Celebrating 15 years of music, moments and memories at The Ellington Jazz Club

The Ellington Jazz Club turns fifteen on Tuesday, March 5. It’s hard to imagine Perth without the Ellington, and it's funny to think it’s only fifteen years old—it seems to have been here forever.

Legendary jazz pianist Graham Wood (1971–2017) long dreamed of opening an international-quality jazz club in Perth. Having performed around the world, he had strong ideas about what such a venue should be. First and foremost, it had to be a great room for both musicians and audiences, a place where they all loved to be that had good acoustics, great sightlines, and comfortable backstage facilities.

In the grand tradition of Perth arts venues, any previous jazz clubs had been either in pubs with sticky carpets and a broom-closet dressing room or rudely converted rented rooms with the odd out-of-place pool table and a broom-closet dressing room. Although these haunts had enabled some outstanding artists to flourish, none had become what you’d call a home for the jazz scene. The Perth Jazz Society’s Monday night gig at the Hyde Park and Greenwich in the basement of His Majesty's Theatre (now Downstairs at the Maj) came close, but…

Wood was determined to do something about this, but it was only in 2007, when photographer/graphic artist Angelyne Wolfe introduced him to businessman Bernard Kong (BK), that his vision began to take tangible form. It was another two years before the club opened. In the interim, Wood, Kong and Wolfe refined their ideas, found the perfect location, an old Chinese laundry in Beaufort St., East Perth, and then, with their own hands, Wolfe’s on the shutter, meticulously converted it into a bespoke music venue. They literally built the room from the inside out. Their efforts finally came to fruition on March 5, 2009, when the Ellington Jazz Club opened its doors to the public.

On that first night, the club hosted a performance by Perth diva Ali Bodycoat, whose father, a heritage architect, had advised Wood and Kong on the finer points of the conversion.

According to Bodycoat, it was a chaotic night, more a celebration for Wood, BK, Wolfe, and those who’d helped them get the place up than an occasion for fine music. And it was only at the last minute that Liquor and Gaming gave them a licence, so it could easily not have happened.

That liquor licence was, in many ways, the key ingredient in the club’s formula. It was the first new nightclub licence issued in Perth in more than a decade. What’s more, it was the first for a small bar. In this way, it opened the door to the explosion of small bars that now pepper Perth, a crucial change in the city’s culture.

As Bodycoat explained, this also had a profound effect on the way music was presented in WA. Until then, the emphasis had always been on the big—beer barns with massive performance rooms that only catered to spectacle shows—or bars that survived on alcohol sales where the music was secondary. With Ellington, artists suddenly had to learn how to play to an attentive, intimate audience. This was both a blessing and a challenge.

It is confronting for an artist to be so close to an audience that they can reach out and touch them, even though the greatest thrill an artist can have is a room full of people hanging off their every note. Honesty prevails. Perth singers quickly mastered the art of using banter to captivate an audience, while the divas, as Bodycoat noted, quickly discovered the shortcomings of short dresses.

The power of these appearances was further enhanced by the ruling precept, “no talking during the performance.”

The Ellington quickly became the club Wood envisaged. Best, it was embraced by the Perth jazz community, who came to regard it as their home away from home, their lounge room.

As Ben Vanderwal, a well-travelled drummer and attender of great jazz haunts, put it:

Graham and Bernard actually created one of the best places to play jazz music in the world. There is definitely something special about the Ellington. Music and the people who make it are respected, and there is a tangible bond between the staff and the musicians.”

Over its first five years, with Wood as artistic director and BK looking after the business, the Ellington hosted some 3,000 shows to an audience of roughly 270,000 people. To commemorate its fifth anniversary, Angelyne Wolfe produced a photographic memoir of the club, Hot Nights Cool Jazz. Now a collector’s item, this lavish tome captures the energy and elegance that we still associate with the Ellington.

In the decade since, the club has gone from strength to strength—the attendance and performance figures have grown exponentially.

The annual program is a fair mix of local, national and international acts. The prominent international artists who’ve performed there include Kurt Elling, Buena Vista Social Club, RAYE, George Garzone, Paul Grabowsky, Tim Minchin, Katie Noonan, Kneebody, Paul Bollenback, Norma Winstone, Anita Wardell, Grace Knight, Chris McNulty, Max Mantis, Kekko Fornarelli, Emma Pask, Belinda Munro, Vincent Gardner, Kate Pass, Vanessa Perico, Troy Roberts, Tal Cohen, Brandon Allen and Jerome Jennings.

As you may note, some of these are Perth people who have become international artists. That’s not surprising given that, thanks to the Ellington and its close ally, the Academy of Performing Arts, Perth now truly is a city of musicians.

Some of the great Perth players who’ve graced its stage in just the last year alone include saxophonist Jamie Oehlers, band leaders Pete Jeavons and Mike Pignéguy, our great divas, Libby Hammer, Ali Bodycoat, Jessie Gordon, Victorian Newton, Simone Craddock and Penny King, clarinettist extraordinaire Adrian Galante, and pedal steel maestro Lucky Oceans.

One of the club’s most famous nights was a few weeks after the fifth anniversary, when 'humble rock god' Charlie Watts took to the Ellington’s stage. This story has grown in the retelling.

