Sarah McKenzie
At 21 years of age, pianist, vocalist and composer Sarah McKenzie is already a musician of remarkable flair and technique. Sarah has performed at some of Australia’s highest profile Jazz Festivals and events including the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, York Jazz Festival and the Melbourne Women in Jazz Festival. Sarah was the vocal winner of the prestigious Generation in Jazz with James Morrison in Mount Gambier. Her genre is swinging jazz, Latin and blues.

Fiona Boyes is a one-woman blues tent revival. Her pulpit is the stage and the bible is her guitar. With her acoustic and electric virtuosity and mastery of styles she uses her guitar as a righteous instrument to uphold the music’s tradition. This native Australian’s soulful, authoritative style has earned her unprecedented recognition including receiving major Blues Music Awards nominations for the past three years.

Bobby Ballinger Band
Expect a mix of jazz standards, ballads and 30’s and 40’s swing from this talented group.

Swing Patrol Dance TroupeWelcome to Swing Patrol’s first appearance at Coolart. Here’s a great group of people devoted to having fun, making new friends and sharing their love of swing dancing including Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, Blues and solo jazz. You’ll have the chance to show your style and pick up some good dancing tips as well

Hot ‘B’ Hines Jazz Band. A catchy title for a group evoking a variety of thoughts! The combination of a hot front line over a tight driving rhythm section, garnished with a sprinkling of novel vocals, good humour, friendship and enthusiasm produces a recipe for highly entertaining traditional 1920’s jazz.

Pippa Wilson is the jazz singer that everyone tells everyone else about, swinging hot or cool with the great standards from the 1920’s through to the 50’s and beyond, and having the reputation as one of the hottest singers on the jazz circuit  In 1989 she formed her own group known as the Pippa Wilson Swingtet seducing audiences with her stylish, sophisticated versions of perennial favourites including “Georgia”, “Sweet Georgia Brown”, “Birth Of The Blues” etc.

Mamas Mountain Jug Band plays a mixture of back to roots music, old hillbilly songs, jug band gems, hokum, jazz, blues and that dash of barbershop harmonies. There are three members in the Band but all of them are multi-instrumentalists, so no one is ever quite sure who will pick up that loose instrument next!

Hot Licks Jazz Band
Bringing fresh faces to old jazz, the Hot Licks Jazz Band is a new-wave traditional jazz band combining the talents of some of Melbourne’s hottest jazz musicians with the licks to produce a sound that is lively, raw and sure to get your feet tapping. Trombonist Glenn Jacobi and his crew of New Orleans aficionados present a programme of hot jazz with swinging vocals and a repertoire of everyone’s favourite tunes.

The Crescent City Serenaders
A new Band on the Melbourne scene, The Crescent City Serenaders is an exciting and “hot” younger oriented Band featuring several of Melbourne’s most talented younger players. They play a lot of “cross over” rhythm and blues and boogie material interspersed with classic jazz favourites emphasising the sounds and repertoire of New Orleans jazz.

The Syncopators are very versatile covering a wide range of styles and material. Although their repertoire stems from the roots of traditional jazz, they can play everything from classic jazz through mainstream to pre-rock rhythm and blues, making them one of the top jazz groups in Australia today, according to Graeme Bell, AO.