Rai Thistlethwayte

Rai Thistlethwayte is an exceptionally gifted musician and one of Australia’s most respected musical talents

A highly accomplished pianist, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. His band, Thirsty Merc, has sold over 250,000 albums in Australia, but his first love is jazz, which he studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, majoring in jazz piano. Nationally, Thirsty Merc is a household name who have clocked up, over 78 million views on YouTube.

Rai is one of the few artists in the country who can comfortably straddle the jazz and indie pop music divide with a great degree of authenticity in each genre. This multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and improviser brings his own brand of jazz, soul and groove music to the Brisbane Vocal Jazz Festival on Wednesday 9^th October. Along with some re-imagined, well-known material from Thirsty Merc, expect to be blown away by everything from earnest and heart-wrenching songs, to fun and improvised spontaneity, laying down spades of groove, whilst not surrendering melodic integrity.

Rai has mastered the art of blending beats, basslines, keys, vocals, scatting, storytelling and improvising. Currently based between Sydney and Los Angeles, some of his notable collaborations in jazz have been with ARIA award-winning guitarist James Muller, trumpeter James Morrison and Grammy nominated US jazz bassist Christian McBride (Sting, Wynton Marsalis band). Brisbane is in for a treat, with audience participation guaranteed, and believe us, you won’t want to miss this exciting show!

The Brisbane Vocal Jazz Festival acknowledge the Turrbal and Jagera people as the Traditional Custodians of Meanjin (Brisbane), who made music and shared their art with each other here for thousands of years. We pay our respects to Turrbal and Jagera Elders past and present.