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.

JIEM: OLD AND NEW DREAMS

by Ian Muldoon

August 19, 2024

God knows I have a rush of delight when I see young talent embracing the most important development in music in the last 150 years - jazz. Part of this feeling is reflecting on the genesis of its origins born out of love and deeply felt yearning for freedom. That yearning is a universal one, and despite the “progress” made by and for African Americans, the battle is far from over as we witness the USA still fighting its Civil War. To most contemporary young artists the appeal of jazz may rest with its emphasis on individual expression rather than any historical memory. Nevertheless they will be well aware it is harder for the player to attain the higher levels of musical art in the search for that distinctive voice…

OUR DEAR MADDY YOUNG

by Daryl Aberhart

September 29, 2024

I remember when my life in Sydney turned to shit for a bit and Maddy Young told me to come and hang in the “Lapstone Leisure Centre” (her garage at Zetland) with my old Rhodes till I sorted stuff out a few months later (shout out to Greg Lennon who had been a flatmate of Maddy’s for some years at Zetland, who was there for a shoulder to lean on too at that time). I met some amazing musos, like getting to do this super casual pizza gig in Parramatta with Bernie McGann, Maddy and Steve Arié, I think it was, a couple of times. Oh man, what a treat that was, green as I was back then, getting to hear the richness and wisdom of Bernie over a classic like Have You Met Miss Jones like REAL up close and personal-- wish that was now ha ha ha…

THE LAST STRAW & BERNIE McGANN TRIO AT JENNY’S WINE BAR

by Anthony Stanton

Jazz Magazine, May/June, 1983

So far 1983 has seen few highlights on the modern scene. After the non-event which was the Sydney Festival my own highlights have consisted of hearing the music of five bands: the two listed above as well as Roger Frampton's new band Intersection, Guy Strazzullo's In Focus, and the Miroslav Bukovsky Sextet. Few of us who had enjoyed the artistry and musical profundity of The Last Straw in the 70s believed that the band would ever get back together. I last heard them at The Basement in 1978 and came away from the final night suspecting that was going to be their swansong: I wasn't completely mistaken as the band played one more time at the end of that year. Their audiences were still enthusiastically turning up but no-one who booked jazz in Sydney appeared to be interested…