- Australian jazz
Jazz music has a long history in Australia. Over the years jazz has held a high profile at local clubs, festivals and other music venues and a vast number of recordings have been produced by Australian jazz musicians, many of whom have gone on to gain a high profile in the international jazz arena.Jazz is an American musical genre largely originated by
African Americans but the style was rapidly and enthusiastically taken up by musicians all over the world, including Australia. Jazz and jazz-influenced syncopated dance music was being performed in Australia within a year of the emergence of jazz as a definable musical genre in the United States.Until the 1950s the primary form of accompaniment at Australian public dances was jazz-based dance music, modeled on the leading white British and American jazz bands, and this style enjoyed wide popularity.
It was not until after World War II that Australian jazz scene began to diversify as local musicians were finally able to get access to recordings by leading African-American jazz musicians like
Charlie Parker ,Dizzy Gillespie ,Miles Davis andThelonious Monk , andbebop ,cool jazz andfree jazz exerting a strong influence on Australian musicians in the late 1950s and beyond.Although jazz in Australia suffered a significant drop in popularity during the Sixties, as it did in most other countries, there was a marked resurgence of interest in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties as a new generation of musicians came to the fore. The best Australian jazz performers are now regarded as equal to the best in the world, although, as in other forms of popular music, they still suffer from a lack of music industry support.
It is also important to acknowledge the role of New Zealand musicians in the Australian jazz scene, and as jazz historian
Andrew Bisset has noted, it is impossible to properly discuss the subject of Australian jazz without reference to New Zealand. Many of the leading "Australian" jazz playing musicians of the last 80 years have come from New Zealand, beginning with figures like reeds player Abe Romaine in the 1920s and later including renowned pianist-composersMike Nock andDave MacRae and Judy Bailey, drummerBarry Woods and vocalistRicky May .Jazz precursors in Australia
White American and British 'black-face' minstrels (musician/actors in make-up) brought imitations of slave plantation music (and dance) to Australia by the 1840s, featuring characteristics that later became associated with jazz, such as polyrhythmic 'breaks'. From the 1850s, full minstrel shows with minstrel 'orchestras', including locally formed troupes, toured the major capital cities and smaller, boom towns like Ballarat and Bendigo. Visits by American vaudeville troupes became much more common after the introduction of regular steamship services between America and Australia in the 1870s. Some genuine African-American minstrel troupes and jubilee singers (black chamber choirs) toured from the 1870s.
Ragtime reached Australia in the 1890s in the form of syncopated cakewalk march music and syncopated "
coon-song " and many white and black ragtime artists of repute toured Australia, including the black ragtime vocalist, Ernest Hogan, and white artists Ben Harney (the self-proclaimed 'originator' of ragtime) and Gene Green (the Emperor of Ragtime). Greene in particular taught many Australian artists how to 'rag' (improvise in ragtime style).Early 20th century
Thanks to close Australian links with American theatrical entertainment circuits, and Tin Pan Alley marketing of American music to Australia via
phonograph records, modern dance arrangements, piano rolls and visiting jazz acts, Australians developed a strong interest in jazz influenced dance music and its related forms. 'Jazz' or 'jass' (hot dance music) was well established by the mid-1920s. Jazz was recorded on piano-rolls in Australia before 1923 and disc recordings like "Red Hot Mamma" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Ray Tellier's San Francisco Orchestra were also being recorded by 1925.Local exposure to current trends in American jazz in the Twenties was moderated by Australian popular taste, which favoured the polished white style of American jazz (dance) orchestra music, particularly the symphonic jazz style typified by Paul Whiteman. Public dancing entered a boom period from 1919 with the opening of numerous 'jazz palais' with some in the large cities being able to hold thousands of patrons. The Australian style of jazz dance music was further determined by the very limited range of jazz recordings imported into Australia at that time. Australian jazz veteran
Graeme Bell has commented that, in the 1920s and 1930s, recordings by jazz greats such asLouis Armstrong were not available locally in Australia until several years after their release in the USA. Fact|date=October 2008The biggest musical influence in the period 1923-1928 was a succession of visiting white American jazz (or dance) orchestras, mainly from the West Coast.
