Jan Preston: My Life as a Piano

Adventures with the piano played by performer/pianist JAN PRESTON and her band

“My Life as a Piano is about my lifelong obsession with pianos. Some people pick up stray cats, I pick up pianos. I just find them, or maybe they find me.”

Jan Preston was seemingly born with her hands poised, reaching for the ivory keys. The boogie woogie beat pulses through her bloodstream. She lives to play, and plays like she is possessed. maybe she is.

Jan Preston is also something of a piano diviner. She can sniff out pianos when all others have denied their existence. She has been known to rescue pianos in broad daylight (and during the middle of the night), saving them from an inglorious end with the axe and the firewood pile. At one point, seven pianos lived with Jan and her family in their Sydney home. Luckily they all got along.

Jan Preston knows how to talk to pianos and how to play them, and the one time she gave up playing the piano , her health took a turn for the worse and she nearly died. So, Jan took the hint and continues to boogie on.

Jan Preston’s ‘My Life as a Piano’ is about the passion of playing and the love of an instrument that has taken a woman places she would have never imagined, doing things she would have never dreamed.

“Many of the songs on this CD express my love of the piano, from ‘The Ivories are Calling’ and ‘Keeper of the 88’s’ to ‘Boogie the Blues Away’ and ’20 fingers of 88 Keys’. I would urge you all to take on board the lyrics of ‘Don’t Run, Don’t Hide’, bring your old uprights out of your sheds and back bedrooms, and please start playing them again. They need you.

I hope that The Rolling Stones’ ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ boogie-fied makes you smile, and that you will relish the outrageous interpretation of Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’, and delight in the rather thunderous rendition of my show stopper, Jack Fina’s amazing ‘Bumble Boogie’. You may even get through your own ‘Housework Blues’ with a smile if you boogie along.     Enjoy.”

MY LIFE AS A PIANO TOUR DATES

ABOUT JAN PRESTON

In known as Australasia’s foremost female boogie piano player, singer and entertainer. Here she is Jan Preston, the knockout boogie pianist with the rich, resonant voice, who has captured audiences with her originality, energy, sparkling charm and gentle wit.

From a background in classical music with a long term interest in composition and song writing, Jan Preston developed herself stylistically, ultimately finding her sound, and soul, in the boogie woogie/ honky-tonk piano tradition.

Yet Jan has created her own style, not only through her piano playing but also her singing and songwriting, which mnow sees her shine as a truly Antipodean original. Winner of seven music awards, Jan has sold out concerts and wowed her audiences from the tip of Australia to the very South of New Zealand, from capital cities to tiny regional towns.

Jan composes for film and television, plays at festivals throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe, and in 2012 played several concerts in China, one being at the famous Bird’s Nest in Beijing. She’s planning a return trip soon. Jan regularly travels to Europe to perform and learn from the current masters, each year building her profile and gaining places in festivals and concerts, side by side with some of the greatest contemporary boogie piano players in the world today.

Jan will be touring from September 2013 to promote MY LIFE AS A PIANO, with a new live show created specifically for the album.

The 90 minute show is delivered with lashings of humour, and charm, and contains Jan Preston’s unforgettable autobiographic stories, often uproarious, sometimes poignant, interwoven with never before seen images, all presented by knockout boogie pianist, and singer, Jan Preston, with her trio. Please check website for ticketing details.