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.

MICHAEL GRIFFIN: PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF

by Bob Doerschuk

Down Beat, September, 2015

In 2013, alto saxophonist Michael Griffin treated himself to a trip to New York City. Though he was only in his early twenties, he had already reached the peak of the jazz community in Sydney, Australia. He'd been leading his own groups there since he was 17. So he figured he'd spend six weeks in the jazz capital of the world, listening to and hopefully sitting in with the elite of the hard-bop school he loves. What he didn't know, when he bought his ticket, was that the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition would be happening there during his stay—and that saxophone was the focus of that year's event. Upon learning about the competition, Griffin called the contest officials and persuaded them to accept an online application…

JAZZ: A FORM FALLING FREE?

by Lynden Barber

The Australian, July 31, 1999

A startling thought. Is contemporary jazz playing the role of postscript — a beautifully scribbled epilogue to a great literary work? The music has shown an extraordinary capacity for reinvention and renewal during its 100 or so years. Yet so inextricably bound is it to this century that it is sometimes hard to imagine how it might survive the next. Will it transcend the curious status it has routinely had to weather — its falling between the stools of pop and art — to be finally recognised as one of the century's great, original artistic contributions? Will it be seen in relation to the 20th century as, say, baroque was to the 17th?...

JAMES MORRISON: COME FLY WITH ME

by Nicholas Adams-Dzierzba

The Weekend Australian, May 4, 2019

James Morrison steps out into the gloom, a camping lamp on his forehead lighting the runway at Bankstown airport in Sydney’s west. Then the world-renowned trumpeter stows his precious cargo of jazz instruments into the wing of his other great joy, the light aircraft he’s about to pilot to Coffs Harbour, 500km away. Having played jazz for more than 30 years, Morrison, 56, has figured out how to have his cake and eat it, too. He loves music. He loves flying. And so he flies himself to gigs around Australia…