BRUCE JOHNSON

This folder is dedicated to the writings of Professor A J B (Bruce) Johnson, perhaps best-known as the author of the Oxford Companion to Australian jazz (1987). A prolific writer on Australian jazz, his articles on this website already appear in many folders, and in the fulness of time they will hopefully be uploaded to this folder. Click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

AUSTRALIAN JAZZ: AN OVERVIEW

by Bruce Johnson

“Sounds of then, Sounds of Now: Popular Music in Australia”, Tony Mitchell and Shane Homan (eds) (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2008), pp 113-129.

In 1918, a few months before the cessation of the hostilities of World War 1, the Australian life-style, about-town journal Table Talk carried an advertisement for the country’s first public jazz performance. The band was led by singer Belle Sylvia and was presented in the Bijou Theatre as part of a burlesque programme: ‘See the famous jazz band. You have never heard anything like it in your life before’. Very likely this was no hype. Reviewers’ descriptions suggest a performance somewhere between slapstick comedy and The Who of half a century later. Kitchen utensils were banged about, the early equivalent of a light show produced the effects of thunder and lightning, guns were fired, and the act concluded with the drummer throwing his instruments into the air while the pianist played standing on his chair and the brass players collapsed in apparent exhaustion…

CEDAR WALTON QUARTET WITH DALE BARLOW

A review of “Bluesville Time” (Criss Cross Jazz 1017)

by Bruce Johnson

Cedar Walton is a 52-year-old veteran of some of the definitive hard-bop groups, including the Benny Golson-Art Farmer Jazztet, and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in some of their classic incarnations. He is something of a jazz elder statesman, one of the revered icons in the music.  His drummer on this date is Billy Higgins, long-time colleague and a member of the very influential Ornette Coleman group in the late 'fifties. David Williams is from a younger generation, a mere 40 years old, but has worked with Coleman, Elvin Jones, Donald Byrd, and in top professional studio company like Quincy Jones. Walton can call his own tune, pick his own sidemen from among the best. He was leading Williams and Higgins as his Trio in Ronnie Scott's Club in London, when a young tenor player in his early twenties sat in…