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.

THE SWEET SPOT OF ANDREA KELLER

by Ian Muldoon

May 12, 2024

It’s a humbling thing to consider the works of Andrea Keller - in its scope, depth of feeling and beauty. Even though much of her work is written for and performed by chamber groups, scale is not a necessary condition for great art. Sweet spot means leaving space for individual brilliance as in compositional structure which allows for improvising - for example the intro to All The Colours Grey (Keller) is a free kick for the alto sax or other instrument, and some make the most of it like Tim Wilson on the CD Consider This (2016)…

THE GREAT JOHN POCHÉE: PLAYING THE CHANGES

Interviewed by Trevor Graham

Music Maker, November, 1971

Historians of jazz music in Australia will find the 1960's a period of intensive multi-State small group activity. This was an era when a very mobile collection of good players alternated between the El Rocco in Sydney, the Fat Black Pussy Cat in Melbourne, The Cellar in Adelaide and the Hole in the Wall in Perth. Drummer John Pochée established a strong reputation during those years as a thinking drummer capable of great rhythmic freedom…

TOM HARE

by Geoff Gilbert

Jazz Down Under, September/October 1976

This is the tale of Tom Hare, one of the great characters of Australian jazz, the leader of one of the most successful bands that Australia has ever had, that being the Galapagos Duck. Born in 1942, at Highgate in London, Tom's first musical memory is of an uncle who used to visit at Christmas time and play trumpet. Tom and his family came to Australia when he was 13 and settled at the small country town of Harrow in Victoria. He taught himself to play trumpet and did quite a bit of work playing at country dances and weddings…