Quandamooka singer-songwriter Adam James spent most of his childhood growing up on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah).
While most locals would associate the background music of “Straddie” to be curlews and kookaburras, crashing waves and crackling campfires, Adam grew up in a house filled with the silky voices of classic crooners.
“Country, blues, adult contemporary and jazz crooner music was very popular on the turntable and cassette tape decks,” he said of those days, before detailing an impressive catalogue of influences.
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“I fondly remember Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers and Boz Scaggs.”
Adam has fused those influences with the sounds and lyrics of Australia’s iconic First Nations musicians to come up with a unique genre labelled “Dreamtime swing”.
He is bringing that fusion to the Redland Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) stage this Saturday for The Great First Nations Songbook: A Night of Swing and Soul.
Two years in the making, it is a concert performance that arose from a Queensland Government grant under the Arts Queensland First Nations Commissioning Fund and an ensuing partnership with Redland City Council and RPAC.
Mayor Jos Mitchell said Council assisted the project with further in-kind support which included funding RPAC staff, and venue and equipment hire.
“It is an impressive project that re-imagines the works of artists such as Jimmy Little, Leah Flanagan and Dan Sultan, into the 1960s big band style,” she said.
Adam said the support he had received from Council and RPAC was “exceptional”.
“RPAC believed in the project right from the start and have been a presenting partner ever since, offering support to help manage the project including dedicated rehearsal spaces, producing and any other requests to make sure this project is every success it deserves to be,” he said.
The Great First Nations Songbook was inspired by another great songbook.
“John Farnham released a record in the early 2000s called, I remember When I was Young – The Great Australian Songbook,” Adam explained.
“He sung a broad spectrum of classic Australian songs from Daddy Cool to Australian Crawl and The Whitlams.
“The album really got me thinking about how we could colour in a similar songbook with some of the most iconic First Nations singer/songwriters – everyone from Archie Roach to Warumpi band, Yothu Yindi, and everyone in between.
“We were deliberate with seeding the presentation of the songbook with the genre of jazz given there are so many different styles to choose from – there is something in this songbook for every taste of music.”
Were there any surprise connections that Adam discovered along the way between Blak Australian music and ’60s Big Band music?
“Indeed there were,” he said. “Country music singer/songwriters are very easy to swing – both lyrically and melody wise. There are also similarities between fast jazz and bluegrass.”
And, we assume, there were some songs that refused to fuse into any jazz genre.
“Some were too difficult,” he said with a grin. “In particular, electronic pop music.”
The Great First Nations Songbook: A Night of Swing and Soul is on this Saturday, 19 October, at 7.30pm at RPAC. For more details and tickets, go to rpac.com.au
