Colbourne Ave was a listening venue, an acoustic venue, a place where you could hear the details in the music. Jazz, with an emphasis on the piano.

Our address was 37-47 St Johns Rd Glebe - on the corner of St Johns Rd and Colbourne Ave (click to open in google maps) Catch any "Glebe Pt Rd" bus from the city, get off at Glebe Post Office, walk down St Johns Rd towards the city, there you are. We didn't pre-book or pre-pay (and we did't have a credit card machine). Arrive early if you want the best lounge, but we never turned anyone away so if you were right on time you wouldn''t miss out.

Music started at 8pm (or shortly after), usually two sets with a break for coffee and a chat - all over between 10 and 11pm, but we liked to hang around and finish our bottle of wine after that.

Here are photos and videos

We didn't have a bar, which kept the room quiet and cheap - it was BYO fine wine and great beer. It was a very comfy room with relaxing lounges, soft lamps and candles, an excellent piano, great acoustics (that musicians love), eclectic programming and access for all ages. We had one of the few legal spaces where you could bring your own drinks and food - or order Thai food to be delivered. We provide tea and coffee and wine glasses.

We only ran on Thursday nights. Barney booked the musicians, until Andrew started doing it - we tried to book only the sort of sounds we thought worked with the acoustics of the room, and when we would we tried to organise around a theme each month. If you wanted to play at Colbourne Ave, the best thing to do was to come down and talk to one of us. We did this for free, and it was quite a lot of work, so we hope you'll understand if we don't get back to you very quickly, if it sometimes looked like we were struggling to stay ahead, or if we shut down without ever replying to you.

Thanks to the Glebe Uniting Church for their support over many years

Katerina from around the corner made this video mid-2010. The song is an indian folk/jazz theme by Guy Strazz, from his album Calcutta Express : http://guystrazz.com/media-2/mp3-lounge/ :

And Jens, one of our favourite regulars, wrote this:

A group of friends get together every Thursday eve. They are well known in the music world, and they invite other people who are professional jazz players. Many play the piano. This is the best kept secret in town.

A very modest few dollars gets you in to a lovely square room with wonderful acoustics. There are sofas and comfortable chairs. A fantastic atmosphere. Free coffee/tea and you can bring wine, food, etc. This is low cost world class entertainment, but only if you love Jazz - no disco, pop or other distractions.