Upcoming Gigs:
On alternating Wednesday evenings Club Jazz provides ambient jazz & swing lounge music at the Manhattan Lounge at 50 Elizabeth Street (near the corner of Martin Place) Sydney from 6.30 – 9 pm.
Entry is free, with an affordable Italian inspired menu (some dishes for under $10), and a stylish cocktail list. Club Jazz at the Manhattan Lounge provides a relaxed dining and cocktail experience with the ambient vibes of live jazz, swing and bossa nova music.
Upcoming dates are: 2 December and 16 December.
The Manhattan is located at 50 Elizabeth St Sydney, near the corner of Martin Place. Entry is free and the Manhattan offers an affordable Italian inspired menu, and stylish cocktails. Unwind, drink, dance and relax at the Manhattan Lounge with Club Jazz.
The Manhattan Lounge provides an sophisticated venue for dining, or a drink with friends with a jazzy big city feel. The venues sleek art deco design provides a welcoming and warm space, a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Jazz Music in Sydney and beyond. The Jazz band music scene, including concerts, bar venues and other gigs has always been popular in Sydney . For listings of Jazz band music venues in Sydney see:
> Sydney Jazz Gig Guide Listings About the Sydney Jazz Music Scene over the years.
Jazz music is a small but vibrant sector of the Sydney music industry. Despite its relative lack of visibility in the mass market, Australian jazz has developed a high level of creativity and professionalism. Players influenced by traditional or cool jazz streams tend to dominate public attention. The multi-instrumentalist Don Burrows was for several decades a regular presence on television and radio, as well as being a prolific session musician. His quartets (usually with George Golla on guitar) played at many of the top international jazz festivals and he recorded prolifically in the 1970s and 80s.
Much of Sydney's jazz history is centred around the Kings Cross area. Historic photos below are courtesy of the City of Sydney Council archives.
James Morrison, heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, carved out a very successful career playing a style not unlike that of Wynton Marsalis, that blended some modern elements (e.g. the crowd-pleasing high-register technical bravura of Dizzy Gillespie) with the accessible structures and melodies of 'trad' and 'cool' jazz.
Multi-instrumental wind player Dale Barlow emerged in the late 1970s as one of the most promising new talents on the Australian scene, and after stints in the Young Northside Big Band and a formative period in the David Martin Quintet (with James Morrison), he moved to New York, where he was a member of two famed groups, the Cedar Walton Quartet and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
Many "second generation" bebop-influenced performers like New Zealand born pianist Mike Nock, bassist Lloyd Swanton, saxophonist Dale Barlow, pianist Chris Abrahams, saxophonist Sandy Evans and pianist Roger Frampton have been promint, alongside their older contemporaries, led by Bernie McGann and John Pochee, whose long-running group The Last Straw (founded in 1974) has carried the torch for this stream of jazz for many years.
New Zealand-born pianist-composer Dave McRae established himself as a performer of note in Australia in the 1960s before moving overseas, where he branched out into a diverse range of activities including a stint as the keyboard player in the British 1970s progressive rock group Matching Mole.
The trio of Tony Buck (drums), and the aforementioned Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano), known together as The Necks. Recently there has been a trend back towards jazz by many popular performers who had been associated with the rock genre. Most notable amongst these were Kate Ceberano, Dannielle Gaha and The Whitlams who all released traditional jazz or jazz-influenced albums within a very short space of time.
Sydney jazz is still very visible in a number of venues and concerts in Sydney staged by groups such as Sydney Improvised Music Association, The Jazzgroove Association and The Jazz Action Society. There are also a number of Australian jazz festivals that continue to be staged including the Melbourne Jazz Festival, Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival, Wagga Wagga Jazz Festival, and the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.
