OBITUARIES

This folder includes obituaries for jazz musicians or persons of significance to the Australian jazz community, written by several contributors. Click on the INDEX box to access a list of obituaries contained in this folder.

OBITUARY: JOHN McCARTHY 1930-2011

by Dick Hughes with Bill Haesler

Sydney Morning Herald, November 5, 2011

The Australian Jazz Convention, which is devoted almost exclusively to the older forms of revivalist jazz, is held every year in a capital city or country town.The highlight of the fifth convention (1950), the first held in Sydney, at Ashfield Town Hall, was the clarinet carving contest, on December 28, between Geoff Kitchen, veteran sideman with Frank Johnson's Fabulous Dixielanders, and a relative Sydney newcomer, John McCarthy…

OBITUARY: ARCH McKIRDY 1924-2013

by Peter Martin & Peter Wall

Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2013

The presenter of Australia's most popular radio program had a wicked secret he kept from his 1960s ABC audience. After 10 each night, he introduced the show with the words: ''This is Arch McKirdy inviting you to … relax with me.'' Over time, the gap between the ''to'' and ''relax'' became longer and longer...

OBITUARY: JACK SAVAGE 1927-2009

by John Shand

Sydney Morning Herald, December 10, 2009

His career as a jazz drummer started so young that if a musicians' union official dropped into one of Jack Savage's New York gigs the under-age player had to slip off the stage and hide. Asked where the drummer was, the band would say he was out having a smoke. This began when Savage was only 12, and his blue eyes would have been glinting at the joke being played on authority...