contributions

Jazz writers are invited to contribute to this section of the website. All interested in contributing are welcome to contact the editor by filling out the form in the CONTACT tab. Photographs are welcome and should be attached. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

ODE TO A RUMPLED JAZZ OVERCOAT

by Keith Hounslow

September 12, 2025

This is the unpublished autobiography written by the great Australian trumpeter Keith Hounslow, completed shortly before he died on February 14, 2020, aged 91. In his Introduction Hounslow wrote: “Life is a unique experience but don’t look for a pat on the back or a roll on the drums to validate yours - that perhaps ‘superficial’ support is best left to the highwire stars of the circus. Let us be clear, you, alone are the star of your life endeavours, there is no other person who can fill your shoes, assume your shadow or, even more importantly, live your life for you! In western democracies youth can run with newfound enlightenment to attempt change to the despair created by generational elders - a point of view that is an anathema to China’s rulers.  You too will in all probability encounter mindlessness in those of minimal imagination whose sole raison d’etre is to ‘brick wall’ creative ideas in favour. Meanwhile, welcome to my Ode to a Rumpled ‘Jazz’ Overcoat”…

WE LOST A TITAN LAST NIGHT

by Steve Barry

Facebook, August 9, 2025

We lost a titan last night in Judy Bailey. I first met Jude as a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music back in 2009, fresh off the plane from NZ. Judy's sense of play seemed boundless - that infectious, wicked sense of humour that hummed through both her piano playing and our conversations. Judy hipped me to the possibilities of touch at the piano - I will always remember sitting next to her in our lessons thinking "what the f*** was that?!", only to peer over her shoulder and find some voicing I knew (or even regularly played) somehow sound so impossibly alive and fresh. I couldn't, and still can't wrap my head around that touch! It was in our lessons that we discovered a shared love of free improvisation…