Frank Ellis and his Californians , who arrived in 1923. Thousands of dance fans regularly flocked to see them at Sydney's largest dance hall, the Palais Royale (theRoyal Hall of Industries atMoore Park , which still stands today). American bands and individual imported 'jazz specialists'continued to be imported by Australian theatrical entrepreneurs until the end of the 1920s. Australians could study the performance and presentation style of these bands first-hand and talented local musicians were soon offered places in some of them.Restrictions on touring American bands after 1928, resulting from the forced departure of the visiting African-American band
Sonny Clay 's Plantation Orchestra meant that Australian dance musician usually had to learn about jazz from recorded or written sources. These included imported recordings, dance arrangements, jazz on film (after 1929), patent 'how to jazz courses', individual visiting artists (most of whom were white) and literature such as Australian Dance Band News (1932-with subsequent title changes).However, from the early 1930s, Australian dance musicians began to hear and absorb the work of black artists and leaders like Elligton and Armstrong as well as English jazz influences. Notable swing bands of the 1930s included Jim Davidson & His New Palais Royal Orchestra, Frank Coughlan & His Trocadero Orchestra, Dudley Cantrell & His Grace Grenadiers, and numerous others and many were recorded.
Trombonist and bandleader [http://home.westserv.net.au/~fordhen/Frank_Coughlan.html Frank Coughlan] (1904-1979) has been called "The Father of Australian Jazz". He had an illustrious career that lasted from the early 1920s to the 1970s. He was chosen to lead the famous jazz orchestra that was put together for the opening in 1936 of the
Sydney Trocadero , which became the city's leading dance venue for the next 35 years, and Coughlan led the orchestra at "The Troc" until its closure in 1971.Post-World War II jazz
After the end of World War II Australian jazz began to diverge into two major strands: dixieland or 'traditional jazz'(early jazz) and modern styles like progressive swing boogie-woogie and bop as exemplified by the music of
Charlie Parker andDizzy Gillespie Graeme Bell was an important contributor to Melbourne's 1940s traditional jazz boom and in 1947 his band was a great success when they played at the World Youth Festival inPrague ,Czechoslovakia , going on to tour Europe and finally basing themselves in England where they are said to have exerted a strong influence on the European traditional jazz revival of that era. On returning to Australia Graeme Bell's Jazz Band worked successfully on the local club circuit, as well as recording and touring extensively.The
Australian Jazz Quintet /Quartet was a contemporary Australian jazz group that did very well in the USA at that time. In the early 1950s pianistBryce Rohde along withErrol Buddle (reeds) andJack Brokensha (vibes and drums) moved from Australia to Windsor in Canada. An agent heard them play locally and asked if they would come across the border to back female vocalistChris Connor at a nightclub inDetroit . This started the ball rolling, and in 1953, along with American saxophonist and bassistDick Healey , they formed the Australian Jazz Quartet.This extremely successful unit recorded ten albums and worked at most major US jazz venues. Sometimes a bass player and drummer would be hired to complement the group during recording sessions, and when they ultimately added a permanent bass player they renamed themselves the Australian Jazz Quintet (AJQ). American bassist
Ed Gaston joined the AJQ while they were touring the USA in 1958 and he later married and settled down in Australia, becoming an important contributor to the local jazz scene in the ensuing years.The AJQ was highly rated in polls run by US jazz magazines such as
