ESSAYS
This section includes essays on various jazz subjects, written by a number of writers. Contributions are welcome. Writers interested in contributing are welcome to contact the editor by filling out the form in the CONTACT tab. Photographs to illustrate those essays are welcome. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.
Sandy Evans
WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE SPACE FOR WOMEN IN JAZZ MUSIC?
by Cat Hope
The Conversation, June 26, 2017
Female singers from Nina Simone to Kate Ceberano are some of the most recognisable and celebrated jazz performers. Yet across the Australian jazz industry, women are disturbingly under-represented. There are relatively few female jazz composers and instrumentalists...
L-R, Errol Buddle, Judy Bailey, John Sangster, Mike Ryan
EL ROCCO: BEYOND THE MAINSTREAM
by John Clare
Excerpt from the book Bodgie Dada & The Cult of Cool, 1995
On the ledge of a red phone box in Darlinghurst in the late 1950s someone had written AUSTRALIA, LAND OF MEN WITHOUT WOMEN! in thick black paint. If you walked back along Darlinghurst Road toward Sydney’s Kings Cross, you would pass a number of coffee-shops that were usually filled with European men. Some of these expatriates were bearded. Many smoked pipes and there was usually a chess game in progress. Most women found the feeling of frustrated masculinity oppressive and soon asked to leave…
Tasmania
THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF TASMANIAN JAZZ
by Simon Petty
November, 2014
In recent musicological research there has been a focus on divergent and idiosyncratic music cultures. In the context of Australian jazz history, Tasmania stands out as particularly significant. For years, its jazz history has long been overlooked in the writings and imaginings of important contributions to Australia’s jazz history…