If you pop into The Flower Shop on High Street for an Appletini on a Thursday night, you’ll find the Peter Locke Trio filling the room with jazz music.
Peter Locke is one of Australia’s most highly respected jazz pianists, and he’s set his sights on strengthening the art form in western Sydney.
The ‘Jazz N’ Jam’ Thursday sessions at The Flower Shop started one month ago.
“When we saw the room, we said to the owner at the time that it would be the perfect jazz room,” Locke recounted.
“That’s when the owner said he wanted jazz at the venue every Thursday night, and that’s when I said, ‘I’m your man’.”
Despite new ownership, The Flower Shop has honoured that dream, highlighting talented jazz musicians in western Sydney.
“I now live locally in Penrith, and there are numerous other international players that I know in the Blue Mountains,” Locke stated.
“We want to put jazz on the map in the west of Sydney because it deserves it.”
The musician has also noticed a renewed demand for the genre.
“At The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre a few months ago, Samara Joy was here from New York with her band. She is very popular at the moment, and The Joan was packed out,” Locke said about the American jazz singer.
“I noticed a high percentage of young people. That indicated to me that there is a large group of people that are interested in this music and this quality of entertainment living in the west of Sydney.”
One of the major supporters of this venture is Terry Rae – a local jazz musician that once played alongside Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra.
Locke and Rae have been associated for over 30 years playing music.
“He used to play in the first big nightclubs in Sydney. Over the years, we’ve performed a lot together and he’s a big supporter of jazz,” Locke described.
“When I mentioned The Flower Shop to him, he had a look and saw its potential as a jazz room. I got him up to sing some classic standards from the jazz repertoire, but he doesn’t have a vested interest in being in the group.
“He wants the event to succeed because of the room, the quality of the music, and the fact that people in the west deserve an alternative.”
The alternative sounds very enticing in Locke’s words…
“To me, it’s one of the important art forms. It’s spiritual, emotional, and human. It reaches people’s hearts,” Locke shared.
The Peter Locke Trio’s final performance at The Flower Shop for 2025 will be tonight, December 18, and will return in the new year on January 8.
