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.

HORROR MOVIE, IT’S THE 6.30 NEWS: WHY THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA IGNORE JAZZ

by Peter Jordan

Extempore I, November, 2008

I had collected jazz albums by American greats since I was a teenager but it wasn’t until I moved to Sydney to go to university that I discovered Australians could play the music with equal force. Flicking through The Sydney Morning Herald one Friday in the early 198os,I came across a preview piece about a saxophonist called Bernie McGann. The writer’s powerful evocation of his music intrigued me enough to take the long bus trip from North Ryde to the city…

SANDY EVANS: IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL WEBB

Extempore I, November, 2008

Sandy Evans, performer, composer and activist, is a major voice in contemporary Australian musical life. Sandy’s composition Testimony about the life and music of Charlie Parker with poetry by the Pulitzer prize winning American poet Yusef Komunyakaa - commissioned originally by ABC Radio – was premiered by The Australian Art Orchestra in the Concert Hall at The Sydney Opera House for The Sydney Festival in January 2002. Her innovative work with the ensembles Clarion Fracture Zone, AustraLYSIS, Ten Part Invention, The catholics, Waratah, Mara! and the Australian Art Orchestra among others, was recognized in 2003 when she was awarded the inaugural Bell Award for Australian jazz musician of the year…

DON BANKS

Interviewed by Mike Williams

The Australian Jazz Explosion, 1981

Don Banks, who died in August, 1980, was an internationally respected composer of ‘serious’ music, with a considerable number of coveted awards to his credit. He had received commissions to compose for some of Europe’s most prestigious musical occasions. In the late 1940s he was also in the forefront of the modern jazz revolution in Australia, Melbourne’s most influential pianist and arranger in the new idiom...