Jen Hawley & Martin Elepans + Louis Majiwa
An exciting new collaboration between old friends. Join Jen and Martin on a fresh guitar journey exploring the musical worlds between French manouche.
Jen Hawley can be found exploring the cracks between jazz, folk and world music. She is a graduate of the late great jazz tutor Bruce Clarke, and has worked with Alex Burnes, Christophe Genoux, Great Chefs of Europe and Blue Drag. Originally from Sydney, Jen has been teaching and performing guitar for many years. She has diverse interests in jazz and world music. Jen is constantly in demand for sessions, live performance, teaching and recording projects.
Writer/Producer Martin Elepans has been playing gypsy jazz all over the world. Starting in Wellington NZ, he formed the band 'Hot Cafe' and performed numerous live TV slots, toured nationally, and then moved to London. There he held a residency at Andrew Lloyd Webber's Princess theatre, was invited to play Festival hall, and performed at the Soho jazz festival. He also began studying flamenco guitar. While living in Israel, he performed charity concerts for kibbutz's and prisons. Eventually settling in Australia, over the years, Martin has played at most jazz festivals numerous times.
Louis Majiwa is a Kenyan funk-soul singer and songwriter whose style is defined by syncopating soulful multilingual vocals to his rhythmic acoustic guitar. After leaving Kenya, Louis studied in South Africa where his style began to crystallise, playing in the dark corners of Newtown alongside some of Johannesburg’s heavy hitters in the underground music scene.
