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: TOM BAKER 1952-2001

by Len Barnard

Melbourne Age, October, 2001

Jazzman Tom Baker died on October 23, 2001. He was in the middle of a European concert tour when he died of congenital heart failure in Holland, aged 49. He had been playing dates with the Dutch band the Swingcats and these friends were with him when he died in hospital in Breda. His funeral service there was a moving two-hour celebration of his life and music; a fitting tribute to a great and well-loved jazz musician…

OBITUARY: FRED PARKES 1931-2004

by Dianne Windebank & An Anonymous Writer

VJazz 25, October, 2004 and Geelong Jazz Club Newsletter

“Playing jazz is like surfing or playing chess ... you do it for your own fun. The fact that other people want to listen to you is a bonus." Fred Parkes doesn't go surfing and he rarely has a game of chess, but he plays mean clarinet with all the energy of an adolescent catching his first wave! In the tempo of today's times, Fred Parkes, one of Melbourne's leading jazz clarinet players, is a quiet achiever…

OBITUARY: GRAEME EMERSON BELL 1914–2012

by Bill Haesler OAM

Just Jazz, July, 2012

Sadly, Graeme Bell, the acknowledged elder of Australian jazz, died peacefully aged 97 following a stroke on 13 June 2012. Internationally known, he held a special place in the jazz hearts of musicians and enthusiasts in Australia, Britain and Europe. Bell was born in Richmond, an inner-suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 7 September 1914, studied classical piano as a child and came to jazz in 1934 through his younger brother Roger and friends. They started a dance band in 1935…