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.

ALAN NASH: ANOTHER MELBURNIAN SUCCESSFUL IN SYDNEY

Interview by Gill Falson

January 9, 2002

In 1947 I came to Sydney because I thought it was the place to be. Melbourne to me wasn’t the answer. Sydney was where it was going to happen. There was some work in Melbourne, plenty of Dance Palais, coffee lounges etc, but I’d seen Sydney and it was exciting, musicwise. I knew that that was where the work would be. There was some resistance in Sydney to Melbourne musicians moving here…

JENNY SHEARD

by Eric Myers

Encore Magazine, February, 1980

Many musicians and singers fall into show business by accident, simply because they are in the right place at the right time, or because opportunities spontaneously present themselves. Sydney pianist/vocalist Jenny Sheard has decidedly not been one of these. In her case, she made a conscious and deliberate decision to get into music seriously when she felt the time was right. And, although she was a longtime student of the piano and an avid listener to jazz, she waited until she was well into her late twenties before making the move…

KERRIE BIDDELL

by Eric Myers

Encore Magazine, September, 1978

It is not accurate, these days, to talk about Kerrie Biddell as a soloist, or performer, in her own right. On the brink of a promising career in the US a couple of years back, she felt the need to make a deliberate choice between music and show business — and chose music. Now, Kerrie explicitly rejects the idea of being a star, and is quite happy to be considered in terms of the band she is working with: Compared To What — Graham Jesse (saxes, flute), Mark Isaacs (electric piano), Alan Freeman (electric bass) and Nick Lister (drums)…