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 YOUNG NORTHSIDE TRIUMPHS IN MONTEREY

by Andrew L Urban

Encore magazine, October 1979

Australia's first ever representatives at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival, the Young Northside Big Band, made a triumphant debut in America last month, exciting the 7,000-strong audience to a standing ovation… Johnny Speight, the band's musical director, said [that] the band can expect to be invited back for next year's event…

JOY YATES & DAVE MACRAE IN THE UK

by Christina Fraser in London

Encore magazine December, 1978

It is rare in any business to find a married couple who are able to combine a happy home life with a creative and productive work situation… Singer/songwriter Joy Yates and pianist Dave MacRae, who have surmounted the many problems inherent in this situation, are among London's busiest musicians...

GOD IS IN THE HOUSE: ASPECTS OF MY RELIGION

by Ian Muldoon

October 29, 2020

Nina Simone, George Shearing, John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Michel Petrucciani, and Cecil Taylor are six major artists whose contributions to humanity are hard to quantify. Yet their achievements - both personal and artistic - as members of the jazz “priesthood” are deserving of consecration as saints and remarkably revealing of some of the social, artistic, and political forces that shaped the last 100 years or so…