things.”
A Saturday matinee reprises the concert, before the program shifts gear and venue with the ease of a band finding its groove. Saturday evening brings the Big Kitty Jazz Band to Land & Sea Brewery for a sunset session, the kind of gig that proves that the local geography is one of the festival’s better features.
Sunday takes things inland to the heritage-listed Majestic Theatre in Pomona for a tribute concert to Tom Baker, a significant figure in Australian jazz. Tuesday, 1 September offers something genuinely hard to improve upon, a river cruise followed by a dinner concert at Noosa Boathouse, where jazz enthusiasts will not only be entertained by the music but by the food and views.
Wednesday brings jazz to the Peregian Beach Hotel at lunchtime, the festival extending its reach and accessibility down the coast. Thursday evening, Stevenson’s Rockets take the stage at Beach Road Hotel. By Friday 4 September the action moves to Lucio’s at the Marina. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying jazz here in the past on many occasions. A perfect combo, lunch, water and live jazz.
Saturday 5 September head to The J with the Noosa Jazz Party proper, the fullest expression of what the festival has always been about and John provides a glimpse into what audiences can expect.
“You’re going to see musicians who don’t usually play together, playing together,” he says. “Jazz musicians listening, adapting, using the form to create something new. You’re going to see exciting, wonderful, established players, and you’re going to be part of an exciting musical experience.”
Then comes Sunday 6 September, Father’s Day, and the festival will close the way it always does with a free community concert at the Riverstage along the Noosa River in Noosaville.
Picnic rugs on the grass, the river doing what rivers do in winter’s afternoon light, musicians who’ve spent the week playing ticketed rooms now playing for anyone who wanders past. No booking required. Just turn up.
It’s the most democratic item on the program and the most important. The Noosa Jazz Festival understands something useful about the relationship between music and place – neither should try too hard.
Noosa doesn’t need to be New Orleans. Jazz doesn’t need to be explained. Put the right musicians in a room, or on a riverbank, and they tend to sort out the rest themselves.
John Conley’s been carrying an upright bass to gigs since the early ‘80s and he sees no compelling reason to stop. Ask him what the bass presents by way of challenge and he’ll be straight.
“Carrying the thing to the gig. That’s the tough part,” he says.
Ask him about the vibe in Noosa when the festival’s running and he’s direct:
“Really, fantastic. No question about it.”
Some things, three decades on, still hit the right notes.
ALL THAT JAZZ
Celebrating jazz over ten days with some of Australia’s most talented musicians.
Friday 28th August – Lunch
Jazz on the Terrace @ 250 Grammi
Friday 28th August – Evening & Saturday 29th August – Matinee Australian Jazz Ensemble & Noosa Chorale @ The J Theatre
Saturday 29th August – Sunset
Big Kitty Jazz Band @ Land & Sea
Sunday 30th August – Afternoon
Tom Baker Tribute Band @ The Majestic Theatre
Tuesday 1st September – Sunset
Noosa River Ferry Cruise & Dinner Concert @ Noosa Boathouse
Wednesday 2nd September – Lunch Jazz @ Peregian Beach Hotel
Thursday 3rd September – Evening Stevenson’s Rockets @ Beach Road Hotel Friday 4th September lunch
Jazz at Lucio’s @ The Marina
Saturday 5th September – Evening
Noosa Jazz Party @ the J Theatre
Sunday 6th September – Afternoon Free Community Concert in the Park Noosa Jazz Club regularly host events, including the Noosa Jazz Festival.
JAZZY GIVEAWAY
WIN 2 Tickets to the Big Kitty Swing!
One lucky reader will win 2 tickets to the Big Kitty Swing Band at Land & Sea plus a $50 bar voucher for the night as part of the Noosa Jazz Festival valued at $150.
Visit our WIN page to enter.
Visit www.noosajazzclub.com to find out more.
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