Bird's Basement

Bird’s Basement is a Melbourne CBD music room with capacity for up to 250 people, configured as 140 seated and 110 standing; fully seated formats run at 170 or 190. Its defining feature is its lineage: Albert Dadon opened it in 2016 as Birdland New York’s first international outpost. Expect a close-range, table-led concert setting where dinner, drinks and the performance share the same room.

A New York connection, launched by Coltrane

The project first surfaced in 2015 under the name Blue Basement. Before opening, it became Bird’s Basement, a name chosen to reflect its partnership with New York’s Birdland and its Charlie “Bird” Parker association. Dadon, a Melbourne jazz musician and entrepreneur who performs as Albare, founded the purpose-built club in Singers Lane. Bird’s Basement opened on March 1, 2016, with Ravi Coltrane, saxophonist and son of John and Alice Coltrane, leading the opening week. His March 1–6 residency played across six nights and sold out, giving the new venue an immediate statement of intent: international jazz presented in an intimate room, with local artists part of the same opening-month bill. The original format paired early dinner performances with later supper shows, a rhythm that still shapes the venue’s identity.

The room at showtime

Jazz remains the centre of gravity, spanning bebop, contemporary and Latin styles, big bands and vocal performances, while the venue also presents Australian and international artists across varied genres. Artists can submit performance applications directly to the venue, indicating an active booking route alongside its programmed calendar. Seating is allocated in advance around tables, with premium central elevated tables available; capacity can shift toward a standing crowd for select events. A cocktail, wine, spirits and zero-alcohol bar supports the dinner-show pace, and the room’s purpose-built acoustic design keeps the focus on the stage.