Formerly the home of Blue Basement, a brand new jazz club called Bird’s Basement will open in the Melbourne CBD in March. The venue will open on March 1st featuring a six night stint with Ravi Coltrane, son of jazz legend John Coltrane.
Ravi Coltrane is a critically acclaimed Grammy™ nominated saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. In the course of a twenty plus year career, Mr. Coltrane has worked as a sideman to many, recorded noteworthy albums for himself and others and founded a prominent independent record label, RKM.
Soon after, another jazz great, Lee Ritenour will also do a six night run from March 22. Known to fans as “Captain Fingers” for his uncommon dexterity on the guitar, Lee Ritenour has been one of the leaders in his field since the early ’70s. From rock to blues to jazz, his diverse music became the foundation of over 3,000 sessions as a with a broad spectrum of artists such as Pink Floyd (‘The Wall’), Steely Dan (‘Aja’), Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand.
In between those exciting international gigs, Bird’s Basement will feature some of Australia’s finest jazz, roots and blues artists including; John Montesante Quartet, Chris McNulty Quartet, Joe Chindamo, Wendy Matthews, Phil Turcio, Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows and many more.
Bird’s Basement has been founded by Albert Dadon AM (aka Al Bare), a Jazz musician himself who in a remarkable coup for Australian jazz and music lovers has signed a partnership agreement with Birdland, New York.
Birdland New York is the original club of Charlie Parker. The club was the home of the most famous musicians since 1949. As Allan Morrison, the long time editor of Ebony once put it “Birdland was both a cultural vantage point and a barometer of trends where all the big names in jazz performed.”
Bird’s Basement can be found at 11 Singers Lane in the city.
For bookings and to check out what else is on at Bird’s Basement, visit
www.birdsbasement.com
PS. The menu looks pretty tasty too