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: JACK MITCHELL 1926-2021

by Bill Haesler OAM

AJAZZ 89, May 2021

Francis John (Jack) Mitchell, record collector and producer, writer, researcher, discographer, photographer and jazz radio presenter came to jazz music during the 1940s wartime years listening to radio, the 1930s Bob Crosby Bobcats and Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band 78rpm records reissued in Australia. Although his family lived in Sydney's suburban Dulwich Hill, Jack was born in nearby Randwick on the 29th May 1926. They moved to Bondi Beach when he was a teenager and went to Randwick Boys' High School until 1941. He continued his education at night school, worked as a film theatre projectionist and became interested in photography. He bought jazz records, the Australian music papers Tempo and Music Maker and became a member of the Sydney Swing Club in mid-1944…

OBITUARY: RAY PRICE 1921-1990

by Jack Mitchell

AJAZZ 89, May 2021

Raymond Arthur Price was born in Sydney on 20 November 1921 into a musical family, and died on 5 August 1990. He was a leading figure in Australian jazz for many years. Both parents played semi-professionally, his brother David played trumpet (later with leading palais bands) and his two sisters, Eileen (saxophone) and Doreen (piano), were both professional musicians. Ray started on drums, after a very brief battle with the violin, and all four children played in the Price family orchestra in the early 1930s. Ray moved on to the banjo and then in 1937 the guitar. He took lessons from Charlie Lees and by 1938 he was playing guitar with Ron Doyle's orchestra which won the Dance Band competition organised by the magazine Music Maker and the Sydney Trocadero…

OBITUARY: ROSS FUSEDALE 1927-2020

by Bill Haesler OAM

AJAZZ 88, February 2021

Unfortunately only older Sydney jazz people will remember Ross Fusedale, who was a stalwart of Australian jazz from the early 1940s. A quiet and gentle man he was a fine but self-effacing musician with a keen sense of humour and an important part of our music for most of his life. Not a luminary but a peer to most of them. Ross John Fusedale, (Stomp, Stonk, Flossie) was born in Sydney NSW on December 20, 1927, played clarinet, alto and soprano saxophones and lived with his parents in Bexley. It was obvious that he had musical training, but he never mentioned it. For all his outgoing zaniness Ross was a private person…