Bennetts Lane Jazz Club

Bennetts Lane Jazz Club Bennetts Lane Jazz Club now has a new owner in David Marriner who believes in reassessing what it mea P.S. xx megglet
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We were once located in the quintessential setting of a dead-end Melbourne laneway called Bennetts Lane, which opened in November 1992. The original room had great natural acoustics and hosted a great number of world-famous performers including Prince, Maceo Parker, Kenny Kirkland, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Harry Connick Jnr., Paul Grabowsky, Joe Chindamo and Leroy Jones to nam

e just a few. Our second room opened in January 2000 to coincide with the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, and we called it the "JazzLab" to emphasise the numerous creative collaborations and connections that our little jazz club had been renowned for cultivating. It presented even more international including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Kurt Elling, Wayne Krantz, George Garzone, Jim Black, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jason Moran, Kyon Harrold, Robert Glasper and many more. The JazzLab complemented the intimacy of our original room with the space for growing audiences to enjoy our program more. With our dedicated 7 nights per week program, Bennetts Lane's devotion to presenting talented Australian performers was, and still is, paramount. We worked hard to provide secure and comfortable listening environments for audiences, clean and maintained instruments and staging for artists, promotion and recording opportunities, and championed music for and from all ages and inclinations. We were home to internationally acclaimed performers Allan Browne (who broke our hearts when he left us on our closing weekend), Tony Gould, Vince Jones, Katie Noonan, Renee Geyer, James Morrison, Harry James Angus, Andrea Keller, Eugene Ball, Jamie Oehlers, Jordan Murray, Scott Tinkler, Paul Williamson and many many more. We host presentations from the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the Women's International Jazz Festival, the Italian Jazz Festival, the Fringe Jazz Festival, and the Melbourne Jazz Cooperative. We have been instrumental in developing projects such as the Bennetts Lane BIG Band, presenting residencies for developing recording material, and curating educational programs for live recording studies. We are great supporters of aspiring and emerging talent through presenting assessment performances, graduation recitals, and performances from small school bands to large big bands, private and public secondary schools to the nation's best conservatories and universities. We host masterclasses and workshops and present educational seminars for all aspects of the industry. We offer our guidance to funding bodies and government agencies, and we sit on juries that determine talent, creativity, dedication and innovation in live music performance. We have been awarded the "Best Australian Jazz Club" award every time the category ran in the Australian Bell Awards, and Lonely Planet named us the "World's Best Jazz Club". We are currently working to build our new premises on Flinders Lane to open next year (2018) so when we've reopened please join us to hear quality live jazz performances from the cutting edge and avant-garde to the classics and standards. Our website will tell you about each performance, offer tickets, and if you’ve any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. I've been with the club since a few months after it opened (i.e. over 25 years), so if you've ever been in the past, or have any stories to share, know that I'll cherish them too.

13/11/2022

Hi, it's been a while - a long long while - and I'm long overdue to make an apology.
For many reasons, outside my control, the new Bennetts Lane that I worked hard to make a reality, is now a fading memory. I am sorry for this. The musicians who once made my home such a magical place to belong, the audiences who supported and respected them, and the incredible staff who believed in it all - to you all I am so very sorry. You placed in my care the idea of an ideal live music performance space where creative live jazz music could be nurtured and appreciated, and I have been unable to bring that idea back for you. This weighs on me, and I am sorry. I know the disappointment of broken promises, the despair of trust lost in the say-do gap, and the sense of betrayal in not knowing why. I don't really know why either - only that the threads that were woven, measured, and cut were never truly in my hands to change... I am sorry for believing they were, and I'm sorry to you for my illusions of otherwise.
An idea is a precious thing - most especially when it breaks through the reality horizon and still communicates its ideality. People speak of the 'idea of love', the 'idea of truth', the 'idea of time', and emotions, language and change wrap them in tangibles for us to grasp. The 'idea of Bennetts Lane', once wrapped in bricks, beings and programmed moments has no wrapping anymore - just the memories that it once was. I hold them dearly and, when the dreams allow, they return to remind me. But it is still an idea... a still idea, back on the other side of the reality horizon. Stuck, with me on the other side.
I just wanted to say I'm sorry...

