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The Essentials

The Essentials are a recently formed gathering of some of Melbournes’ finest musicians. They perform a wide variety of musical styles from jazz ballad through swing (appropriate for pre dinner drinks or back ground music) to latin soul and even rock n` roll to really get the crowd dancing!

  • Entertainment:
    1950's Theme ideas, Classic Covers, Cover Bands, Jazz Bands, Latin Jazz, Live Music, Lounge Jazz, Swing Jazz
  • City:
    Melbourne
  • Size:
    3-5 piece
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Audio Samples

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Gallery

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Song List Print Full Song List

JAZZ, LATIN, RHYTHM & BLUES, CABARET, ‘JAZZish’ POP
  • Ain’t Misbehavin’ – FATS WALLER
  • Alright, Okay, You Win – VARIOUS
  • Autumn Leaves – VARIOUS
  • Beyond The Sea – BOBBY DARIN, ROBBIE WILLIAMS
  • Bye Bye, Blackbird – VARIOUS
  • Cheek To Cheek – FRED ASTAIRE
  • Come Fly With Me – FRANK SINATRA
  • Don’t Get Around Much Anymore – FRANK SINATRA
  • Early In The Morning – LOUIS JORDAN, HARRY NILSSON
  • Fever – PEGGY LEE
  • Fly Me To The Moon – FRANK SINATRA
  • A Ghost Of A Chance – FRANK SINATRA
  • Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You – VARIOUS
  • Georgia On My Mind – RAY CHARLES
  • God Bless The Child – BILLIE HulIDAY
  • How Long Has This Been Going On? – CHET BAKER
  • I Love The Life I Live – GEORGIE FAME, ROYAL CROWN REVUE
  • I’m Your Man – LEONARD COHEN
  • (I Say) Yeh Yeh – GEORGIE FAME
  • I Thought About You – FRANK SINATRA
  • I Got Rhythm – VARIOUS
  • It Had To Be You – FRANK SINATRA,
  • HARRY CONNICK, Jr I’ve Got You Under
  • My Skin – FRANK SINATRA
  • I Was Made For Loving You – KISS
  • Jumping With Symphony Sid – LESTER YOUNG, JOE JACKSON
  • Lady Is A Tramp – FRANK SINATRA
  • Let’s Fall In Love – FRANK SINATRA
  • Let’s Get Lost – CHET BAKER
  • Mack The Knife – BOBBY DARIN
  • Moon River – ANDY WILLIAMS
  • Mr PC – JOHN CulTRANE
  • Muddy Water – VARIOUS
  • My Baby Just Cares For Me – NINA SIMONE
  • My One And Only Love – CHET BAKER
  • Night And Day – FRANK SINATRA
  • One Note Samba – VARIOUS
  • On the Sunny Side Of The Street – VARIOUS
  • Ornithulogy – CHARLIE PARKER
  • (Our) Love Is Here To Stay – FRANK SINATRA
  • Moody’s Mood For Love – GEORGIE FAME, AMY WINEHOUSE
  • Moondance – VAN MORRISON
  • My Funny Valentine – FRANK SINATRA, CHET BAKER
  • Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps – DORIS DAY
  • Quando, Quando, Quando – VARIOUS
  • Satin Dull – FRANK SINATRA
  • Skylark – VARIOUS
  • Strullin’ – PRINCE
  • St Thomas – SONNY RulLINS, MARK MURPHY
  • Summertime – VARIOUS
  • Sunny Afternoon – THE KINKS
  • It’s wonderful – VARIOUS
  • Tempation – TOM WAITS, DIANNA KRALL
  • That uld Feeling – CHET BAKER
  • There Will Never Be Another You – CHET BAKER
  • (Funny How) Time Slips Away – WILLIE NELSON, BRYAN FERRY, VINCE JONES
  • That uld Feeling – CHET BAKER
  • Too Close For Comfort – MEL TORME
  • The Way You Look Tonight – FRED ASTAIRE
  • They Can’t Take That Away From Me – FRED ASTAIRE, ROD STEWART
  • This Guy’s In Love With You – HERB ALPERT
  • Watermelon Man – HERBIE HANCOCK
  • What A Difference a Day Made – DINAH WASHINGTON
