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.

HOUNSLOW AND GOULD AIM McJAD AT INDIA

by Eric Myers

Sydney Morning Herald, November 20, 1981

No-one can say that the Melbourne jazz trumpeter Keith Hounslow has not been universally lauded by serious writers on Australian jazz. John Clare described him in 1978 as one of the “three most naturally gifted trumpeters we have." Bruce Clunies-Ross described him in 1979 as "Australia's most brilliantly original jazz instrumentalist" and referred to his "individual genius as an improviser." Yet critical acclaim in the past is no substitute for an audience today…

MY FAVOURITE DRUG

by Ian Muldoon

Posted December 9, 2019

In one scene in the film Manhattan, the self-pitying protagonist Woody Allen ruminates on what makes life worth living, listing various things that move him. One item he mentions is Potato Head Blues recorded by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven (1927). I can relate to that. Music, mainly improvised music (jazz), makes me feel good. We all want to feel “good”, or at least better than we ordinarily feel most of the time…

BRUCE CALE'S JOURNEYS

by Eric Myers

Sydney Morning Herald, March 22, 1980

In a lovely cottage at Hampton, NSW, the Australian composer Bruce Cale looks out over the Gangbenang Valley, with the Great Dividing Range in the distance. The Cales have been in this area of the Blue Mountains since 1878, and Bruce's grandmother, Florence Annie Cale, lived in the cottage until she died at the age of 101. Cale has written an orchestral suite dedicated to her memory, entitled A Century Of Steps, as well as compositions called Bindo, and The Upper Run, inspired by the glorious surrounding countryside. Later in the week, he was to spend a few days in his North Sydney studio teaching — he has 11 students — and rehearsing both a quartet and a ten-piece orchestra…