Midnight Set: The Rookies in Melbourne, 21st July 2017

The Rookies were born in the spring of 2014 on the forgotten end of Brunswick Street in a room full of sweat, beer and dim lights at The Rooks Return.

What started as a quiet set of background jazz for punters while they imbibed their cocktails quickly devolved into an uninhibited, drunken dance party reminiscent of a time almost forgotten.

Band leader Greg Sher (alto saxophone) is joined by Tom Sly (trumpet), Joel Trigg (piano), Oscar Neyland (double bass) and Chris Cameron (drums and cymbals), with special guests from Australia and overseas sitting in every week.

The weekly parties are never the same as the band effortlessly jumps genres, twisting and contorting old world repertoire into something idiosyncratically their own.

After the dust settles and the bar empties, an old broken down piano in the corner is the only vestige of the chaos that once was.

The parties blend a nostalgic sense of the old world with the freedom and spontaneity of the new.

Not quite jazz club, not quite night club. The energy is carried by the bands long standing musical brotherhood, interspersed with Greg’s satirical and quirky commentary.”