Description
CD Review by Ian Dearden
TN164 July 24
I have a never-ending fascination with people’s journeys – real, personal, metaphorical or otherwise.
Jan Preston’s journey is quite extraordinary – growing up in Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, falling in love with the piano as a young child, eventually graduating from Auckland University with a five year classical piano degree.
Then came a left turn into theatre and rock bands, a No. 1 hit in New Zealand, followed by a move across the ditch to Sydney, where she has resided since 1980.
New Zealand’s loss, Australia’s gain.
Although Jan grew up listening to an aunt playing honky-tonk piano, and recalls hearing Winifred Atwell on the radio, it was some years after shifting to Sydney that she re-discovered boogie piano, and found her songwriting “voice”.
From there, along with a parallel career as a film and television soundtrack composer, Jan has become Australia’s queen of boogie piano, readily acknowledging her debt to Winifred Atwell, Fats Domino and that New Orleans sound!!
This album is relatively early in her discography.
She’s kept up a regular recording output to the present, some ten albums in total.
The talent oozes through everything she turns her hand(s) and voice to, from the covers ’Ugly Papa’, Rockin’ Pneumonia’, ‘The Big Beat’, ‘She Walked Right in And She Walked Right Out’ and ‘Goodnight Irene’, to the originals ‘Boogie Boots’, ‘Eat Chocolate And Cry’, ‘Driving Back To Sydney’, ‘Angel Having Trouble With My Wings’, ‘You’re The One For Me’, ‘Small Town Girl’, and ‘Winnie Played The Rag’.
Of those originals, my ear was particularly taken by the musically autobiographical ‘Small Town Girl’, and the loving tribute to Winifred Atwell, ‘Winnie Plays The Rag’, which is a fabulous showcase for her boogie piano skills and always tasty, jazz-inflected vocals.
And you’ve got to love any song that name-checks the writer’s favourite pair of boots (‘Boogie Boots’)!!
Not only is Jan continuing to record and release superb boogie-based music, but she’s out there touring on a regular basis, in Australia, her native New Zealand and in Europe.
As I write this review in late June, 2024, she has shows booked in Queensland, NSW and Victoria over the coming months.
Do yourself a favour, catch her live, buy the albums, and keep the spirit of boogie alive.
Ed. There are three Jan Preston albums currently available for sale on the Trad&Now website, all of which have been uploaded to Trad&Now Live! and can be heard from time to time.
