In the search for the sublime, 'Music in the Mountains' & 'Pigeon Lane @ Gallery ONE88' have teamed up to bring you the Blue Mountain's newest monthly jazz series, 'Chasin' the bird'. It's home, Pigeon Lane, is one of Katoomba's best-kept secrets - it's not big, and you wouldn't know where it was unless someone pointed it out to you, however, it's got all the makings of a New York basement jazz club. The vibe is cool, it's intimate (you won't quite be knocking elbows . . . but it will be close) and you will be there to be absorbed by the music. Soak in the magic on the last Thursday of the month at Katoomba's very own 'Birdland'.

Date: Thursday, October 31st, 2019
Location: Pigeon Lane @ Gallery ONE88 (186-188 Katoomba St)

Doors Open: 6:00 pm
First Set: 6:30-7:15 pm
Second Set: 7:45-8:30 pm

Tickets: $15
Book online or call Chris on 0411 954 826

Dinner, snacks and a bar will be open on the night - thanks to Gallery ONE88.

To open this series, Gary Daley, a Blue Mountains jazz legend and local, has invited Sandy Evans back to K-Town for a special performance. Sandy hasn't played in Katoomba since 2016 when she performed with Gary Daley, Bruce Cale, James Greening and Adrian Sherriff at Hotel Blue.

Sandy Evans:
“…this saxophonist surely ranks as one of the best contemporary jazz composers/musicians anywhere.” Ian Patterson, allaboutjazz.com January 27, 2012

Dr Sandy Evans OAM is an internationally renowned composer and saxophonist with a passion for improvisation and new music. She has played with and written for some of the most important groups in Australian jazz since the early 1980s, toured extensively in Australia, Europe, Canada and Asia, and been featured on over 40 albums. She leads the Sandy Evans Trio and Sextet, and co-leads Clarion Fracture Zone and GEST8. She is a member of Mara!, The catholics, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO), Ten Part Invention, austraLYSIS, Friends of Kim Sanders, Atma Blu, Waratah, Andrew Robson’s Tallis project, Ben Walsh’s Orkestra of the Underground and SNAP. She has performed with many leading jazz musicians including Andrea Keller, Paul Grabowsky, Silke Eberhard, Ingrid Jensen, Judy Bailey, Han Bennink and Terri Lyne Carrington. In 2018 Sandy toured Germany and Sweden. She was a featured soloist in Lloyd Swanton’s widely acclaimed Ambon project.

Sandy has an extensive composition portfolio and has received many commissions from leading jazz, improvising and new music ensembles. Recent commissions include a suite in honour of legendary Australian saxophonist the late Bernie McGann, and a CD RockPoolMirror based on photographs by Tall Poppies’ Belinda Webster. Wesleyan University Press released Sandy’s composition Testimony, a major work about the life and music of Charlie Parker with poetry by the Pulitzer Prize winning American poet Yusef Komunyakaa, in the US in 2013. Sandy composed Kali and The Time of Change, the title track of The Sirens debut CD.

Sandy has a keen interest in Indian classical music. She collaborates regularly with Sydney-based Indian musicians Sarangan Sriranganathan and Bobby Singh and recently released the CD Kapture, a tribute to South African freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada. ‘…a masterfully performed fusion of jazz and Indian classical musics… the improvisations exemplify the virtuosic energy that is a key resonance between jazz and Indian classical music.’ Cummins 1/6/15 www.musictrust.com.au

Her CD Cosmic Waves, featuring South Indian mridangam virtuoso Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani and Sruthi Laya, is released in India on Underscore Records. In 2014 Sandy was awarded a PhD from Macquarie University for practice-based research in Carnatic Jazz Intercultural music. She began collaborating with Aneesh Pradhan and Shubha Mudgal during a Churchill Fellowship visit to India.

Sandy is an experienced teacher and inaugurated a Jazz Improvisation Course for Young Women run annually by SIMA. She is Lecturer in Jazz at UNSW and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Composition and Jazz Units at the Sydney Conservatorium. She appears in the Australian jazz documentaries Beyond el Rocco and Dr Jazz.

Awards and Honours

Australia Council Fellowship 2017-2018, Churchill Fellowship 2014

Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for Academic Excellence, PhD Macquarie University, 2014 Performance of the Year with the AAO and Sruthi Laya, Art Music Awards 2013

AIR Award for Best Independent Jazz CD 2011, Order of Australia Medal 2010,

Bell Award For Australian Jazz Musician of The Year 2003, Young Australian Creative Fellowship 1996, 3 ARIA Awards, APRA Award, 2 Mo Awards


Gary Daley:
Gary Daley is best known as a musician playing in some of the elite bands of Australian jazz; currently James Greening’s band Greening from Ear to Ear and the jazz-world music band The catholics. He leads the quartet Bungarribee which features his own compositions and interpretations from the classical repertoire. Gary plays acoustic and electric piano, organ and also the piano accordion. Another side to Gary is his appearances week days on the ABC TV children’s channel in the pre-school show Lah Lah’s Adventures.

Gary graduated with honours from the Sydney University Music Department where he studied with Peter Sculthorpe. He then studied with the late Roger Frampton who was a significant mentor.

In home town Springwood, just west of Sydney, he is the artistic director of the music concert series Live at the Village which has presented leading musicians in a variety of improvised music since late 2009.

Sanctuary is the recording of the latest album which was supported by the Australia Council. Psalm from ‘In the Palm of Your Hand’ is a five part gospel-jazz work was commissioned by the St Paul’s Grammar School, Cranebrook in 2004. Performed by Gary Daley, Steve Clisby (solo voice), Toby Hall, Jess Ciampa, Richard Maegraith, Ben Waples, Ben Daley, Voice Mail (choir of St Paul’s Grammar), Cathy Jarman.


In 2002 Gary’s then band Heavy Weather recorded World View, which was sponsored by ABC Jazz Track.

Among the unrecorded works are compositions for the Bungarribee quartet. Some of this music was written in 2014 while Gary was artist in residence at Bundanon.

One extensive piece, Willow Tree was premiered at the first Live at the Village concert, October 2009 by Sandy Evans, Kristin Berardi, Lloyd Swanton, Nic Cecire and Gary Daley. A beautiful evocation of landscape this multi-layered 14 minute work left the audience stunned by its beauty and complexity.