Andrew Stephens was raised in a richly contrasting musical household, shaped equally by serious classical music and popular song. His lifelong passion for 1920s jazz was sparked in a single formative moment at school, hearing a recording introduced as “the great jazz orchestras of the 1920s” — a few seconds that changed everything.

After studying oboe and clarinet, Andrew taught himself banjo and formed his first Dixieland band at university. In 1975 he co-founded Tiny Parham’s Jaunty Jungle Jazz Band with Peter Milley, later performing with Toads Crazy Kats, and deepening his love of orchestras such as Doc Cook, Tiny Parham and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, alongside Australia’s historic Green Mill, Capitol Theatre and Palais orchestras.

In 2007 he founded the Puffing Billy Railway Ramblers, later evolving into the Dandenong Ranges Hot Jazz Orchestra with mentoring from Andrew Nolte. Following COVID, Andrew re-established the Capitol Theatre Orchestra, premiering at the Melbourne Capitol in 2024.