A brief history of 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 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.

Jazz emerged around the late 1800s, in the post-slavery period, in New Orleans, a
city which was intensely musically orientated. Brass bands were present at almost
every social activity. Ragtime bands, singers, and pianists proliferated. Small town
and settlement bands created music which combined ragtime and brass with other
influences such as slave songs, African rhythms, spirituals, folk songs, the blues,
church music, and dance music.

The history of jazz and related genres in Australia extends back into the 19th
century. During the gold rush locally formed 'blackface' (white actor-musicians in
blackface) minstrel troupes began to tour Australia, touring not only the capital
cities but also many of the booming regional towns like Ballarat and Bendigo.
Minstrel orchestra music features including improvisatory embellishment and
polyrhythm in the (pre-classic) banjo playing and clever percussion breaks. Some
genuine African-American minstrel and jubilee singing troupes toured from the
1870s. A more jazz-like form of minstrelsy reached Australia in the late 1890s in the
form of improvisatory and syncopated coon song and cake-walk music, two early
forms of ragtime. The next two decades brought ensemble, piano and vocal ragtime
and leading (mostly white) American ragtime artists, including Ben Harney,
'Emperor of Ragtime' Gene Greene and pianist Charlie Straight. Some of these
visitors taught Australians how to 'rag' (improvise unsyncopated popular music into
ragtime-style music).

By the mid 1920s, phonograph machines, increased contact with American popular
music and visiting white American dance musicians had firmly established jazz
(meaning jazz inflected modern dance and stage music) in Australia. The first
recordings of jazz in Australia are Master-touch piano rolls recorded in Sydney from
around 1922 but jazz began to be recorded on disc by 1925, first in Melbourne and
soon thereafter in Sydney.

Soon after World War II, jazz in Australia diverged into two strands. One was based
on the earlier collectively improvised called "dixieland" or traditional jazz. The other
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so-called modernist stream was based on big band swing, small band progressive
swing, boogie woogie, and after WWII, the emerging new style of bebop. By the
1950s American bop, itself, was dividing into so-called 'cool' and 'hard' bop schools,
the latter being more polyrhythmic and aggressive. This division reached Australia
on a small scale by the end of the 1950s. From the mid-1950s rock and roll began to
draw young audiences and social dancers away from jazz. British-style dixieland,
called Trad, became popular in the early 1960s. Most modern players stuck with the
'cool' (often called West Coast) style, but some experimented with free jazz, modal
jazz, experiment with 'Eastern' influences, art music and visual art concept,
electronic and jazz-rock fusions.

The 1970s brought tertiary jazz education courses and continuing innovation and
diversification in jazz which, by the late 1980s, included world music fusion and
contemporary classical and jazz crossovers. From this time, the trend towards
eclectic style fusions has continued with ensembles like The Catholics, Australian
Art Orchestra, Tongue and Groove, austraLYSIS, Wanderlust, The Necks and many
others. It is questionable whether the label jazz is elastic enough to continue to
embrace the ever-widening range of improvisatory musics that are associated with
the term jazz in Australia. However, mainstream modern jazz and dixieland still
have the strongest following and patron still flock to hear famous mainstream
artists who have been around for decades, such as One Night Stand players Dugald
Shaw and Blair Jordan, reeds player Don Burrows and trumpeter James Morrison
and, sometimes, the famous pioneer of traditional jazz in Australia, Graeme Bell.A
non-academic genre of jazz has also evolved with a harder"street edge" style. The
Conglomerate, The Bamboos, Damage, Cookin on Three Burners, John Mcalls Black
Money are examples of this.

It is also important to acknowledge the role of New Zealand musicians in the

Australian jazz scene, such as jazz historian Andrew Bisset, 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-composers Mike Nock and Dave
MacRae and Judy Bailey, drummer Barry Woods and vocalist Ricky 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

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'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
Greene (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 as Louis Armstrong were not available locally in Australia until
several years after their release in the USA.

The 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 (the Royal Hall of
Industries at Moore 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

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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 Duke Ellington 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 Frank Coughlan (1904-1979) has been called "The
Father of Australian Jazz".[1] 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 and
Dizzy 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 in Prague, 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 pianist Bryce Rohde along

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with Errol Buddle (reeds) and Jack 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 vocalist Chris Connor at a nightclub in
Detroit. This started the ball rolling, and in 1953, along with American saxophonist
and bassist Dick 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 like Miles Davis, Count Basie, Gerry
Mulligan, Dave Brubeck and the MJQ; backed singers Billie Holiday and Carmen
McRae; and played at top venues such as Carnegie Hall and Birdland.

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.

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, Alan Turnbull

The Three Out Trio with Mike Nock (Piano), Freddy Logan (Bass), and Chris Karan
(Drums) attracted some of the largest crowds at Sydney's El Rocco, a small cellar
club situated in Kings 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 the
Dudley 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 and Benny 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 including John Pochée, Barry
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Woods, Dave MacRae, Andy Brown and Bernie 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. The most successful group to appear at Sydney's
Mocambo Restaurant in King St Newtown was the Mocambo Four, with Sid Edwards
(Vibraphone), Tony Esterman (Piano), Winston Sterling (Bass) and Laurie Kennedy
(Drums). The piano chair was also filled by Tony Curby or Bob Dunn over the band's
stint of around 4 years during the early 1960s. This venue was very well attended,
often people were lined up in the street waiting to get in and a lot of people would
drop in to hear the band after a night out at a City cinema. In 1957, jazz producer
Horst Liepolt set up a new venue in Melbourne, "Jazz Centre 44". For four to five
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 Television

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
like Graeme Lyall, Stewie Speer and John Sangster worked with rock groups and
absorbed important stylistic influences from the Motown, soul music and funk
genres.

