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: DON HARPER 1921-1999

by Eric Myers

JazzChord, Jun/Jul, 1999

Don Harper was born in Seddon, Melbourne, on March 18, 1921. He died, after a long battle with cancer, at Bulli Hospital on the New South Wales  South Coast, on May 30, 1999, aged 78. He took up the violin at the age of eight despite some parental opposition. (“It’s the only bloody instrument I can’t stand”, said his father). In his teens he discovered improvisation, and initially Joe Venuti and Duke Ellington. He later became interested in the Hot Club, Stuff Smith, Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins…

OBITUARY: MILES DAVIS 1926-1991

by Ian Carr

The Independent, 30 September 1991

The work of Miles Davis, the jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader, is a crucial part of twentieth-century music and his extraordinary career is documented by a monumental body of recordings. An inspirational figure who lived a long and immensely fruitful artistic life, Davis was a dominant force in the world of jazz from the moment he appeared in 1945…

OBITUARY: TONY NEWSTEAD 1923-2018

by Mark and Steven Newstead

Sydney Morning Herald, 23 February 2018

Over the course of his 94 years Tony Newstead lived a full and rewarding life, marked most evidently by his stellar contributions to his professional career in telecommunications and as a pioneer of jazz in Australia…