Jazz diva swings in

The free outdoor concert on Saturday, November 30, will also feature Billie Court and Stratosfunk.

WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate Hammer is also known to audiences through her band Hip Mo’ Toast.

What can the audience expect from you at Music Under The Stars.

We are going to squash as much varieties as we can into our set. We’ll play some of our festival repertoire ” songs that may not be very well-known but are incredible and deserve to be heard. We’ll play some crowd-pleasers of course ” songs that everyone knows and loves, and also a comedy song or two because songs that appear further along toward the cabaret end of the jazz spectrum have always been my particular niche! But then again, I do love to improvise, so we’ll also play some standards that allow us to really stretch our wings as improvising musicians.

Do you like performing at an outdoor venue?

I love performing outdoors. There’s something magical about creating music under an open sky. I also find that outdoor audiences are the best people to perform for. They are just happier.

What was your student experience like when you were studying (jazz) at WAAPA and what are your fondest memories of your time there?

I absolutely loved being at WAAPA. It was hard, I’ll not deny that, and I’ll even say I probably wasn’t a particularly talented student, though tenacious. My time at WAAPA was one of incredible growth, both as a musician and as a human being. My daily decisions are still greatly influenced by the things I learnt and the people I got to know during that time.

What’s more, the opportunities that were offered me for simply being in the right place at the right time were mind-boggling. And this comment is not meant to dismiss the copious learning I did there, but I often say to potential WAAPA students that they should seriously consider going there just because of the people they’ll meet and the industry connections they’ll make.

My fondest memory of WAAPA is that of feeling like I belonged to a group of young musicians with stars in their eyes and who would eat, sleep and breathe music until they got to where they wanted to be. I am still a part of that fraternity out in Perth’s jazz scene. Most of us are still here, playing music together.

Music Under The StarsWHAT: ECU Alumni-organised concertWHERE: ECU JoondalupWHEN: November 30TICKETS: Free, limit of two per personREGISTER: By close of business November 25VISIT: www.ecu.edu.au/alumni/events/musicunder-the-stars