The Mini Capital Jazz Project at the Street Theatre is an eclectic mix

And yet, the two will collide, in a fashion, as part of this year's Capital Jazz Project at the Street Theatre, a biennial staple in the capital's music calendar. Although this year's is a slightly truncated event, it will still gather together some of the country's top jazz musicians, as well as one international great who just happens to have founded an entire genre of jazz.

But back to World War II. Bass player and composer Lloyd Swanton is performing a concert on Sunday, June 12, inspired by the experiences of his uncle Stuart Swanton, who kept a secret diary while interred in the Ambon camp in Indonesia. Set to music, it serves to illuminate an often forgotten story that is nevertheless close to home.

Swanton says there were multiple musical references in his uncle's diary.

"As a musician and composer, I've gathered together as many different ideas that came to me that from connections in the diary," he says.

"There are references to the prisoners making a slap bass out of a meat case – the metal case was the resonating chamber. They made instruments out of coconuts. They went out of their way to entertain the other captives."

As part of his composition process, Swanton began investigating the music of Ambon and discovered a tradition of brass bands playing in the churches of a small Christian enclave in Indonesia. He also uncovered three hymns his uncle had written before being imprisoned, one of which will play as an improvised backdrop while Swanton reads excerpts from his uncle's diary.

The Ambon concert will see 12 musicians playing 12 pieces, ranging from solo bass to the full ensemble and everything in between. The suite even includes the original viola owned and played by Swanton's uncle.

"First and foremost this is a concert," he says.

"I want give to give people a complete understanding by invoking mood and atmosphere, from ambient music to work song and blues. It's a heavy story but not a heavy experience; I'm mindful that it's a night in the theatre. Archival photos will be projected and the spoken word will give an immersive experience."

In this sense, it's clear that Swanton has followed in his uncle's footsteps by keeping records, and bringing joy to others in a time of trial.

"I wanted to try to find a little bit of beauty and joy in what is a terrible story, just as I saw my uncle and mates trying to lift the spirits in the camp in the diary," he says.

"I wanted to re-introduce the Australian people to a story that shouldn't be buried in the mist of time."

The festival is book-ended by two wildly diverse shows. The opener is FinnLand, a project conceived by Sydney-based New Zealand-born pianist Gerard Masters. A master by name and by nature, he has re-arranged the classics of the brothers Neil and Tim Finn (Crowded House and Split Enz). Masters has been reworking a catalogue of Finn songs into instrumental jazz pieces for over a decade. In this current project, he's joined by Emma Pask and Darren Percival to perform Finn standards like Fall At Your Feet, Poor Boy, Weather With You, and Better Be Home Soon. Masters has, meanwhile, stamped his own style on these familiar songs through eclectic rhythms, harmonies and embellishments.

Closing out the weekend, the father of "Ethio-jazz", Mulatu Astatke, will be joined by acclaimed Melbourne band Black Jesus Experience. Born in 1943, Ethiopian-born and raised Mulatu Astatke studied music in London and was the first student from Africa to enrol at Boston's Berklee College of Music. While in the States, he played with the jazz greats, including Duke Ellington, and returned to his homeland in the 1970s with a new sound that combined jazz and traditional Ethiopian music. It's a style which is now widely popular in the United Kingdom and US.

Black Jesus Experience band leader Peter Harper, who will be joined on stage with nine versatile – not to mention mobile – performers, says the Ethio-jazz experience is a heady blend of classic jazz and the pentatonic scales of traditional Ethiopian music, with multiple rhythms and time signatures running in tandem.

Other standouts in this year's Capital Jazz line-up include Stu Hunter's Migration suite, and a series of improvisations inspired by Sardinian folk tunes by duo Paolo Angeli and Mirko Guerrini.

The Mini Capital Jazz project runs over the June long weekend from Friday, June 10, to Monday, June 13, at the Street Theatre. For the full program, visit thestreet.org.au.