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.

WILMA READING’S BRILLIANT CAREER

by Tony Hillier

Rhythms Magazine, 2008

If Wilma Reading’s life story were turned into a movie, you could easily imagine the likes of Norah Jones, Diana Ross or Whitney Houston jousting for the lead role. It’s an extraordinary yarn, even by Hollywood standards, a veritable ‘Star Is Born’ saga. It is the story of how a state-representing sportswoman of mixed heritage from a tropical outpost — as Cairns was when Wilma grew up there — turned professional singer and conquered the international music world, from Las Vegas to London, from New York to Moscow…

DICK HUGHES

by Clement Semmler

Jazz Magazine, May/June, 1982

I can’t remember exactly when I first met Dick Hughes. Perhaps about 1957, though it may have been earlier, but I think at the Macquarie Hotel where he was playing with Bob Barnard and Ray Price. It was pretty exciting for the faithful few of us in those days to think that at last, in Sydney, you could hear such jazz in pubs…

DICK MONTZ

Interviewed by Mike Williams

Excerpt from book The Australian Jazz Explosion, 1981

Big bands have always included a number of musicians whose forte is not the improvised solo, but ability to imbue the section work with jazz feeling. Such a man is American born Dick Montz, who established himself as a lead trumpet player long before he became one ofhandful of musicians from his country to settle in Australia…