About us
The JAZZ basement is an International performing arts venue in Wodonga, Victoria, Australia presenting world class music locally.
Predominantly our gigs have been jazz but the great acoustic space also lends itself to a range of classical performances.
We also support and generate opportunities for music students of all ages to perform at the JAZZ basement in front of a listening audience. See our education page.
JAZZ Albury Wodonga, formerly The Border Jazz Club, is a non profit organization providing high quality national, international and local jazz performances.
JAZZ Albury Wodonga is located at Gateway Village in a 1940's double brick, industrial building on the Victorian bank of the Murray River. It was originally built as stores during WW2 and was a Cheese Factory for its commercial life. Neighbouring structures also show signs of past industrial activity including a Butter factory which became the Butter Factory Theatre.
Since 2009, the old cheese factory building has been the home of JAZZ Albury Wodonga. The JAZZ basement name was carried over from JAZZ Albury Wodonga's previous dedicated arts venue which was a basement room belonging to Elgins Hotel Complex. The JAZZ basement originally opened there in April 2004.
JAZZ Albury Wodonga has hosted many great national and international performances at the JAZZ basement, 69 in total at the old Elgin’s venue. These have included several prominent jazz artists from the United States and Europe as well as many of Australia’s finest jazz musicians. It has become a ‘must play’ Australian jazz venue. The first show at the new venue was October 23rd 2009 and featured the Tom Vincent Quartet from Tasmania. As a result of a lot of very hard work by some dedicated volunteers, the JAZZ basement provides our music arts community with a great performance space and enables JAZZ Albury Wodonga to develop music performance.
JAZZ Albury Wodonga is run by local musicians and lovers of good music. It comprises a small committee of people who donate their time and are dedicated to providing a broad selection of music to our local community.
Our Mission :
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Provide high quality music performances to the communities of Wodonga and surrounding districts;
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Encourage a wider listening audience via marketing and awareness campaigns;
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Provide a focus for music students in the region to receive guidance in their development via educational opportunities with the presence of professional musicians;
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Provide a positive attraction to those in metropolitan centers intending to visit the area and to support regional tourism
As part of their assessment, members of Wodonga Senior Secondary College 2009 woodshop class, under the guidance of teacher Scott Rowlings assisted us with building some of our floor substructure.
They also constructed some additional wall framing and our 3 mobile stage sections.