Tonight!!! Grab your tix at the door if you've not already booked them, for a wonderful (almost biblical) event at this ...
21/11/2017

Tonight!!! Grab your tix at the door if you've not already booked them, for a wonderful (almost biblical) event at this pop-up venue! Melbourne Music Week Harry James Angus see you there!

This year we present Harry James Angus and his project for Melbourne Music Week at the HUB! It's on tomorrow night (Tu...
19/11/2017

This year we present Harry James Angus and his project for Melbourne Music Week at the HUB! It's on tomorrow night (Tues 21st) and the fabulous Fani Klackers & Mark Leahy who together make The Twoks will be there to kick it all off! Come and join in the fun and fantasy in the carpark of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne!

14/11/2017

YES!!! Oh thank you yes yes yes! SSM...

Harry James Angus (), Struggle with Glory, for Bennetts Lane at Melb Music Week HUB - A night to remember!
14/11/2017

Harry James Angus (), Struggle with Glory, for Bennetts Lane at Melb Music Week HUB - A night to remember!

Join us next Tuesday for a night of epic tragedy and fated fancies, Gods, demons and heroes, and a little Xani Kolac magic...

Harry James Angus, performing for us during Melbourne Music Week at the HUB, will be releasing his "I Saw Red" single on...
13/11/2017

Harry James Angus, performing for us during Melbourne Music Week at the HUB, will be releasing his "I Saw Red" single on the 16th - come and hear it live with us at MMW: Struggle With Glory: Harry James Angus on Tuesday 21st!

Harry James Angus - Struggle With Glory - I Saw Red Recorded live at The Church of Bang Bang Boogaloo, Melbourne, on July 27th, 2017. www.harryjamesangus.c...

A little ditty for Prometheus - the Titan who gave Man fire and refused the gifts of Pandora (though his brother, Epithe...
17/10/2017

A little ditty for Prometheus - the Titan who gave Man fire and refused the gifts of Pandora (though his brother, Epithemus, without foresight, didn't)... the fire of Mount Olympus - where all the metaphors and metonyms of light owe their origin... Harry James Angus and his Struggle with Glory are performing for us at the Melbourne Music Week Hub... Tuesday 21st November

Harry James Angus - Struggle With Glory - He Took The Fire Recorded live at The Church of Bang Bang Boogaloo, Melbourne, on July 27th, 2017. Copyright Harry...

The City of Melbourne has invited us to be a part of Melbourne Music Week for the 13th year in a row! Without letting th...
17/10/2017

The City of Melbourne has invited us to be a part of Melbourne Music Week for the 13th year in a row! Without letting the lack of a venue get in the way, this year's Hub is the perfect site for MMW: Struggle With Glory: Harry James Angus - in the carpark at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne! Grab your tix which have just gone on sale and join me in a sublime experience of music, magic, deities and demons... with a little luck we might just be celebrating our town planning approval!
http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=STRUGGLE17

I've been super-enjoying this fabulous ear-warming corner of the digital world... it's my community instagram for the ea...
02/08/2017

I've been super-enjoying this fabulous ear-warming corner of the digital world... it's my community instagram for the ear... please support Nik Fotakis and the AustralianJazz.net efforts to keep our creative community finding their audience - and audiences finding them... http://australianjazz.net/australian-jazz-listening-room/

Listen to Australian jazz and improvised music. Embedded here in no particular order, for your listening pleasure.

22/06/2017

To al the fabulous jazzy people who want to hear jazz, yes, sadly, we have had to close our venue... but we are putting together a fabulous new one in Flinders Lane and will be back with all the great local, national and international gigs you want to see & hear next year... till then, please enjoy all that The Paris Cat, Uptown jazz cafe, The Jazzlab, Bird's Basement and all the other venues that support jazz have to offer... and know I miss you, the club and all the music so very much. Xm

This Year's Fabulous Festival... sans Bennetts Lane
21/04/2017

This Year's Fabulous Festival... sans Bennetts Lane

the fabulous festival fairies flutter and celebrate 20 years in a flamboyant program: find a little of their flair here...

Address

25 Bennetts Lane
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

Monday 8pm - 1am
Tuesday 8pm - 1am
Wednesday 8pm - 1am
Thursday 8pm - 1am
Friday 8pm - 1am
Saturday 8pm - 1am
Sunday 8pm - 1am

Telephone

+61412063570

Website

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