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.

COMMUTING TO SYDNEY FROM TASMANIA: GUITARIST STEVE BRIEN

by Joe Barth

Jazz Guitar Today, July 15, 2024

For years Steve Brien has been a core member of the jazz scene in Sydney, Australia.  He has been a first-call guitarist for many of the local musicians as well as occasionally performing with world-class artists as they travelled through Sydney. Since the pandemic, he has maintained his career, particularly as a teacher in jazz studies at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, while living in the state of Tasmania. He speaks here with Jazz Guitar Today’s Joe Barth…

MATTHEW OTTIGNON AND VOLANT

by Ian Muldoon

April 10, 2025

If I was a betting man, I’d put one hundred bucks at even odds on the Earshift release of the eponymous album Volant as jazz record of the year. And I’d lose because it was released in 2024 and it didn’t even make the ARIA finals and it may never have been nominated. On experiencing my first encounter in performance with Matthew Ottignon and his three artist colleagues at Jazzlab in Brunswick, Melbourne, on Friday evening April 4, 2025, I became as “giddy as a baby on a swing” (Oscar Hammerstein II lyrics to the music of It Might As Well Be Spring by Richard Rodgers). It was my heaven, that space, being in love. True, I am a bit of a musical slut.  But it was not a gig I might describe as business as usual…

GALAPAGOS DUCK: THE BIG SUCCESS STORY OF AUSTRALIAN JAZZ

This anonymous article appeared in the publication “Disc & Tape Review” in December, 1975.

The Galapagos Duck can look back on 1975 as another very successful year. Apart from their regular performances at The Basement which have continued to pack the place, they began 1975 with appearances at the 23rd Festival of Perth. They also did another season of performances with the Australian Ballet for the ballet "Super Man" with full houses in Adelaide and at the Sydney Opera House. In August they played a concert at the Canberra Theatre Centre to a standing room only audience and on several university campuses their concerts attracted large crowds. At a recent concert at the University of NSW, 3,000 people turned out to hear them, which is a record number of people for a jazz band. And again they played at a Royal Ball at Government House, during Princess Margaret's tour…