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.

LET'S NOT LOSE THAT RHYTHM

by Peter Rechniewski

The Australian, April 8, 2008

That Australia produces many fine young jazz musicians is not in doubt. But does jazz have a future or is it caught in a time warp, reproducing musical gestures that are merely variations of past styles? Some who believe that jazz is a dead, or else a heritage form, say that improvisation has supplanted it. For them, jazz is no longer the site of innovation but a formalised tradition that has forsaken experimentation in favour of eternal verities such as the blues and swing...

ACTION PLAN COULD SEE JAZZ JUMPING

by Andra Jackson

The Age, April 25, 2008

Jazz is not dead — so says Sydney promoter Peter Rechniewski when he considers Melbourne's vibrant jazz scene. The energy of local performers, he says, highlights a need for greater support and exposure of jazz to wider audiences. A national jazz plan would be one way of lifting the music style in Australia out of its seemingly "permanent underground"…

PETER RECHNIEWSKI: UNCAPED CRUSADER

by John Shand

Australianjazz.net, April 9, 2014

To say he polarises people could be a lame pun on his ethnicity. To describe him as bullish is to invite an analogy that Sydney’s jazz scene was sometimes a china shop. But by nature we like ‘what if’ games, and an intriguing one is how Sydney’s jazz scene would look had Peter Rechniewski not come along…