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.

IS THERE AN AUSTRALIAN JAZZ?

by Bruce Johnson

Jazz Magazine, December 1981 and January/February, 1982

The debate on whether or not there is a distinctively Australian jazz rumbles like a perennially empty stomach, and with occasional bursts of flatulence. On both sides of the question there’s an abundance of simple-minded vigour, desperately romantic affirmations opposed to humourless and impatient denials. It was probably first suggested that there is such a thing as an Australian jazz spirit by the English when they heard the Bell band in 1947. But since then there has been little or no attempt to argue the point with any sustained attention to the evidence of the music itself…

KEITH HOUNSLOW: A NEW CAREER PHASE

by Gail Brennan/John Clare

Jazz Magazine, Winter, 1986

Think of the places where you have heard memorable jazz or even jazz history in the making, or places you have visited in the knowledge that great sessions have taken place there. So many of them have a subterranean aspect, or are reached by fire escape, have a dinginess and claustrophobia, or are simply nondescript. The Jazz Centre 44 at St Kilda, Melbourne, was not like that at all in the late 1950s…

BOB SEDERGREEN: THE INTERVIEW

by Adrian Jackson

Jazz Magazine, December, 1981

Over the last decade, I have had the pleasure of hearing pianist Bob Sedergreen play on many occasions: with vibist Alan Lee, with a succession of bands led by Brian Brown, as the focal point of the Ted Vining Trio, with Onaje, as the wild card in Peter Gaudion’s Blues Express, providing fairly heroic support to visiting stars Jimmy Witherspoon, Phil Woods, Richie Cole and Milt Jackson, even solo…