According to the myth, Watts rocked up unannounced when the Stones' Perth concert was cancelled. To let off the steam of a stalled stadium show, he commandeered the kit and put an array of local musicians through their paces. Mobile phones pinged off all over town, and afficionados rushed down to catch the show.

According to pianist Harry Mitchell, who was on stage that night, and Angelyne Wolfe, who was in the audience, the reality was slightly less spontaneous. For a start, the show was the night before the scheduled Stones gig. Graham Wood was to play but, feeling ill, he depped in Mitchell, then a student at WAAPA. The headline act, American saxophonist Tim Ries and singer Bernard Fowler, both of whom played in the Stones touring band, extended the invitation to Watts. The word spread. When Mitchell arrived, the club was already filling up. Casting an eye over the room, he was surprised to see test cricketer Adam Gilchrist—he knew at once it was going to be a VIP night.

Charlie Watts arrived amid an entourage of minders after the show had already begun. He sat quietly at the side of the stage until Fowler invited him on. Ben Vanderwal, the drummer du jour, relinquished the kit and loaned Watts his formidable arsenal of ‘magic tricks’—the bag of sticks, brushes and mallets for which he is renowned. The other players were Karl Florisson on bass and Harry Winton on guitar.

After three songs, Watts quickly quit the stage. A call had come through to the leader of the entourage advising him that Mick Jagger’s then partner had tragically died and that Watts was required at an emergency meeting of the band. At that meeting the decision was taken to cancel the Stones’ Perth concert.

Other members of the Stones' touring team remained at the Ellington. Later some of them jumped on stage and the gig evolved into a free-for-all jam. As glossy as the myth, this legendary tale burnished the club’s reputation.

This was not the only time famous artists have turned up unannounced at the Ellington. Within the touring community, the club is known as the place to go after your show to mingle and jam with your fellow artists. These infamous after-sessions add to the club’s aura; indeed, they are one of the features that make it a true jazz club.

In recent years, the Ellington has also become a focal point for quality music in both Fringe World and the Perth International Jazz Festival—another of Graham Wood’s musical dreams that he was able to realise before sadly passing away in 2017. Over the four weeks of this year’s Fringe World, the Ellington presented 85 performances, roughly three a night. To top that off, the Club won a total of seven weekly Fringe World awards. That is some kind of record, at least for this year’s festival.

After Wood’s death, BK became sole director. This was a big step for him, as he and Wood were a tight partnership, and they relied on each other deeply. BK, though, was determined to not only sustain the club but also ensure that its ethos in Perth was maintained. With Cléo Schurrer as program coordinator, the club continued to pump out fine music.

A further sign of BK’s commitment was the way he ran the club during the COVID years. While most music venues around the world were shutting their doors and laying off staff, The Ellington remained open and kept its team of dedicated staff on the payroll. In this way, BK provided steady work for its community of artists and kept his colleagues off welfare. Perth’s isolation and the state’s closed borders helped, but even so, the Ellington remains one of the few music venues in the world that achieved this.

Last year, Kong finally decided to relinquish the reins. In doing so, he wanted to make sure that the new owners were as committed as he was to the club’s vision. The new owners, Zoe Jay and Travis Simmons, passed the test. Not only were they both committed long-term members, but they had gone on their first ever date to a gig in the club and later got engaged there. In a sense, they bought the club for the love of it, the music, and each other—though not necessarily in that order.

They collected the keys in April of last year. Not long afterward, Schurrer passed on the programming duties to Simone Craddock. Although she started in August, given that the club was booked up four months in advance, it was December before her new programming kicked in.

Craddock has a strong vision going forward. Committed to both keeping Wood’s legacy alive and making sure The Ellington remains the Perth jazz community’s preferred home, she also wants to raise the club’s profile on the world stage by bringing in more international acts. By doing this she hopes The Ellington will provide an opportunity for local acts to play and network with the visiting artists, while remaining a dedicated platform for both established and emerging local players—in particular first nations performers and female instrumentalists.

Let’s hope that, like Wood, her vision comes to be.

To commemorate its fifteenth anniversary, on the weekend of March 1, the Ellington is mounting a special celebratory festival. Over three nights and two days, a program of quality jazz will be presented. Beginning appropriately with Jamie Oehlers’ The Music of Duke Ellington on Friday night, it peaks on Saturday night with a performance by celebrated Australian band leader Paul Grabowsky, then chills out on Sunday with a late afternoon birthday party hosted by Craddock and her fellow divas, Libby Hammer and Ali Bodycoat, and an evening Grand Finale hosted by Mo Hippo, which promises to be another legendary night.

In between there are late-night shows, including a wild collaboration at 11pm Friday between First Nations hip-hop guru Zero EMCEE and Mace Francis’ Orchestra, and afternoon shows Saturday and Sunday from noon. The full program can be found on the Ellington’s website. Ellington Fifteenth Festival It will be a great weekend for musicians and audiences alike.

The final word goes to Ali Bodycoat. Written ten years ago, this is as relevant now as it was then.

For the cleanest music in town, long may this beautiful beast of culture and community continue!

Hear here. Happy birthday, Ellington!

IAN LILBURNE

Photos by Angelyne Wolfe

This article is a part of a special series X-Press Magazine is running in 2024 on the Festivals of Perth.