JOE CAMILLERI & PAUL GRABOWSKY

CAMILLERI & GRABOWSKY

When two music legends meet – an evening of song and story

Joe Camilleri and Paul Grabowsky met in 1987 over Rolling Stones tunes playing with the Little Red Roosters, after which Grabs played with Joe on the classic Black Sorrows albums Dear Children and Hold On To Me. Now, these two unashamed melomaniacs dig deep into their shared passion for music, covering material from the Black Sorrows to Dylan, Elvis to Pharoah Sanders. Tall tales and true, and songs delivered with true love and the red dust of a long, long road, come to The Regent on this incredibly special night of collaboration by two Australian maestros.

JOE CAMILLERI

Joe Camilleri, writer of milestone Australian songs such as Hit And Run, Shape I’m In, Harley & Rose, Chained To The Wheel and Never Let Me Go, has given his life to making music in this country. Leader of two of Australia’s most successful bands, Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons and The Black Sorrows, Joe’s music has become part of Australian music culture. Joe was inducted along with other members of the Falcons, into the Australian Recording Industry (ARIA Hall of Fame) in 2007.

In 1975 Joe formed Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons, a band who swung from R’n’B to reggae, power pop and ska. Over a period of 8 years The Falcons amassed enviable sales and radio airplay and ultimately epitomised the era. Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons toured the country relentlessly, made forays into the USA and became one of Australia’s finest live outfits.

In 1984 Camilleri and friends started up a new band, The Black Sorrows. Originally a ‘just for the fun of it’ outfit, The Sorrows have released 18 albums over three decades and sold over two million albums world-wide. The Black Sorrows continue to be one of Australia’s most successful touring bands. They have played all round Australia and all over the world, won ARIA Awards and amassed multi-platinum sales

Joe Camilleri is one of the most committed and successful musicians this country has ever produced – a man who loves and lives music.

PAUL GRABOWSKY

It is difficult to describe Paul Grabowsky’s career easily. He has been a director of some of Australia’s most prominent arts festivals, the composer of nearly thirty feature film scores, and several works of music theatre, the founder and leader for nineteen years of the Australian Art Orchestra, an executive at the ABC, and currently heads up Monash University Performing Arts Centres. 

Whether as composer, teacher, television personality, mentor or advocate for the role of artistic expression as a defining attribute of contemporary life, for him this is all informed by his work as a pianist, and composer, particularly in the field of jazz, where, according to him, ‘the piano never lies’. 

His musical journeys have resulted in collaborations with musicians from many countries, not least with the First Nations peoples of Australia, and those journeys continue. Among his many awards are eight ARIA Awards, the Melbourne Prize for Music and an H.C. Coombs Fellowship. In recognition of his achievements he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014.