Down Beat . They worked on the same bill as names likeMiles Davis ,Count Basie ,Gerry Mulligan ,Dave Brubeck and theMJQ ; backed singersBillie Holiday andCarmen McRae ; and played at top venues such asCarnegie Hall andBirdland .By the late 1950s, modern players were widely influenced by the more restrained cool or West Coast style but some were also influenced by the more aggressive and polyrhythmic 'hard bop' style. Leading modern jazz venues in the 1950s and 60s included Jazz Centre 44, The Embers and the Fat Black Pussycat in Melbourne and the Sky Lounge, El Rocco and the Mocambo in Sydney. Fact|date=October 2008
The El Rocco became a legend in Australian jazz history and in the 1980s a documentary movie "Beyond The El Rocco" was made about the club. Many of Sydney's top musicians worked there early in their careers including
John Sangster ,John Pochée ,Don Burrows ,George Golla .The
Three Out Trio withMike Nock (Piano), Freddy Logan (Bass), andChris Karan (Drums) attracted some of the largest crowds at Sydney'sEl Rocco , a small cellar club situated inKings Cross . Originally from New Zealand, Mike Nock came to Sydney in the late 1950s and almost immediately scored a regular spot at the El Rocco. Bassist Freddy Logan hailed from Holland and had already been very active in the Sydney jazz scene both as a player and a promoter of jazz, and in later years drummer Chris Karan would gain international recognition as a member of theDudley Moore Trio.The members of the Three Out Trio first got together as part of a group that Sydney alto saxophonist Frank Smith put together as the house band at "The Embers", a very successful jazz club in Melbourne that also featured top international jazz artists such as the
Oscar Peterson Trio andBenny Carter . Before he left for Melbourne Frank Smith had made a big impression in Sydney, he worked with most of the top professional bands and could often be found playing at the El Rocco in its earlier years. A handful of Sydney jazz musicians includingJohn Pochée , Barry Woods, Dave MacRae, Andy Brown andBernie McGann also travelled south around that time, finding work in venues such as "The Fat Black Pussycat", another Melbourne jazz club that provided an outlet for those intent on playing uncompromising forms of jazz.In 1957, jazz producer
Horst Liepolt set up a new venue in Melbourne, "Jazz Centre 44". For 4 to 5 nights a week and Sunday afternoons up to 200 people would gather in the upstairs room to hear Brian Brown,Stewie Speer , Alan Lee, Graeme Morgan, Keith Hounslow, the Melbourne New Orleans Jazz Band and many other local jazz musicians, and Jazz Centre 44 remained a major venue for jazz in Melbourne for almost a decade.Advent of Televsion
Television was an important source of work for jazz musicians in the early-mid 1960s, with programs like
Graham Kennedy 's "In Melbourne Tonight " employing regular house bands that comprised many of best players on the Melbourne jazz/session scene. Melbourne musicians like Bruce Clarke and Frank Smith also worked extensively on soundtracks and advertising music, and Clarkes' Jingle Workshop studio in St Kilda, which produced much important music in these genres, was a significant focus, not merely for its commercial work, but also because it was the venue for regular Sunday jam sessions, many of which Clarke recorded.Rock 'n' roll had dominated the youth music scene from the mid-1950s and pop and rock continued to dominate in the sixties and beyond. Many leading jazz performers likeGraeme Lyall ,Stewie Speer andJohn Sangster worked with rock groups and absorbed important stylistic influences from the Motown,soul music andfunk genres. From the late 1960s, there was a revival to the 'big band' format, partly fuelled by the popularity of "big band" rock ensembles likeBlood Sweat & Tears and Chicago. The most notable local modern big band was the highly acclaimed but shortlivedDaly Wilson Big Band , which enjoyed considerable popularity and which was the first Australian musical act to tour the former Soviet Union. Another very popular band isGalápagos Duck , who exerted a huge influence on the Sydney jazz scene as part-owners of and regular performers at Sydney's longest-running jazz venue,The Basement , which opened in 1973.Jazz in the 1970s
