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.

DAVE LEVY: THIS TIME THE DREAM’S ON ME

by Barry Morris

Australian Jazz and Blues, August/September, 1993

Some jazz musicians come, shine briefly, then splutter out and drift into obscurity. Others endure. One of the more enduring is pianist David Levy whose 'career path' has had him working in the wool trade, as a copy writer for mail order catalogues and a composer of 50 songs. Today, despite many ups and downs in the 'industry', he is still around…

TATUM PETERSON BLEY & McALL: PERFORMANCE AND THE MUSIC

by Ian Muldoon

November 8, 2020

The piano is my favourite instrument. It contains an orchestra within its 88 keys. It can thunder, tinkle, harmonise and dance with happiness and much, much more. But for more than 60 years I’ve been bedevilled by the aura of Art Tatum. Tatum has loomed over jazz, over music, especially pianism, as the “greatest”. But what does “greatest” mean? And says whom? To me it seems to be a conflict between those who revere technique or see technique as the ultimate determinant of a musician's capability and those who consider other factors as being relevant to music, composition say, music as art, jazz as fun and as art. As Judy Bailey reminded me in 1980, “it’s all about the music”…

GLENN MILLER: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HIM?

Reuter, Glenn Miller Archives

1997, 2014

Two anonymous articles which throw light on the death of Glenn Miller, including the report that he died of a heart attack in a Paris brothel in 1944 and not, as officially reported, in a plane crash….