Small business to bring big US act to bottleshop turned jazz bar

Sophia Whitney is gearing up to host a pop-up event under her business Early Riser Creative at Marshall's Bottle Shop on February 24, 2024.

The Warrnambool musician will team up with Marshall's Hannah Williams to bring seasoned musicians Kate and Brett to what will feel like the city's very own jazz bar.

Hailing from the US, Kate Kelsey-Sugg and Brett Williams combine their special musical talents and backgrounds in jazz with their love for songwriting to create a powerful stage performance blending jazz improvisation with pop, R&B and soul music.

The duo have this year released two debut singles, Too Much and Lucky, from their forthcoming EP Start Again.

Whitney said the idea behind Early Riser Creative was to bring music of a higher calibre to the region.

"Being a musician myself I've noticed a lot of touring artists will go to Geelong or Castlemaine then circle back to Melbourne, or they will bypass altogether if they're going to Adelaide," she said.

"Since The Loft closed there isn't a great deal of venues on offer for touring parties and, being an artist living in a regional space, what I'm hearing is 'that is a shame', especially with the amount of people living here."

Whitney said in Castlemaine where there is a population of 7506 there were regular live shows every weekend.

"There are lots of music lovers here (in Warrnambool) and that is evident when Port Fairy Folk Festival is on and I think there is a market there for more shows to be on in our region," she said.

Early Riser Creative has previously hosted a gig at Marshall's, as well as Coffin Sally in Port Fairy and in Melbourne.

Whitney said she wanted to create a space for music lovers to come and appreciate "really good music in a curated space".

"(Early Riser Creative) is a pop-up events space curated differently every single time depending on the act that we have booked," she said.

"Brett and Kate are jazz musicians from New York, now based in Melbourne, so we plan to set up like you're entering into a jazz bar.

"When we had Didirri for our album launch last year, we had low lighting and colour matches with his album which has lots of red, so we had neon red lights and red flowers. We try and complement the artist's style and put in that little bit of extra effort aesthetically."

Early Riser presents One Night only Jazz Club with Brett and Kate from 6.30pm on Saturday, February 24.

Kate is a songwriter, singer, keyboardist and saxophonist who has worked with artists like Kesha, Cyndi Lauper and Jamie Foxx, while Brett is a pianist, songwriter and producer who has worked with Stevie Wonder, Marcus Miller and Ms Lauryn Hill.