A very significant development in 1973 was the inception of the jazz studies course at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music , the first jazz course to be offered by an Australian tertiary institution. The then Director of the Sydney Conservatorium,Rex Hobcroft , was approached by jazz musicianDon Burrows about the idea of putting together a jazz studies course.Ultimately US saxophonist and music educator
Howie Smith was brought to Sydney on a grant from theFulbright Program to set up the course. The grant was originally for 9 months but Howie Smith ended up staying for three years, and as well as his involvement with the Conservatorium he also became very active in the Sydney jazz scene, mostly with the groupJazz Co/op which also included local musiciansRoger Frampton (piano),Jack Thorncraft (bass)andPhil Treloar (drums).When The Basement opened its doors it became Sydney's major jazz club during the seventies, and its success encouraged many other venue owners to hire jazz groups. Jazz producer
Horst Liepolt , who was booking bands for The Basement, became very active at that time and he set in motion a number of jazz venues and events, including TheManly Jazz Festival , Jazz at theSydney Festival and his own series of jazz concerts titled "Music is an Open Sky". Horst Liepolt also set up the 44 record label (a subsidiary of Phonogram records) which recorded over 30 albums of local jazz. He also organised numerous successful concerts at many of Sydney's high profile entertainment venues including theSydney Opera House and the Regent Theatre.This major resurgence of Australian jazz took place mostly in Sydney, but it had some flow-on effects in the jazz scene throughout Australia. Many jazz musicians came to Sydney from other areas of Australia during this decade, either to perform at special concerts or in some cases to live permanently and pursue a career in music. There was also a more than usual interest for jazz in Melbourne during the 1970s. Jazz performances were included in the Moomba Festival and Melbourne jazz musicians such as Tony Gould, Brian Brown,
Bob Sedergreen and Ted Vining benefited from the resurgence of interest in the music at that time.A lot of top American jazz musicians performed in Sydney during the seventies, and major players such as
Dave Liebman ,John Scofield andMiroslav Vitous gave master classes and workshops while they were here.Bob Barnard has become an icon of Australian jazz and has probably made more of an impression internationally than any other Australian jazz musician. In the year of 1974 the Bob Barnard Jazz Band was formed.Jazz fusion , as typified by groups likeReturn to Forever , largely passed Australia by, although the group Crossfire was probably the best and best-known Australian act to work in this area.Some of the many working jazz groups in Sydney during the seventies were the Jazz Co/op,
John Pochee 's The Last Straw, TheDon Burrows Quartet, theGalapagos Duck , The Judy Bailey Quartet,Kerrie Biddell and Compared to What, theBob Barnard Jazz Band,Paul Furniss ' Eclipse Alley Five, Col Nolan and the Soul Syndicate, the Peter Boothman / Sid Edwards quartet, Serge Ermoll and Free Kata, and Craig Benjamin's Out To Lunch.The jazz scene in Sydney slowed down a little towards the start of the 1980s when The Basement pursued a more commercial music policy after extending their premises by adding a large upstairs area. Around that same time Horst Liepolt left Australia, going on to a successful career in jazz production in New York, and this left a major gap in the area of jazz promotion in Sydney. However traditional and mainstream bands continued to do well in the pub scene and contemporary jazz could still be found in venues such as The Paradise at Kings Cross, Jenny's in the inner city and Morgan's Feedwell at Glebe.
1980s and later
Through the 1980s and 1990s jazz remained a small but vibrant sector of the Australian music industry. Despite its relative lack of visibility in the mass market, Australian jazz continued to develop to a high level of creativity and professionalism that, for the most part, has been inversely proportional to its low level of public and industry recognition and acceptance.
