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: NORM ERSKINE 1931-2010

by Harriet Veitch

Sydney Morning Herald, August 21, 2010

In the 1950s and '60s, when nightclubs were what Sydney had for entertainment after 6pm, Norm Erskine was ''The Big Man'' in big clubs for songs and a few laughs, especially matching wits with hecklers. He was physically a big man, 195 centimetres tall and so large that he claimed once to have been stuck in the turnstiles at Warwick Farm and told that the next time he visited he had to come in a horse float. He was, over his life, a boxer, a wharfie, a singer, a friend of Frank Sinatra, a gambler, a bankrupt, a smoker, a drinker and a happily married man...

OBITUARY: MARK SIMMONDS 1955-2020

by Eric Myers

The Australian, September 20, 2020

Mark Simmonds, who has died at the age of 65, was one of the most talented and influential musicians in the history of Australian jazz. The key to his extraordinary career is his odyssey through virtually every known jazz idiom…

OBITUARY: LEN BARNARD 1929-2005

by Graham Coyle

VJAZZ February, 2006

The stars and planets that control the granting of musical genius must have been in perfect alignment for the births of the two Barnard boys. The elder, Len, was born on 23 April 1929 and died on 5 November 2005. His musical gifts were prodigious. First at piano for a few years and then drums, tympani, and rhythm at which he excelled for the rest of his life. The same gifts apply to brother Bob, one of the greatest surviving jazz trumpeters in the world, to whom we all offer our sincerest sympathy. Unlike most musicians, Len was in his youth a fine sportsman...