Lakeside at 5: Eric Ajaye & Lachlan Coventry

Lakeside at 5 is a popular monthly after work program of local live jazz at Tuggeranong Arts Centre. Come and relax by the lake with a glass of wine and live music by some of Canberra’s most treasured artists.

For the June Lakeside at 5 event, Eric Ajaye and Lachlan Coventry will present their own compositions as well as treatments on a few compositions by some of their influences in music.

Eric Ajaye was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Los Angeles, California, with his family at an early age. He studied violin for nine years before switching to bass. In college, Eric studied bass under Buell Neidlinger at California Institute of the Arts, where he was on full scholarship. While in Los Angeles, Eric’s music career included many aspects of the music industry, such as recording albums with artists from Chris Thomas, Osamu Kitajima, Bill Cosby to Chaka Khan, television and film soundtracks, and numerous television and radio commercials. He was a member of the rhythm section in those situations and also played in the orchestra double bass sections. Eric moved to Australia in 1998 and has worked with many of Australia’s top jazz artists accompanying them at jazz festivals, in jazz clubs, and on recording sessions. Eric is the curator of the Jazz Haus Canberra and is the presenter on ABC JAZZ for the programs Jazz Legends and Classic Albums.

Lachlan Coventry has played with Australian luminaries such as Bernie McGann, William Barton, James Morrison Carl Orr, Miroslav Bukovsky, Dale Barlow, Nick McBride, Zoe Hauptmann, Ben Hauptmann and many others. He received an emerging artist grant in the early 2000’s from the ACT government to record his f irst album ‘Star of Light’. He started the experimental rock band ‘Fire on the Hill’ releasing their album ‘Endless Smiley Sunstar’. He has appeared live and on records for the country band ‘The Wedded Bliss’ (guitar, pedal steel guitar), and as a bass player on Julia Johnson’s ‘Family Pets’. Lachlan has taught guitar and theory at the Australian National University since 2018 and is currently undertaking a creative PHD study at ANU.