Jazz Doo It on Bunbury's music scene

The aforementioned music gigs focus on folk-rock and heavy metal music respectively, but a style of once extremely popular music seems to be going by the wayside.  

Jazz music is devastatingly underrepresented in Bunbury and the South West, much to the disappointment of talented jazz artists Andrew Mackay-Sim and Steve Ellis from Jazz Doo It.

Jazz Doo It have an extensive history in Bunbury having kicked off back in 1998 playing the bohemian bars and cafes the pair Andrew said used to operate in town.

“We wanted to build a jazz community and people were coming out of the wood work from around the region,” he said.

“We had people coming from Dunsborough and Busselton to perform and catch different musicians play.”

As far as jazz performers go in the South West in 2016 though, Jazz Doo It seem to be about it.

Frequenters of the wine lounge Sala won’t be entirely unfamiliar with the group though and will surely have heard the band playing upstairs, often mistaken for a CD recording.

Andrew is a trained jazz saxophonist and Steve is a rock and blues guitarist who said he moved to Bunbury from the Pilbara and began playing jazz to stretch his musical legs.

“Jazz is less predictable and more fun, with rock you can usually hear where it’s going,” he said.

“There’s also just such a large range of great musicians to draw inspiration from, but it’s still hard work though, you have to put in the time to learn the tunes, especially ones people like to request.”

The next step to reinvigorating jazz for Andrew and Steve is to finally put out a record consisting of covers and original compositions after nearly 20 years of live performances.

Catch Jazz Do It live at the Victoria St Market this Sunday from 6.30 am.