It was a veritable cornucopia — or should it be hornucopia — of movin’ and groovin’ at the Castlemaine Jazz Jam last Sunday. The movin’ bit involved going up the street to a new venue: the marvellous Maurocco Bar across from the railway station. (That’s not a typo, you mistake-spotting readers of The Age. The owner’s name is Mauro.) The groovin’ bit involved 24 jam makers preserving the juice of jazz, with nothing to jar the senses.

About 40 jazz fans kept numerous couches and armchairs warm, and bar staff did their damnedest to cool things down with liberal libations. Individual seats were as tightly held as Kooyong during the Menzies years. We welcomed some new faces who were all experienced hands. Adding them to the mix with our stalwart brigade necessitated a hastily concocted spreadsheet that approached king size.

Demonstrating that Central Victoria gets its name from, well, being at the centre of Victoria, we had jamsters from Bendigo, Dingee (we don’t know where it is either), Castlemaine, Newstead, Maldon, Harcourt, Lancefield and Macedon. Melbourne was well represented by a delegation of five.

They all bopped some swing, swung some standards, innovated some bossa, jumped some blues and romanticised some ballads. To sum up, it was great.

We’ll do the same but different on Sunday 2 April at 2pm.

Ken Turnbull

Robbie Noakes took the photos…