If Eric Ajaye has his way, the south will soon be Canberra's jazz Mecca

From an upbringing in Brooklyn and Los Angeles where jazz flows through the streets, Canberra might seem a strange place for a cat like Eric Ajaye to put down roots. Not so.

“Music is part of the fabric of LA and New York. It’s everywhere. You don’t have to go looking for it,” he says.

“I would love for there to be a place in Canberra where you can count on there being some truly amazing jazz.”

Thanks to a new partnership, that place is burgeoning in Canberra’s south.

Eric has teamed up with the Tuggeranong Arts Centre (TAC), and together they are transforming the charming southside theatre into The Jazz Haus Tuggeranong, featuring national and international names you might not expect to see in a city known more for politics than piano.

ARIA award-winning composer and saxophonist Jeremy Rose is the next headliner to grace the stage later this month. It’s the third concert Eric has produced under the new partnership, and it’s expected to be another sell-out.

But The Jazz Haus story actually began in Melbourne in 1998 when Eric was playing a gig while visiting his brother, Franklyn.

It was there that he met his future wife, Karen.

“I had seen her in the audience, and oh, my goodness, I thought she was beautiful,” he says. “After the show, I rushed to the dressing room to stash my bass and went out to talk to her. But I didn’t get her number that night.”

After bumping into Karen for a second time in as many weeks while out seeing a jazz gig, he told his friends in America that he was staying.

“They thought I was crazy,” he laughs.

When the ANU School of Music eventually caught wind that a musician who had played for the likes of Della Reese, Gregory Hines, Barry White and The Pointer Sisters was staying in Australia, they asked him to be a senior lecturer for the Jazz Department, and Eric and Karen moved to the national capital.

In the years since, Eric has built an impressive network with Australia’s top jazz artists, accompanying them at jazz festivals, in jazz clubs and on recording sessions. He formed numerous bands, helped curate the US artists performing at the Capitol Jazz Project and became the host of the ABC podcast Jazz Legends.

One day in 2018, one of his private students, David (Bucky) Buckmaster, who ran a “blues night” at The Austrian Club, asked if Eric would be interested in hosting a jazz night at the venue. The Jazz ‘Haus’ – a hat tip to the Austrian connection – was born.

The Jazz Haus was modelled after the NY-style jazz supper clubs Eric missed so dearly.

“It was what we call a listening venue – a place you could sit down with tablecloths and candles, have dinner and listen to elite jazz, just like they do in New York and LA,” he says.

It was such a hit that Eric had two years of acts booked in when COVID hit.

Eric thought his supper club was dead in the water until last year when TAC reached out and asked him to revive The Jazz Haus in its theatre.

Like meeting Karen, it felt a bit like serendipity.

“Being a Tuggeranong local, I had first happened upon the Tuggeranong Arts Centre back in 2003, and back then, I thought, ‘Wow, what a nice venue’. The theatre, in particular, was on the lake, and everything about it was beautiful, and I remember thinking, ‘Man, that would be a cool place to hold some jazz concerts’.”

“After COVID, I told myself I would never try to stage The Jazz Haus again, but when I got the offer from TAC, I knew I had to. That’s an A1 venue.”

With support from ArtsACT and Live Music Australia, Eric and the TAC team have earmarked the Southside as Canberra’s jazz Mecca. Like a Pied Piper of jazz, Eric has not only attracted Jeremy Rose but also hip-hop, soul, RnB and Reggae talent Pat Powell (Saturday, 5 October) and all the way from LA, legendary bassist Gene Perla (Saturday, 14 December) for 2024.

There are some big names in the pipeline for next year as well.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose those yet, but basically, what we’re doing is booking a concert series that’ll rival anything in Australia,” Eric says.

The Jazz Haus presents the Jeremy Rose Quartet on Saturday, 31 August, at 7 pm (the bar is open from 6 pm). Tickets cost $45.90 ($38.90 for concession). Book here.

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