  • What A Wonderful World – LOUIS ARMSTRONG
  • What Is This Thing Called Love? – VARIOUS
  • Where Or When – FRANK SINATRA
  • Witchcraft – FRANK SINATRA
  • Work Song – NAT ADDERLEY
  • You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To – MEL TORME
  • You’re Just Too Good To Be True – CHRIS MONTEZ
ROCK, POP, FUNK, SOUL, DISCO, REGGAE, etc
  • Baby You Can Drive My Car – THE BEATLES
  • Bring It On Home To Me – SAM COOKE
  • Brown -Eyed Girl – VAN MORRISON
  • Common People – PULP
  • Crazy Little Thing Called Love – QUEEN, MICHAELBUBLE
  • Cigarettes Will Kill You – BEN LEE
  • Dancing In The Street – MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS, MICK JAGGER & DAVID BOWIE
  • A Girl Like You – EDWYN CulLINS
  • Gin -Soaked Boy – TOM WAITS
  • Goin’ Out West – TOM WAITS
  • Great Balls Of Fire – JERRY LEE LEWIS
  • Hallelujah, I Love Her So – RAY CHARLES
  • Have I Tuld you Lately (That I Love You) – VAN MORRISON, ROD STEWART
  • The Heart of Saturday Night – TOM WAITS
    High and Dry – RADIOHEAD
  • Higher Ground – STEVIE WONDER, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
  • How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – JAMES TAYLOR, MICHAEL BUBLE
  • Hump De Bump – RED HOT CHILI
    PEPPERS
  • If I Only Had A Brain – MC 900ft JESUS
  • I Got You (I Feel Good) – JAMES BROWN
  • I Heard It Through The Grapevine – MARVIN GAYE
  • I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock & Rull) – DAVE EDMONDS
  • Iko Iko – DR JOHN
  • I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – BOB DYLAN, ROBERT PALMER
  • In The Midnight Hour – WILSON PICKETT, ROXY MUSIC
  • Into Your Arms – LEMONHEADS
  • (I Say) Yeh Yeh – GEORGIE FAME
  • It’s All Over Now – BOBBY WOMACK, RY COODER, THE RulLING STONES
  • I Will Survive- GLORIA GAYNOR, CAKE
  • Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile) – VAN MORRISON, DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS
  • The Jean Genie – DAVID BOWIE
  • Jockey Full Of Bourbon – TOM WAITS
  • Kansas City – VARIOUS
  • Kiss – PRINCE, TOM JONES
  • Leaps And Bounds – PAUL KELLY
  • Let’s Stay Together – AL GREEN
  • The Love Cats – THE CURE
  • Love is In the Air – JOHN PAUL YOUNG
  • Lust For Life – IGGY POP
  • A Message to You, Rudy – THE SPECIALS
  • Miss You – THE RulLING STONES
  • Moondance – VAN MORRISON
  • The New Pullution – BECK
  • uliver’s Army – ELVIS COSTELLO
  • The Outdoor Type – LEMONHEADS
  • Psycho Killer – TALKING HEADS
  • Red Red Wine – NEIL DIAMOND, UB40
  • Rain Dogs – TOM WAITS
  • Route 66 – THE RulLING STONES
  • The Ship Song – NICK CAVE
  • Such Great Heights – THE POSTAL SERVICE, BEN FulDS, IRON & WINE
  • Surfin’ USA – THE BEACH BOYS
  • Swordfishtrombone – TOM WAITS
  • Take Me To The River – AL GREEN, TALKING HEADS, BRYAN FERRY
  • Tequila – ?
  • That’s Alright, Mama – ELVIS PRESLEY
  • These Boots Are Made for Walking – NANCY SINATRA, BOYS NEXT DOOR
  • The Tide is High – BLONDIE, ATOMIC KITTEN
  • You Never Can Tell – CHUCK BERRY
  • Under The Boardwalk – THE DRIFTERS, THE RulLING STONES
  • Viva Las Vegas – ELVIS PRESLEY
  • Walkin’ The Dog – RUFUS THOMAS, THE RulLING STONES
  • Walkin’ On The Sun – SMASHMOUTH
  • Walk On The Wild Side – DAVID BOWIE
  • Waterloo Sunset – THE KINKS
  • What’s New Pussycat? – TOM JONES
  • Wonderful World – SAM COOKE

