Arts Centre Melbourne's Jazz High Tea Series Returns this Year

The time has come to pop on your favourite vintage frock or lounge suit and prepare for a luxurious afternoon of delicious treats and soulful jazz. Arts Centre Melbourne's decadent Jazz High Tea series returns in 2017 with more performances and special sessions for children and their families. Returning after one season in The Pavilion and two seasons in The Famous Spiegeltent, Jazz High Tea features a different act on the first Sunday of every month until December, with the full season to be announced in March. A beloved Arts Centre Melbourne tradition, the series expands in 2017 to include special sessions for little ones and their families in April and July.

Combining Melbourne's two great loves, food and culture, this high-tea experience at The Pavilion is designed to delight all the senses. Guests will be greeted with a glass of bubbles on arrival, before indulging in house-made cakes, pastries, savoury delights, and freshly brewed tea. Jazz-lovers and newcomers alike will enjoy knockout vocalists delivering jazz classics and derivatives of the chic genre, including blues, soul and gypsy swing.

The curated jazz series will begin with the Andrew Swan Trio tribute to the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson on Sunday 5 March at 12pm and 4pm. Beginning with the blues, then moving through gospel and the classic jazz of the piano trio format, the Andrew Swann Trio interpret Peterson's legacy of the blues and its variations in their own unique style.

On April 2 Arts Centre Melbourne will host its first Families High Tea with Ali McGregor's Jazzamatazz. Direct from a smash hit season in Edinburgh and the UK, Jazzamatazz is an afternoon of jumpin', jiving' jazz for the kids. Led by the insanely talented (and mother of a toddler) Ali McGregor, the hour of jazzy beats & early '90s references will get your kids singing & prancing, twisting & dancing. Parents, carers and friends can either join in or grab a drink and watch the youth tire themselves out on the dance floor. With songs like 'Who Let the Dogs Out?', 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' and 'Single Ladies', everybody will be 'Shufflin' to the be-bop beats and hep-cat treats.

McGregor returns to the Jazz High tea stage that afternoon when she presents Jazz Cigarette, singing all of the songs that made her want to sing. Ranging from Gershwin's The Man I Love and Hoagy Carmichael's Georgia on my mind to unique interpretations of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams and Britney's Oops I did it again.

A second Families Jazz High Tea will be held on July 9 when folk-pop band the Teeny Tiny Stevies hit the stage. Sisters Sibylla and Bethany will sing from their children's album that includes useful, practical and fun songs about the challenges young kids face including toilet training!

In May multi award-winning vocalist and songwriter Nina Ferro will showcase her original material plus her favourite jazz and soul classics. Alinta and the Jazz Emperors will bring their soulful jazz grooves and joyful improvisations to the stage in June and in July cabaret performer and Helpmann Award winner Michael Griffiths will entertain.

The August edition of the high tea experience brings together four of Melbourne's and Italy's richly diverse jazz musicians in a love affair of European song. Nostalgique features jazz songbird Tamara Kuldin with Jon Delaney (guitar), Salvatore Greco (accordion) and Jonathan Zion (double bass).

The final Jazz High Tea performances will be announced in March.

For bookings and more information, visit artscentremelbourne.com.au or call 1300 182 183.