Gregg Arthur

One of Australia’s finest singer-songwriters is back home after several years living and touring in the United States and he wants to make a big impact.

“It’s been great living and working over in America and I enjoyed every minute of it but I missed home terribly,” reflected Gregg Arthur, “I’m now madly trying to let people know that I’m here now and performing shows to showcase what I’ve learned in the States.”

Arthur has loved jazz music since his childhood thanks to constantly listing to his father’s record collection which included Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan.

Whilst Australia provided a great foundation for Arthur to explore his passion for jazz singing ultimately he had to venture to the home of the genre, the United States.

As Arthur explained to us, “Jazz of course is an American art form, they invented it and they own it, so to stand up in front of American audiences is very gratifying. The American audience is always surprised and fascinated to see that an Australian guy knows the songs from the ‘great American songbook’ so well.”

Along the way Arthur has received praise from a number of legends within the genre such as Frank Sinatra’s pianist Vincent Falcone and Tony Bennett. The praise from Bennett came in the form of a personally hand written note which read, ‘I love the way you sing. You have a fan in the way you phrase… it’s perfect.’

“Getting a hand written letter from Tony Bennett for me was like getting a letter from the Pope,” said Arthur.

Now that Arthur is back on home soil he has gathered together a band of phenomenal Australian musicians to both record new music and also perform shows. The band consists of Peter Locke, Craig Scott, Tim Galvin and Michael Avjenicos all of whom Arthur was full of praise for.

“Peter is a vastly experienced maestro on piano and Craig is of course a brilliant educator as the chair of jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of music. We’re also working with two brilliant young musicians, Tim Galvin and Michael Avjenicos, so it’s a mixture of experience and new blood.”

For anybody interested in the upcoming Sydney performance at Camelot Lounge Arthur says to expect “A lot of truth because I like picking songs that are about a topic which I can relate to so that when I sing them they are very heartfelt.”

Feb 14. Camelot Lounge, Marrickville Rd & Railway Parade, Marrickville. $35-$40+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.camelotlounge.com