Dai, Ciccio!

Formed from a yearning for music from the Old Country, Dai, Ciccio! dig deep into the Italian songbook: Neapolitan classics, New York Italian swing, and the 60s Italian pop your parents still dance to in the kitchen when they think no one's watching.

Led by Cristina Russo, an opera singer who wandered into a jazz club one night and never quite left, the band is anchored by Tom Flenady on double bass and Adam Russo on guitar. For bigger nights they become a quintet, with Ronny Ferella on drums and Jon Hunt on saxophone and clarinet.

The result sits somewhere between a smoky Roman jazz bar and the best Italian wedding you've ever been to. There is swing. There is heartbreak. There is, occasionally, a moment where the jazz gives way to something rather more operatic, because some songs simply demand it. And yes, there is always Dean Martin.

Twelve consecutive sold-out nights at the Paris Cat Jazz Club. The National Museum of Australia. The Queen Victoria Market, the Melbourne Italian Festa, the Spring Racing Carnival. Dai, Ciccio! have taken the Italian songbook from the museum to the racetrack, and their mothers have been insufferable about it ever since. Dai, Ciccio! Literally: come on, let's go.