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.
Lindy Morrison
THE MANY LIVES OF LINDY MORRISON
by Toby Creswell
The Saturday Paper, October 7, 2023
Apocryphal story: Lindy Morrison once lost her drums for six months. She took her full kit to a pro-choice rally in Brisbane and the police confiscated them. It was a Ludwig kit, just like Ringo played. Music and political activism have always been entwined for Morrison. For ten years she thumped away with the critically acclaimed but starving The Go-Betweens, but this was bracketed by decades of activism and social service. “I’m very forthright. And I say exactly what I think,” says Morrison. “People call me aggressive. I don’t think I’m really aggressive. I just think I’m being passionate”…
Tessie Overmyer
UNIVERSITY OF JAM
by Ian Muldoon
October 30, 2023
Jam sessions, so called, have been part of the music scene way back to when Billy Bantu was banging a log along with his uncle and buddies after hunting and now waiting for the wildebeest to be prepared. In more recent times, in the 20th century, it was a common experience in jazz, after gigs around town, for musicians to foregather in an agreed space, to have a “blow" unrestrained by the strictures expected of them in paid jobs - usually entertaining the paying customers. Jamming is a moment of testing - who is the “best” tenor player? - but it was and is a great feeling of fun, of the joy of expression, without time constraints and with an open door policy for anyone with the guts to step up and show what they can do. Importantly, perhaps most importantly, it’s a university of sorts where young players can learn from old masters - the University of Jam…
Shannon Barnett with Fabian Arends in the background
THE BEST GROUP AT THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
by Ian Muldoon
November 18, 2023
What was the best gig at the 2023 Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF)? Yes, well, what does “best” mean? An unrecorded live performance before an audience of 100 or 1,000 is a memory and memory is notoriously unreliable. But status amongst animals (especially the human social animal) is a primal instinct. Let’s be frank - like our reigning Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, I believe Shannon Barnett has been consistently underestimated: on the evidence she’s up with the best in the genre…