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.

THE BRILLIANCE OF CHARLIE PARKER

by Whitney Balliett

The New Yorker, March 1, 1976

Arista Records, a relatively new company that helps mind the avant-garde, has recently purchased the invaluable Savoy Records catalogue, and its first reissue is  Charles Christopher Parker, Jr: Bird/The Savoy Recordings  (Savoy SJL 2201). The album includes the original masters of the 30 sides Parker recorded for Savoy between 1944 and 1948 (alternate takes, issued in a hopeless stew years ago, will be unscrambled for subsequent Arista reissues), and among them are the first small-band records he made (Tiny’s Tempo, Red Cross, Romance Without Finance, I’ll Always Love You Just the Same), all under the name of the guitarist Tiny Grimes, as well as the first, and still classic, numbers done under his own name (Billie’s Bounce,  Now’s the Time, Ko Ko, Thriving on a Riff, Warming Up a Riff,  and  Meandering)…

BIG BAND THEORY: A PERSONAL VIEW

by Ian Muldoon

October, 2018

I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know what to call it, and I was worried that the sound might frighten the chooks and they'd stop laying. It was 1951 and I was on the back verandah with my wind-up vintage record player (circa 1920s) listening to a record by someone called “Dizzy Gillespie” playing something called Things To Come. The 10” shellac records in those days came unadorned in a brown paper sleeve with a hole in the centre allowing the centre circular red or blue label to be visible. In those days there was no multi coloured photo or artistic design giving visual expression to the contents…

CARLO PAGNOTTA & UMBRIA JAZZ 2001: PRELUDE TO A FAILURE

by Eric Myers

October, 2018

In July 2001, three Australian groups, with support from various funding bodies, did multiple performances at two major international jazz festivals: Pori Jazz in Finland and Umbria Jazz in Italy. It was referred to as the Austage 2001 tour.  The three  groups  were the Bernie McGann Trio (from Sydney), Tim Stevens Trio (from Sydney) and the quintet Ishish, led by Melbourne’s Ronny Ferella. Additional performances, other than those at Pori and Umbria, were done in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Rome, Italy…