The Sydney jazz scene has taken some hits of late, losing long-established rooms such as Ultimo’s Foundry 616 and, more recently, Mary’s Underground (formerly The Basement) in the CBD.

Which makes initiatives like the Willoughby City Council-supported Jazz at The Lounge series at The Concourse in Chatswood all the more welcome. Granted, this pop-up venue lacks some ‘cool’ (the vibe is municipal, the long rows of seats unsympathetic, the sound quality patchy), but it’s heartening to see local government backing what many might dismiss as a niche form.

And that investment seems to be paying off if this gig by Melbourne-based pianist Paul Grabowsky and singer Michelle Nicolle is anything to go by. There were just a few empty chairs in a room that can seat 300 – an impressive turnout.

Paul Grabowsky and Michelle Nicholle. Photo © John Lloyd Fillingham

Opening with Cole Porter’s Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, the program draws largely on Grabowsky and Nicolle’s recent album Noir. Their approach is refreshing. From the start, Grabowsky digs deep into the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities of each song, dismantling chords and sidestepping expectations about where his fingers will land. Nicolle – who, like Grabowsky, teaches music at Monash University in Melbourne – approaches each song as a storyteller. The lyrics breathe, unencumbered by flashy melisma or unnecessary drama.

Among the highlights of the two 40-minute sets were a spiky, Latin-tinged take on the Frank Sinatra torch ballad I’m a Fool to Want You, and gently crushing versions of Rodgers and Hart’s It Never Entered My Mind and Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn’s Only the Lonely. Gordon Jenkins’ Goodbye (another song written for Sinatra during those peerless Capitol years) was delivered with the lurching stagger of a drunk determined to find his way back to a barstool.

Among the more unexpected selections were Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel and Tim Finn’s I Hope I Never. A couple of originals slotted in neatly, too: Grabowsky’s Rainbow Cake (a song he co-wrote with Vince Jones) and Nicolle’s rueful One Beer.

I confess, the Inner Westie in me took some persuading to catch a train to Chatswood. But the journey was smooth, the venue a two-minute walk from the station, and the musical rewards in this case considerable.

For more information on the Jazz at The Lounge series at The Concourse, visit this link.