Jimmy Little

Jimmy Little began his recording career in 1956, firstly with Regal Zonophone and then with Columbia before signing to Festival Records in 1959. 44 years later Jimmy is still making music with the Festival Mushroom Group who just recently celebrated their 50th year as a record company.
Jimmy's first Festival recording was a 45rpm extended play record called "Ballads with a Beat" that reached top ten in the popular Australian music charts. This heralded a steady stream of extended plays, singles and albums throughout the 60s', including the chart topping "Royal Telephone" in 1963. Selling more than 75,000 copies it achieved gold record status and has now become one of his signature tunes. His nationwide profile grew through regular television appearances, radio airplay and constant touring, so much so that by 1964 Australian national magazine Everybody's, which was the bible of the teen scene in the early 60s' named Jimmy Australian Pop Star of the Year.

Jimmy has said that apart from the admiration he had for his father's own musical talent, his two greatest musical influences were Nat King Cole and American country artist Jim Reeves. His early recordings for Festival definitely reflect this. With his effortless, silky smooth vocal style atop the lush orchestrated arrangements of the early 60s', Jimmy adopted a more traditional country sound as the decade progressed.

By the time the west coast American country rock sound began to dominate the airwaves in the early seventies, Jimmy was acknowledged as one of Australia's premier country music stars. Although mostly recognised for country musical style, he kept his fondness for big orchestral sounds alive in his 1972 album "Winterwood". He quickly followed that with his top ten hit single "Baby Blue in 1974, and subsequent releases continued in this vein culminating with the 1978 double album set "An Evening with Jimmy Little" - live at The Sydney Opera House.

In the 1980s' Jimmys' life took a different direction. In 1983 he recorded the single, "Beautiful Woman" with American producer Ricky Fataar. As it is in the tradition of reggae music Jimmy aimed to inspire indigenous youth as a role model and as a mentor/teacher for the indigenous adult education course at the Eora college for performing arts in Redfern. Today Jimmy remains committed to indigenous education and continues to use his recognition and success as an entertainer, spending considerable time as an indigenous ambassador for the Department of Training, Youth and Educations literacy and numeracy indigenous education program.

Jimmy had begun an acting career in the late 1950's with a major role in the film "Shadow of the Boomerang". This was followed with his other roles on the theatre stage in plays such as "Black Cookatoo" and films by Tracy Moffatt as well as Wim Wenders film " Until the end of the World". By 1989 he had been awarded the honour of being the recipient of the National Aboriginal Day of Observance Committee's "Aboriginal of the Year" award. In the early 1990s he rejoined the Country touring circuit as a member of the "Kings of Country" revue. In recognition of his outstanding career in country music he was elevated to the prestigious Tamworth Roll of Renown in 1994.

At the insistence of Brendan Gallagher, a musician and producer from Karma County, they recorded an album of mainly alternative and classic Australian rock songs from the 1980s. The resulting album "Messenger" was an immediate success reaching the top ten of the alternative music charts in 1999 and introducing Jimmy to a new young audience through extensive airplay on the youth network Triple J FM. "Messenger" achieved yet another gold record for Jimmy and it was awarded the ARIA award for Adult contemporary album for 1999. That year, the ARIA board also inducted Jimmy into the ARIA Australian Music Hall of Fame. A second "Messenger" CD is now being recorded by Brendan and is due for release in 2004. In 2001 Jimmy released the critically acclaimed "Resonate" CD featuring a collection of beautiful songs crafted by some of Australia's greatest songwriters.

As Jimmy enters his sixth decade in the entertainment business he loves so much he is unfortunately unable to tour as much as he would like because of a serious kidney illness, but his music continues to travel across time and space, perhaps more than most. Nevertheless he is a proud Australian who has something in his repertoire with which to entertain absolutely any age group and will continue to make beautiful music and make people happy for many years to come. Jimmy has just signed a multi album deal with ABC records and the first project, a country album, will be released in mid 2003.

For more information visit jimmylittle.com.au

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Kim Sanders

Kim Sanders and Sabahattin Akdagcik

World Music pioneer Kim Sanders has performed/recorded with Gypsy wedding bands in Macedonia, with the Libidorr Jazz Band in Gambia, as a soloist on National Radio in Bulgaria, in Turkey with the Istanbul State Modern Folk Music Ensemble, in Greece with Phanari tis Anatolis and in Indonesia with singer Oppie Andaresta. He has also worked with Zimbabwean mbira-player Stella Chiweshe, Iranian singer Bahar and Turkish singer/saz-player Zülfü Livaneli. In Australia he has performed with Silvia Entcheva (Bulgarian), GengGong (Indonesian), Brassov (Gypsy/Afro/jazz), Nakisa (multicultural), Chichitote (Latin American), Aziz N'Diaye (African) and Flamenco Dreaming (Spanish/ Aboriginal).

A master of Turkish classical and folk music, Sabahattin Akdagcik (vocals, baglama, yayli tambur, oud, kabak kemane, tar) performed and recorded extensively in Turkey before coming to Australia in 1979. Here he has worked as a soloist and with ground-breaking "World Music" groups Nakisa, Strantsi and Sirocco, as well as Turkish groups including Sabâ, Silanteni, the Turkish Art Music Ensemble and the Modern Minstrels.

Sabahattin Akdagcik

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Glory Bound Groove Train

Glory Bound Groove Train was formed in 1997 under the musical directorship of Linda Calgaro. Performing a repertoire of African-American gospel and gospel inspired music, Groove Train is an a cappella (unaccompanied) choir of 18 spirited voices with an edge. A cappella singing fans may have seen the choir perform at the Gospel Groove Concerts in 1999, 2000 and 2001 as well as weddings, parties and funerals. Groove Train’s recent performances include Christmas Eve at Sydney’s Town Hall and the Blessing of the Mardi Gras. At the time of writing, our next gig is at the Eastside Arts Centre, Paddington (site of the Paddington markets) on March 15. Tickets ($12, concession $10) are available, call Di Harrison on 9587 0483.

Find out more about us at www.gloryboundgroovetrain.com