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: DICK LOWE 1937-1985
by John Shand
Jazz Magazine, Summer/Autumn, 1986
Enthusiasm and professionalism were the key words in the 30-year career of the alto saxophonist Dick Lowe. The Sydney jazz community mourns the passing of Lowe, who died suddenly on September 29, 1985 after contracting pneumonia and suffering a heart attack. He is survived by his charming wife Sue, and their two children Matthew, 10, and Sarah, 7. Born in London on December 20, 1937, Lowe, like many British jazz players of his generation, entered the Royal Air Force to gain intense musical training, ‘free of charge’. His career as a professional musician was firmly established from the time of his discharge. Some 20 years ago, he came to Australia, in search of a more convivial climate in which to make music…
OBITUARY: MEL LANGDON 1917-1985
by Graeme Bell
Jazz Magazine, Winter/Spring, 1985
Melvin Ernest Langdon died on May 6, 1985, at the Annandale Nursing Home, Sydney, aged 67. He was born in October, 1917. For the last few years of his life, Mel was confined to hospitals or nursing homes with advanced emphysema. Unable to lie down, because of this, he sat in an armchair for the last three years of his life and in 1985 developed cancer of the throat. Cause of death was presumed to be from a stroke. I first met Mel one night around 1945 when my band was playing at the Melbourne Trocadero. He was a Lieutenant in the Australian Navy and looked resplendent in his white uniform. He was good looking and possessed the voice of an actor and a charming manner to match. It was no coincidence that he turned out to be — what we called in those days — a ladykiller…
OBITUARY: NANCY STUART 1921-1985
by John McCarthy
Jazz Magazine, Winter/Spring, 1985
A brand new career in your fifties? This is what everybody hopes for, yet it happened to our dear friend Nancy Stuart, who went over to the Gloryland on Friday 22nd March, 1985. She was born on June 6, 1921. Nancy's career began with the big bands in the late 'forties when she sang at Leggetts Ballroom in Melbourne (four nights a week for 3 pounds, she recalled). When the ballroom dancing scene finished Nancy drifted into early retirement mainly singing at parties. She married Jim Stuart and had four children. In the 1970s in Sydney, Nancy began her comeback by sitting in at various pubs, singing at Jazz Conventions, etc. The word soon spread and she worked with Ray Price, the Harbour City Jazz Band, Bob Barnard and Paul Furniss amongst many others...