A jazz night at Tweed River House

CAROLINE Agostini has sung jazz in five star hotels across the Middle East, performed in rooms frequented by royalty and learned, over decades, how music should sit gently inside a space rather than dominate it.

That sensibility is exactly what underpins the monthly jazz dinners she leads at Tweed River House, where she returns on February 21 for an evening built around classic jazz, refined dining and atmosphere over volume.

“I started singing jazz professionally in Wales,” Agostini said.

“I then went on to international contracts in places like Dubai, Egypt and Jordan. That ran for many years and was lovely.”

One of her most memorable chapters unfolded in Jordan, where she performed regularly at a restaurant frequented by Prince Ali.

“He would just come in and sit with everyone and listen to jazz,” she said.

“I found that really special. It wasn’t about status. It was about the music and the room.”

That understanding of how jazz lives in a space is what first drew Agostini to Tweed River House, shortly after new owners Gregory Lording and Philip Hepburn took over the heritage venue.

“I just really loved the look of it,” Agostini said.

“It’s high end, but it’s comfortable. It felt like a place where jazz could really work.”

For Lording, the dinners were conceived as much as an escape as an event.

“We wanted to create a special night where people could step out of busy lives and into something more elegant,” he said.

“The dining room, the fireplace, the chandeliers – it already feels like you’ve stepped back 100 years.”

The evenings began three years ago as a winter idea and were initially planned as a quarterly offering.

“It quickly became monthly because people kept coming back,” Lording said.

“What surprises them is that it’s not overpowering. Caroline performs solo, so people can still talk, dine and relax.”

Agostini’s sets move through jazz ballads and swing from the American songbook, drawing on Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday.

“It’s really important people can still converse,” she said.

“You want them to be taken away by the music, but not overwhelmed.”

The menu changes regularly, with recent highlights including venison, lobster agnolotti and coral trout, but Lording said the night is about how everything comes together.

“Within an hour of Caroline starting, you see the smiles,” he said.

“It’s great food, great company and beautiful music all blending together.”

Agostini will perform three sets on Friday, February 21, and again on March 28, continuing a series that has become one of the region’s most refined date night experiences.