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.

TO BE MANY THINGS

by Gian Slater

International Women’s Day, March, 2020

I am a mother, partner, daughter, sister, musician, composer, vocalist, improviser, introvert, listener, reader, dreamer, poet. I am vulnerable, sensitive, strong, willful, self-conscious, ambitious, empathetic, hard working, anxious – I am a complex person, as are you. Being a woman is a part of who I am, and some of the joys and challenges in my life have certainly stemmed from my gender. However, viewing my life through one lens – even one as fundamental as gender – seems to minimise those aspects of my identity that feel most relevant. And for me, the most important of these aspects is music…

THIS MUSIC

by Ian Muldoon

March, 2020

“When I first heard this music my skin stood on end, and when I learnt about its African American heritage my ambition was to live it”, explained tenor saxophonist Julien Wilson, on stage before he performed at the Cedar Bar, Bellingen, NSW, on Wednesday night, February 26, 2020. The musicians with Wilson were Mike Nock, piano; Jonathan Zwartz, bass; and Hamish Stuart, drums. They were finishing a tour of northern NSW towns playing music from their latest CD release This World. There was something startling for me, like an electric charge, a flash of recognition, when Julien Wilson began playing...

THE MUSIC OF SILENCE IN MODERN TIMES

by Ian Muldoon

April, 2020

The recital of Four Thirty Three by John Cage at the University of New England by a student of the music department was received with a degree of self-consciousness by myself and the audience accompanied by the wish to not breathe loudly or move. This was in 1981, 30 years after its premiere which "was given by David Tudor on August 29, 1952, in Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock, New York, as part of a recital of contemporary piano music. The audience saw him sit at the piano and, to mark the beginning of the piece, close the keyboard lid. Some time later he opened it briefly, to mark the end of the first movement. This process was repeated for the second and third movements”…