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.

KEITH JARRETT'S MUSIC

by Jim McLeod

24 Hours, April 1979

ABC FM broadcaster Jim McLeod recorded this interview with the American pianist Keith Jarrett in Sydney during Jarrett’s Australian tour in late 1978. It was printed in the April 1979 edition of the magazine 24 Hours, and is reproduced here with the permission of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and Jim McLeod….

BERNIE McGANN: SLINGS ARROWS APATHY

by John Shand

Sydney Morning Herald, June 15, 2020

Saxophonist Bernie McGann was once hired by a juggler, who tossed him some sheet music, counted in the tune and began juggling. McGann didn't play a note; just stood staring at the music, knowing he shouldn't have come. The juggler needed McGann, but McGann didn't need the juggler. He could keep endless ideas spinning in the air as it was. Yet he couldn't chase what he heard in his head while playing in clubs or big bands, let alone with a juggler. If he couldn't get gigs that let him do things his way, he'd rather live in the village of Bundeena on the southern tip of Sydney, rise at dawn, work as a postie in Cronulla, and have the afternoons to practise in the Royal National Park…

THE MELBOURNE JAZZ CO-OP AND THE STATE OF THE VICTORIAN SCENE

by Peter Jordan

www.jazz.org.au, April 2, 2006

In the latest in Jazz Australia’s series of interviews with the people behind Australia’s leading jazz organisations, Martin Jackson, founder of the Melbourne Jazz Co-operative (MJC), discusses funding, the impact of the inaugural Umbria Jazz Melbourne festival (2005) and the state of the Melbourne scene…