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.

MELBOURNE’S BENNETTS LANE JAZZ CLUB CLOSES

by David James

Sydney Morning Herald, June 12, 2015

A sense of place is an elusive quality, as impressive as it is hard to define. There is little doubt that Bennetts Lane Jazz Club possessed it. The American saxophonist Branford Marsalis described it as one of the jazz world's great hangs: a place to go to hear jazz and associate with other jazz musicians…

DAVID JAMES, AUTHOR OF THE WORLD’S BEST JAZZ CLUB

Interviewed by Miriam Zolin

www.australianjazz.net, June 5, 2014

Three aspects of the writing of The World’s Best Jazz Club were a surprise to its author David James. First, when publisher Lesley Williams from Major Street approached him with the idea, he thought it was a great idea “and great ideas so rarely get up”. So it’s a happy surprise that the project went ahead and has now come together...

FREE IMPROVISATION: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

by Martin Davidson

Jazz Magazine, Winter, 1986

There are many ways of making music, all of which are faintly ridiculous when analysed cold on paper. For instance, the “normal” way to make music is currently thought to be to divide the labour into two completely separate functions — that of the composer, who is “normally” long dead, and the performers, who have to follow the absentee composer’s directions and do nothing else. This gives the performers little chance to express themselves, or to react to their fellow performers, the audience, or other aspects of the environment…