Biography

The Essentials are a recently formed gathering of some of Melbourne’s finest musicians. They perform a wide variety of musical styles from jazz ballad through swing (appropriate for pre-dinner drinks or back ground music)â to latinâ soul and even rock n` roll to really get the crowd dancing!

Ideal for weddings and corporate functions, this band will turn any event into a Tarantino movie !

THE ESSENTIALS SIMPLY THE MOST POPULAR WEDDING BAND IN MELBOURNE!

The line up includes, vocals, jazz guitar, drums, bass and saxophone, allowing the band to move easily form swing jazz to rock n roll and everything in between. This dynamic band is able to move and groove your guests, taking them from ambiance and background jazz to full flight dance floor action.

Instinct HIGHLY recommends this act.

Need more Corporate entertainment ? Browse more Jazz Bands ?

Ideal for:

Awards Nights, Cocktail events, Conferences, End of year break up party, Corporate Family Days, Festivals, School Fetes, Fundraiser events,
Gala Dinners, Product Launches, Sporting Events, Staff Christmas parties, Weddings

Testimonials

Re: AWM Conference Entertainment

I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank you for your entertainment recommendations for our recent 2009 Australian Wealth Management Planner Conference, held in Melbourne.

The feedback received from our delegates and AWM staff indicated the entertainment on all counts was excellent and made a positive contribution to the success of our Welcome Dinner and Gala Dinner events. We had over 300 delegates and the entertainment either met or exceeded expectations. In particular:

The Essentials: They were exactly what we wanted for our Welcome Dinner @ Melbourne Aquarium and a couple of our delegates who consider themselves “jazz aficionados’” commented on how good they were.
Dean Atkison: I wasn’t able to see his act, however delegates said he was quite good.
Dave Grant: He really set the tone for our Gala Dinner. He was absolutely hilarious and all I heard from delegates was how good he was. He followed the brief and entertained the crowd without being rude or offending anyone. He even followed up after the conference with a “thank you for the business” phone call. A professional in my books.
Maranucci Trio: They played nice background jazz during the main part of the sit down dinner and were well received.
Headspace: They were great!! They had everyone up dancing and the dance floor was still pretty full at the end of our function with the crowd wanting more. Once again, many compliments were made about Headspace.

All of your recommendations came through with flying colours. This demonstrates you understood me (as the client), my brief and obviously having great talent on your books. Once again, a sincere thank you to Instinct International for your services.

S. Hunt

I will send a formal thank you note in the next few weeks but just wanted to let you know that Andrew and I were blown away by The Essentials. They were absolutely fantastic. They created the exact atmosphere we were after and had everyone up dancing from very early in the night. The set and song selection was excellent and they looked great. We had a BBQ the next day and so many people commented on how great the band was.

Andrew was suffering from Meningitis and had been hospitalised all week so unfortunately he didn’t make it through most of the reception but The Essentials made the night a great party and I really do extend a massive thank you to them for making the night a huge success despite the “no groom” circumstances!

Kate

Just a short note to thank you for the band “The Essentials” who played at Comme on Saturday night. They were fabulous and really “appropriate” for the crowd we had – you read us well!! They were very professional and sounded much better and bigger live, than over the internet.

The night flew and I never took the opportunity to really provide the band with my heartfelt thanks for their significant contribution to what was a really memorable night. Could you please pass on my thanks, as I was a little self absorbed on the night!

J. McGrath

Just wanted to say thanks to both you and The Essentials for a great night. The guys were just great and played some fabulous songs… everyone loved them!

Sarah & Lachie

Thanks again for everything. We have only really just returned from India, and had a ball!

The Essentials were really good, they catered to the crowd and were really approachable and fun. They didn’t seem to flow that well with other music nor did they provide music to be played in between their breaks that I could remember. But they got everyone dancing.

The Belly dancer, hmm… she performed well, but I had no clue her act included a sword segment and a partner with a flute. They sort of just arrived and stood in the middle of our reception and luckily i saw early on and had the venue manager take hold of things… it was kind of ironic they were on show given we were trying to surprise our guests. Everyone liked it though, and it saved us doing the waltz.

Happy to refer you on to friends and the like.

Vicki

I just wanted to thank you for the great job that The Essentials did at our wedding. We had a fantastic night and everyone really enjoyed the music. Please pass on our thanks to everyone in the band

K. Cary

Hey pete,
just wanted to say a big thank-you for your work at the wedding. You guys -(the Essentials) were fabulous and lots of people have commented on how great you guys were.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Gary

It was fantastic. Everything went well. The guys in The Essentials were looked after and they produced some great song choices and importantly they were able to go with the flow when it was necessary. Overall it was a successful night.

Thanks again for your support.

Best Regards

Rose

Hi Steven,
I just wanted to send you a short email to thank you for recommending Essentials, they where fantastic, amazing, perfect I cant say enough about how good they where, they made our night perfect.

T. Lindskog

We just wanted to say thank you so much for all your efforts in arranging The Essentials for our wedding. We could not have possibly enjoyed our selves anymore than we did. The Essentials were exactly the band we hope for, you are really very good at reading people and their requirements and then getting them what they want.

Please pass on our thanks to the guys, our guests are still raving about how fantastic they were. They were more than happy to chat with our guests and had everyone on the dance floor all night. Really just an excellent band.

Our wedding was just fantastic and The Essentials were a big part of making that possible.

Thank you so much. I personally look forward to working with you continually at The Point.

Owen and Kirsty

“We just wanted to say thank you so much for all your efforts in arranging The
Essentials for our wedding. We could not have possibly enjoyed our selves
anymore than we did. The Essentials were exactly the band we hope for, you are
really very good at reading people and their requirements and then getting them
what they want. Please pass on our thanks to the guys, our guests are still raving
about how fantastic they were. They were more than happy to chat with our
guests and had everyone on the dance floor all night. Really just an excellent
band. Our wedding was just fantastic and The Essentials were a big part of
making that possible. Thank you so much. I personally look forward to working
with you continually at The Point.”

Kirsty Stevenson

On behalf of myself and Caroline, I would like to pass on a huge thanks to yourself for organising, and The Essentials for performing at our wedding.

We (along with lots of feedback which we’ve received from our guests), thought they were sensational and perfect for our wedding. I realize it’s 6 weeks post the event now, but if you could pass on the feedback to the guys that would be great (I was a bit caught up in the hype of the wedding to do so on the night!)

Scott