JAZZCHORD ARTICLES

Between 1993 and 2002, 53 editions of the bi-monthly magazine JazzChord were published as part of the National Jazz Co-ordination Program. This folder includes a selection of articles from those editions. Articles published in JazzChord appear on this site also in the JOHN CLARE, JAZZ CO-ORDINATION, BOOK REVIEWS, CONTRIBUTIONS and OBITUARIES folders. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

JOY YATES AS BILLIE HOLIDAY 

by Eric Myers

JazzChord, Summer 1996/97

 This production of Lanie Robertson's play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill at the Ensemble Theatre, underlines the fact that, in the jazz underground of Sydney, we have superb talent that given the right circumstances, can be tapped to splendid advantage. Given recent comments by Barrie Kosky I hesitate to claim that “Lady Day” is “world class”. But let me say that, if this production was transferred holus-bolus to New' York, I don't believe it would be out-of-place on Broadway. Joy Yates plays Billie Holiday in a cabaret performance in a small Philadelphia club four months before Billie’s death in July, 1959. As she becomes more intoxicated throughout her performance Billie takes the audience through a chronicle of her life: her relationships, encounters with racism, drugs, her music. It graphically illustrates a tragic story of suffering, not only on account of racism, but also at the hands of various men who came into her life, used her, and departed. This is an unrelenting soliloquy by Joy Yates…