Players who were more influenced by traditional or
cool jazz streams tended to dominate public attention and some moved successfully into academia. Multi-instrumentalistDon Burrows was for several decades a regular presence on television and radio, as well as being a prolific session musician. His quartets (usually withGeorge Golla on guitar) played at many of the top international jazz festivals and he recorded prolifically in the 1970s and 80s. Although Burrows made no secret of his dislike for the bebop andfree jazz strands, he became a senior teacher at theSydney Conservatorium of Music and has exerted a strong influence on Australian jazz through his recordings, performances and teaching.His protege, trumpeter James Morrison, who was heavily influenced by
Louis Armstrong , has carved out a very successful career playing a style not unlike that ofWynton Marsalis , that blended some modern elements (e.g. the crowd-pleasing high-register technical bravura of Dizzy Gillespie) with the accessible structures and melodies of 'trad' and 'cool' jazz.Multi-instrumental wind player [http://www.jazz-planet.com/~dbarlow/ Dale Barlow] emerged in the late 1970s as one of the most promising new talents on the Australian scene, and after stints in the Young Northside Big Band and a formative period in the
David Martin Quintet (with James Morrison), he moved to New York, where he was a member of two famed groups, theCedar Walton Quartet andArt Blakey 'sJazz Messengers . Barlow has also toured and recorded with many other jazz greats includingSonny Stitt ,Chet Baker ,Gil Evans ,Jackie McLean ,Billy Cobham ,Curtis Fuller ,Eddie Palmieri ,Dizzy Gillespie ,Benny Golson ,Lee Konitz ,Sonny Stitt ,Helen Merrill ,Mulgrew Miller andKenny Barron .Many "second generation" bebop-influenced performers like New Zealand born pianist
Mike Nock , bassistLloyd Swanton , saxophonistDale Barlow , pianistChris Abrahams , saxophonistSandy Evans and pianistRoger Frampton (who died in 2000) rose to prominence in this period, alongside their older contemporaries, led byBernie McGann andJohn Pochee , whose long-running groupThe Last Straw (founded in 1974) has carried the torch for this stream of jazz for many years.New Zealand-born pianist-composer Dave McRae established himself as a performer of note in Australia in the 1960s before moving overseas, where he branched out into a diverse range of activities including a stint as the keyboard player in the British 1970s progressive rock group
Matching Mole and collaborating withBill Oddie ofThe Goodies on music for their TV series.The trio of
Tony Buck (drums), and the aforementioned Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano), known together asThe Necks since forming in 1987 (see1987 in music ), have been particularly notable for hypnotic hour-long jazz, ambient and otherwise widely influenced spontaneous compositions, gaining widespread attention both in Australia and internationally. Their album "Drive-By", which consists of a single 60-minute track, was named Jazz Album of the Year in the 2004 ARIA Awards.During the 1990s and early 2000s, there was also noticeable trend back towards jazz by many popular performers who had been associated with the rock genre. Most notable amongst these were
Kate Ceberano ,Dannielle Gaha andThe Whitlams who all released traditional jazz or jazz-influenced albums within a very short space of time.Compared to the latter years of the 1900s jazz has lost some of its impetus in Australia in the first decade of the twenty first century. However it is still very visible in a number of venues including Melbourne's Bennett's Lane Jazz Club and concerts in Sydney staged by groups such as Sima, The Jazzgroove Association and The Jazz Action Society.
Australian Jazz Singers, Musicians and ensembles
*
Graeme Bell
*Vince Jones
*Dannielle Gaha
*Roger Frampton
*John Pochee
*Miroslav Bukovsky
*Bob Bertles
*Don Burrows
*Paul Furniss
*George Golla
*Bob Sedergreen
*Bernie McGann
*John Morrison
*James Morrison
*Dave Panichi
*John Sangster
*Craig Scott Ensembles
*
Galapagos Duck
*Goose
*Triosk Notes
References
*Bisset, Andrew (1979) "Black Roots White Flowers - A History of Jazz in Australia", Golden Press Pty Ltd ISBN 0-85558-680-X
*Clare, John (1995), "Bodgie Dada and the Cult of the Cool", University of NSW Press ISBN 0-86840-103-X.
*Johnson, Bruce (1987), "The Oxford Companion To Australian Jazz", Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 554791 8External links
* [http://www.jazz.org.au/ Jazz Australia]
* [http://www.sydneyjazzclub.com/ The Sydney Jazz Club]
* [http://www.jazzandbeyond.com.au Jazz & Beyond Sydney's Jazz Magazine]
* [http://www.myspace.com/peterboothman A Story of Jazz in Sydney - by Peter Boothman]
* [http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/screensound/screenso.nsf/Web+Pages/EEEACF905C92D62DCA256B5F00176058?OpenDocument National Film and Sound Archive The Australian Jazz Archive & National Register of Australian Jazz Interviews]
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