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.
John Shand
WHAT DO JAZZ CRITICS DO?
I - John Shand is interviewed by Peter Jordan
Jazz.org, March 21, 2007
What is the role of a music critic? Some would argue that it is a very limited one -that the music illuminates itself and all discussion is mere background noise. Others, like Jay Nordlinger, music reviewer for the US publication The New Criterion, says critics do serve a useful, though limited, function… In the first of a two-part series, Peter Jordan asked John Shand, jazz critic at The Sydney Morning Herald for more than a decade, about scope, challenges and pleasures of his work...
John McBeath
WHAT DO JAZZ CRITICS DO?
II - John McBeath is interviewed by Peter Jordan
Jazz.org, April 2, 2007
In the second of a two-part series on Australian jazz criticism, John McBeath, reviewer for The Weekend Australian and The Adelaide Advertiser, discusses the challenges of writing about music...
Billy Walker (Don Burrows, Joe Singer in background)
THE TALENTED PIANIST BILLY WALKER
Interviewed by Gill Falson, 2002
The Celebrity Club was run by Joe Taylor who was a gambler – a gangster – who had a game upstairs at the Celebrity. He was a partner in Tommo’s two-up school, which was the biggest two-up school in the Southern Hemisphere. Joe Singer’s father was a partner, and his uncle Henry was the lookout. Henry also worked in the kitchen at the Celebrity. He had a game upstairs at the Celebrity. They were all part of the local Mafia. It never impinged on our work except the time they beat up Terry Wilkinson…