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.
JIM MCLEOD’S JAZZ TRACKS ABC 838 832-1, 1989
Reviewed by Bruce Johnson
Jazz Action Society of NSW, 1989 (date to come)
For someone with my interest in Australian jazz, this Jim McLeod’s Jazz Tracks album is a must. I bracket it with Southern Spectrum (Larrikin LRJ 231) as one of the most useful recordings to appear in recent months. I mean by that that I can see that they serve an important function, as well as being musically enjoyable. Let's face it - too many books are written, too many records made, too many things produced. 30 years ago we couldn't get enough jazz records. Now, I can't help wondering why a lot of them are made. Jazz Tracks and Southern Spectrum, however, have an important air of occasion, in the literary sense. They bring to our attention things that have not been sufficiently noted, they are important documents regarding the state of the jazz tradition in Australia…
Roger Frampton, Steve Elphick, John Pochée
TEN PART INVENTION GETS FULL MARKS
by Adrian Jackson
The Age, Tuesday March 21, 1989
Three years after its formation, the Sydney modernists Ten Part Invention made its Melbourne debut last week, and left no room for any doubts that it is one of the best jazz groups Australia has produced. Comparisons with the Bicentennially-born Australian Jazz Orchestra (AJO) [in 1988] are inevitable, especially given that the two outfits share several members, and even some of the same repertoire. The AJO hardly lacked merit, but Ten Part Invention was much more rewarding. Unlike the AJO, it has been together for some time (with few changes in personnel) and it sounded like a team of musicians with a purpose and attitudes in common…
Miroslav Bukovsky
TEN PART INVENTION JAS CONCERT MAY, 1989
by Sy Bluhm
Jazz Action Society of NSW newsletter, June, 1989
What a great idea it was for the Australia Council to provide funds for ten of the best Australian players to be paid to rehearse and to come up with compositions/arrangements from within their own ranks, so that everything is Australian. No American Tin Pan Alley stuff! So, special appreciation to those of Ten Part Invention whose compositions/arrangements were heard at our concert: Bob Bertles, Miroslav Bukovsky, Roger Frampton and Sandy Evans. Undoubtedly the most significant portion of the evening was the premiere performance of Bukovsky's three movement suite, The Second Voyage….