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.
Bruce Cale
BRUCE CALE: MORE THAN JUST A JAZZ MUSICIAN
by Adrian Jackson
Jazz Magazine, Summer/Autumn 1984
I have always disliked the term Serious Music, at least when it is used as a synonym for European Classical Music; but the best way I could think of to describe Bruce Cale is to say that he is a Serious Musician. By which I mean that he is a man who has devoted his life to his music, constantly seeking to grow as a musician, and in the process becoming one of the most rewarding and important musicians in Australia today. He is certainly one of our foremost jazz artists...
Bob Barnard
IS BOB BARNARD AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST JAZZ MUSICIAN?
by Dick Hughes
Jazz Magazine, December, 1981
When Wild Bill Davison and Bobby Hackett came to Sydney in July, 1972, they went around to see their old colleague from Eddie Condon roaring nights, Jack Lesberg. Lesberg was the bassist who came here first in 1956 with Louis Armstrong, then with Eddie Condon in 1964, then on an independent visit in 1971. On this visit he got together a band which consisted of Chris Taperell on piano, himself on bass, Alan Geddes on drums and Bob Barnard on cornet and flugel horn. They made some tapes and Lesberg played them to Hackett and Davison… And when Hackett and Davison heard Bob Barnard, they said: “What did we have to come out here for?”
Paul Grabowsky at the piano, with Bernie McGann in the background
BERNIE McGANN & PAUL GRABOWSKY: A MATCH MADE IN JAZZ HEAVEN
by Tony Hillier
Rhythms Magazine, July/August, 2012
It’s an intercity match that’s made-to-measure for the country’s most important jazz festival. Sydney’s alto sax supremo Bernie McGann and Melbourne’s piano maestro Paul Grabowsky, arguably the most influential, inventive and individualistic players and composers of the modern jazz era in Australia, have performed together in a variety of configurations over the past 25 years, but never before at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz…