By KIM ROWE
Hitting centre stage at The Grand Hotel this Winter Jazz Festival is Melbourne band Jazz Party. Made for the bar room not the ballroom, Jazz Party is a loose collective of jazzbos with a reputation for their sporadic take-over residences in unassuming rooms across Melbourne.
Known as the coolest, most elusive members of Melbourne’s jazz elite, they are usually found in dark, smoky rooms around town, late at night, giving impromptu performances for those lucky enough to be hanging around when they decided to play. Until now…
Think The Night Cat meets Main Street Mornington as Jazz Party take over the upstairs of The Grand Hotel converting all who enter into swinging, styling, jazz hooligans.
Thrilling audiences with a spontaneous organic celebration of New Orleans style music, the musicians and singers invite the audience to dance around them creating an exciting party vibe like the smoky bars of 1950’s downtown USA.
The band comprises of some of Melbourne’s hottest young jazz cats playing a slippery mix of jump blues, honkey tonk boogie and rhythm ‘n’ blues á la New Orleans. No shhh-ing, awkward table settings or polite clapping allowed, we invite all kinds of crazy to come and dance while the Jazz Party get rowdy.
Featuring a special visit from the one and only George WashingMachine in Feel The Manouche who will get the night rolling from 8.30pm, this party is one to get off the couch for!
Jazz Party will be slinking into the Grand Hotel Mornington on Friday 5th June this Queens Birthday Long Weekend as part of the Mornington Winter Jazz Festival.
Doors open at 8pm for an 8.30pm show, tickets, $15, are available online at www.morningtonjazz.com.au or on the door.
First published in Mint Magazine – May/June 2015
