The 15th Moruya Jazz Festival is, as the organisers are putting it, “ready to rumble.”

With a final band list of more than 50 groups, it looks like being the perfect place on the coast to be on the weekend of October 21 to 23.

Top of the list will be the Queen of Boogie Woogie, pianist Jan Preston, and trumpeter-vocalist-composer Vince Jones, one of the great veterans of the Australian jazz scene.

Of local interest is the fact that five bands from the ANU will be on the stage. As well, the Royal Military College All Stars will be performing.

Also headlining are the D J Gosper Band and the Mike Hallam Festival All Stars. As well as top jazz instrumentalists, there will be a Festival of Voice, centring on vocalists. There are two new venues this year to accommodate the growing number of big bands.

With an eye to the public, the organisers have chosen big band music to feature on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The Saturday morning street parade is a highlight, when Moruya’s main street turns into New Orleans with floats and musicians everywhere.

The free Picnic at Riverside Park event hosts talented young musicians from local and interstate schools as well as our own Sing Australia choir. This year, the Sunday morning service in the RSL Hall will be conducted by music director Peter Poole. In this event, guest artists include Capt Bob’s Stationhouse Seven Trad Band, vocalists Shelley Rae King and Canberra’s Strange Weather Gospel Choir, as well as the combined choirs of Moruya and Batemans Bay’s Sing Australia.

The 15th Moruya Jazz Festival, Friday October 21 to Sunday 23. More information