The Ska instrumental, with its focus on the soloist, is a style of jazz… the Jamaican style. This Jamaican jazz is the inspiration for the Skazz repertoire, which is made up of about half originals and half tunes adapted from jazz to the “ska” beat. We owe many nights of blissful dance-crazed partying to the legends of this genre: Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso and Ernest Ranglin. These are just a few of the artists that helped create the perfect blend between dance and jazz. The driving upbeat, the “skank”, played by keyboard and guitar, is held in counterpoint by bass lines that develop an incredible musical tension. Add to this the syncopated rhythm of the drums and the wild blowing of the horns and you have an infectious form of music that propels people on to the dance floor.

The musicians that were brought together for this band are the finest that money can't buy. They play for love. They play to make people dance, to forget their worries, to lift them to a place beyond the everyday where there is only joy. This ensemble plays with the enthusiasm and sense of fun that jazz once had… but that's not to say they don't take their jobs seriously. The combined musical history of these players covers everything from mainstream pop to fringe theatre; from straight-ahead jazz to classical and traditional African; circus bands to film scores, Skazz features some of Melbourne’s best from a diversity of genres: