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: JOHN COSTELLOE 1930-1985

by Bruce Johnson

Jazz Magazine, Winter/Spring, 1985

John Costelloe was born in Cootamundra on October 8, 1930. As his father was the local bandmaster, it is not surprising that as a teenager Cossie, as he was always known, was playing with the Cootamundra City Band. His first regular jazz work was with The Modernist Jazz Band, in which he began by playing drums until the recruitment of another drummer enabled him to move to his preferred instrument, the trombone. This band became the Cootamundra Jazz Band, one of the few rural bands in Australia to reverse the usual pattern, by providing stimulus to the city scene, and by being booked to come to Sydney to perform, as it was by the Sydney Jazz Club in 1956. Cossie's facility stood out, and indeed at one time he had to decline an invitation to tour with Graeme Bell whose records had been an early inspiration to the Cootamundra musicians…

OBITUARY: HARRY RIVERS 1943-2021

A personal memory by Garry Lee

September 6, 2021

Harry Bernard Rivers was a jazz drummer, vocalist & percussionist, born in Samoa on May 27, 1943 into a family of 13 children. He was educated in Auckland, New Zealand and moved to Sydney in the 1960s. Harry’s older sister, Mavis Rivers (born May 19, 1929, died May 29, 1992), enjoyed a successful career as a jazz vocalist in the US, recording eight albums from 1959 to 1984 including collaborations with Shorty Rogers and Red Norvo. From the early 1970s Harry became a mainstay of the Sydney jazz scene frequently working with vocalist/guitarist Johnny Nicol and pianist Col Nolan…

OBITUARY: SY BLUHM 1918-2014

by Jeremy Bluhm

Sydney Morning Herald, April 25, 2014

In 1962, Sy Bluhm, then a lawyer in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was concerned about the dangers to the world of nuclear war. He felt that his family would be safer in Australia than America. However, with three small children and considering the difficulties he would face practicing law in a different country, he and his wife Freddie decided that the move was not feasible. In the 1980s, when it came time to retire, the couple decided to make the move, not to shelter from nuclear war but to enjoy the sunshine and the cultural life Sydney had to offer. They arrived here in 1984 and became ''that American couple'' who seemed to be out every night enjoying jazz, classical music and theatre…