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.

LLOYD SWANTON: HIGH PRIEST OF THE CATHOLICS CONFESSES ALL

by John Shand

Australian Jazz & Blues, Volume 1, No 6, 1994

Remember FUN, the thing you had in your late teens? The ingredients were sex, drugs, alcohol and, of course, music. Some music we associate with fun in a nostalgic way: the songs that were current during those first shy-and-eager forays with the pants off, or when you smoked your first joint, or threw up copious quanties of some vile, teenage booze confection. Other music actually radiates its own sense of fun: Louis Armstrong, early Beatles, early Frank Zappa, chunks of Lester Bowie, Erik Satie and Jon Rose all spring to mind. And The catholics. They present pure aural fun…

PAUL GRABOWSKY: ACCOSTING THE COUNT

by Adrian Jackson

Australasian Jazz & Blues, Volume 2, No 1, 1995

Paul Grabowsky is used to being in the spotlight. A child prodigy as a classical pianist, an outstanding prospect when he decided as a teenager to concentrate on jazz, he always appeared destined for big things. And over the last decade, he has enjoyed a good deal of celebrity, whether for his profile as musical director of the Seven Network's Tonight Live show; his achievements as writer (and usually, performer) of scores for film and television productions (among them, Phoenix, Janus, The Last Days of Chez Nous); or his diverse activities as a jazz bandleader, composer and soloist. But lately, he has been unusually prominent, even for him, for reasons both positive and negative...

STEVE HUNTER: BASS DESIRES

A Tall Poppy talks to John Shand

Australasian Jazz & Blues, Volume 2, No 3, 1995

"There was a great quote from Anthony Jackson, the bass-player, who said one of the things he hated to read most was if a critic said, 'Anthony's playing was unobtrusive'. Jackson said, 'To me, unobtrusive should only refer to contraceptive devices and waiters'."  The man recounting the story, bassist Steve Hunter, would seldom have been accused of this "sin". He plays his instrument with an in-your-face virtuosity, particularly in the high energy context of Playdiem, and to a lesser extent with his own bands…