The Broad Church of Jazz (Naked City)
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Sydney has always had a chequered history when it comes to music venues and performance spaces. Some venues survive for decades, whilst others come and go within a few years. Knocking down a much loved club or theatre to build a block of apartments has become commonplace. When it applies to jazz clubs, the same uncertainty exists.
Ever since El Rocco opened as Australia’s first modern jazz club in 1955, we have had a succession of dedicated jazz venues, such as the legendary Venue 505 in Surry Hills, Round Midnight in Kings Cross and more recently Foundry 616 in Ultimo, which sadly closed last year after 12 years of operation.
Maintaining a licensed venue in Sydney, with all the various costs involved, has always been a struggle for club owners – especially when you are promoting jazz and improvised music. Not surprisingly, a few decades ago a number of jazz fans and musicians began looking at alternative spaces to host live music, free of licensing hassles and excessive weekly rents.
Andrew Lorien and Kieran Hogan were two such enthusiasts who took up that challenge, pioneering spaces such as Colbourne Avenue in Glebe and Johnston Street Jazz in Annandale – hosting literally hundreds of gigs over the past decades.
I asked Andrew why these spaces worked so well and have such a unique appeal. He explained:
“Community-based venues, like community-based festivals, have a different life and a different longevity to commercial events. We love Lazybones and Butchers Brew and the Gasoline Pony and the Vanguard and the list goes on… but we know that all of them are fighting the rent and the bills, and we know they could disappear with a week’s notice.
“The community gigs, which mostly exist under the generous umbrella of a person who owns a big room, or a church, have their own struggles – but money isn’t one of them. [They] are not chasing the artists to sell more tickets or trying to sell the audience more drinks.”
With the loss of the venue at Johnston Street last year, Andrew and Kieran looked far and wide for a replacement space and were delighted to find a welcoming new home in the Uniting Church’s Newtown Mission, in the heart of bustling King Street. The new space will be known as Eight O’Clock Sharp, a homage to Spike Mason’s original ‘bar-free’ concert series in 2000.
“The Newtown Mission has been at the heart of King St forever – serving the homeless and people in recovery, maintaining a community that has nothing to do with the commercial hustle Newtown has become,” said Andrew. “In living memory, they’ve never hosted anything that wasn’t specifically a church event. It’s amazing that for the first time they’re allowing a regular ticketed music event into this incredibly beautiful church which everybody has walked past, but hardly anybody has been inside.”
Keiran added that they have an exciting program scheduled for the rest of the year, including events from the Sydney International Women’s Festival in October. It’s an alcohol-free venue with plenty of coffee and tea on hand, and lots nearby bars and pubs for those wanting a tipple before or after the gig. It’s also a very social occasion, where the audiences love to mingle beforehand and during the set breaks.
Over the years Andrew and Keiran have hosted not only established musicians, but provided a great springboard for up and coming artists. It’s fitting then that one of the first performers to appear at Eight O’Clock Sharp will be the dynamic young jazz guitarist and composer, Hilary Geddes.
Hilary has just released a brand new album in Redleaf with her long standing group featuring Matthew Harris (piano), Max Alduca (double bass), and Alexander Inman-Hislop (drums).
She wrote many of the tunes during the COVID-19 lockdown and the post-pandemic period. She describes the music as having a “slow brew quality” and its looping guitar motifs, cinematic harmonies, and shifting textures take the listener on a real journey, reflective of the times.
In just a short career to date, Hilary has been featured at major jazz festivals, been nominated for an ARIA, received a number of prestigious awards and established herself as one of the most original players in Australian jazz. Interestingly she also plays in the rock band The Buoys, touring Europe with the group and featuring at major Australian music festivals.
Hilary Geddes and her band will launch Redleaf on on 27 May at Eight O’Clock Sharp, in the splendour of the Newtown Mission Church. You can find tickets here.
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