“These days jazz music doesn’t really work that well in a club, it does work outdoor on the streets because it is people’s music. So we are getting Melbourne’s jazz scene out of the clubs and putting it on the street where it belongs!” enthuses festival organiser and owner of Claypots, Renan Goksin.
“The idea for the jazz festival grew up on us; it started with Port Phillip Mussel Festival to celebrate the mussel and the idea for jazz seemed easy and natural. We chose a wonderful local product like mussels that we will be selling in buckets for $4 and it will go really well with the jazz music,” explains Goksin.
The Port Phillip Mussel Festival is taking place this Saturday March 8 and Sunday March 9 with entertainment and mussels available from 12 noon until 11pm. There will be two stages, one out the front of Claypots Morning Star and the other stage further down York St that will be closed for the festival.
“The corner of Cecil and York streets will be the headquarters where we will have one stage set up there and I will be using mussels from the bay – this stage will be called Mount Martha stage and the Port Arlington stage – to represent the local areas that the mussels are from. We will close the street and there will be some roaming musicians and improv-like theatre happening as well. We have a parade of body builders as a cheeky play on the theme of mussels to muscles. We are looking for very fun, convivial family entertainment. Non-stop entertainment,” say Goksin.
Speaking of the mussels, there will be many buckets on offer as the other eateries at South Melbourne Market take part in the festivities. “I am doing a lemon grass ginger marinade on the mussels, and because other eateries at South Melbourne Market have come on board as well, each of us will be doing different flavours. I would also like to do mussel chowder!”
Finally, Goksin goes into more depth about the passion that drove the idea for this festival and that is the music. “I selected the bands from who I had playing at Claypots for the last six years. In a way they are my friends and my team so they have come on board lovingly and they want to see this festival grow as a jazz and seafood street festival for the city of Melbourne.”
He now goes into some depth on the acts Gil Askey & Friends, Shuffle Club, Margie Lou and The Paul Williamson Hammond Combo. “Gil Askey is turning 88 years old. He is an American fellow who has worked with Motown Records, he has arranged for Ray Charles and other big names. He has a high profile in the trumpet world. He will come and play the trumpet and sing What A Wonderful World and coming from an 88-year-old master of his instrument it is really meaningful.
“Margie Lou is playing with a quartet and she very much has a very New Orleans sound,” he says. “The Paul Williamson Hammond Combo has had a residency at The Rainbow Hotel for 20 years – so you get that really warm ‘70s Hammond sound – it is a lot of fun to dance to!”
And then with chuckle Goksin reveals that there will also be an Elvis impersonator, “he’s not really jazz but he’s from that area!”
BY DAN WATT