From the late 1960s, there was a revival to the 'big band' format, partly fuelled by
the popularity of big band rock ensembles like Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago.
The most notable local modern big band was the highly acclaimed but short-lived
Daly Wilson Big Band, which enjoyed considerable popularity and which was the
first Australian musical act to tour the Soviet Union. Another very popular band is
Galapagos 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. Serge Ermoll's Free Kata, the first free jazz

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ensemble to record and internationally release a series of albums The New
Language of Music on EMI and Philips entitles Spontaneous Improvisations.

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 musician Don 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 the Fulbright 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 group Jazz Co/op which also included local musicians Roger
Frampton (piano), Jack Thorncraft (bass)and Phil 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 The Manly Jazz Festival, Jazz at the Sydney 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 the Sydney 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 and Miroslav Vitous gave master
classes and workshops while they were here.

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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 like Return 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, The Don Burrows Quartet, the Galapagos
Duck, The Judy Bailey Quartet, Kerrie Biddell and Compared to What, the Bob
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 1990s

Before the 1980s co-ordination of Jazz concerts was particularly lacking. The NSW
Jazz Co-ordination program helped the establishment of the Sydney Improvised
Music Association in Sydney quickly followed by the establishment of the Melbourne
Jazz Co-operative in 1982. Both sought and gained Federal Government Arts Council
funding soon after establishment. Similar Jazz co-ordination programs were
established in other states with Arts Council and State Government Funding.

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-
instrumentalist Don Burrows was for several decades a regular presence on
television and radio, as well as being a prolific session musician. His quartets
(usually with George Golla on guitar) played at many of the top international jazz
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festivals and he recorded prolifically in the 1970s and 80s. Although Burrows made
no secret of his dislike for the bebop and free jazz strands, he became a senior
teacher at the Sydney 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 of
Wynton 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 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,
the Cedar Walton Quartet and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Barlow has also toured
and recorded with many other jazz greats including Sonny 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 and Kenny
Barron.In 1980 he performed at concerts in Adelaide and Sydney with the Bruce
Cale Quartet with Roger Frampton (piano and saxes) Bruce Cale (bass) and Phil
Treloar (drums). Two exceptional live concerts by this group have been recorded,
The Bruce Cale Quartet Live (Adelaide concert) and On Fire - The Sydney Concert.

Many "second generation" bebop-influenced performers like New Zealand born

pianist Mike Nock, bassist Lloyd Swanton, saxophonist Dale Barlow, pianist Chris
Abrahams, saxophonist Sandy Evans and pianist Roger Frampton (who died in
2000) rose to prominence in this period, alongside their older contemporaries, led
by Bernie McGann and John Pochee, whose long-running group The 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 with Bill
Oddie of The 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 as The Necks since forming in 1987 (see
1987 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.

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2000 and later

During the 1990s and early 2000s, there was a 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 and The 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 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 Sydney Improvised Music Association, Venue 505,
The Jazzgroove Association, and The Jazz Action Society. The Melbourne Jazz Co-
operative since 2007 has run three jazz concerts a week in Melbourne, the most
active jazz presenter organisation in Australia.

In 2010 jazz music continues to be a valid and visible form of expression in

Australia. Although jazz is virtually ignored by mainstream media there is
considerable coverage in alternative media outlets such as community radio, and
the ABC Dig Jazz digital radio station now plays jazz 24 hours a day non-stop, with a
considerable amount of local content.

The standard of musicianship amongst younger players entering the scene

continues to be high, and in recent years there has been a trend towards
contemporary groups playing primarily original material, rather than standards and
jazz standards.

A non-college style of jazz has also evolved with a harder"street edge" style.The
Conglomerate, The Bamboos, Damage, Cookin' on Three Burners, John Mcalls Black
Money are examples of this.

There are also a number of jazz festivals that continue to be staged including the
Melbourne Jazz Festival, Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival, Wagga Wagga Jazz Festival,
the Jazzgroove Summer Festival in Sydney and the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.

Jazzgroove in Sydney promotes young jazz musicians and host gigs in venues such
as 505 and the Basement

Australian jazz – innovative

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Definitions of jazz are often controversial but 'there are elements that most jazz
styles have in common - improvisation and the jazz swing feeling'. To improvise is
to compose and perform simultaneously.

An Australian jazz sound has developed through a practice of innovation where

performers improvised within particular jazz styles, as well as created original
sounds by mixing jazz styles. Innovative Australian jazz is contributing a definitive
edge to Australian music. Australian musicians are also helping to contribute to
define 'Nu-jazz'.

Early improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of spontaneously varying individual parts.

Improvisation most likely developed in jazz by the 1920s due to boredom on the
part of players with fixed routines, the need to learn new material without recourse
to sheet music, a continuation of the African traditions for spontaneous alterations,
unbridled creativity, and longer dances, which led to solos to allow the horn players
time to rest their lips.

The single player who stands out in jazz history is New Orleans born trumpeter
Louis Armstrong who is seen as the most influential, having been imitated by
saxophonists, trombonists and pianists as well as trumpeters. Armstrong had a
large tone, wide range, better command of the trumpet and was one of the first
'combo' players to effectively demonstrate solo improvisation.

Later brass and horn players who significantly influenced improvisation were Bix
Beiderbecke, who played in a cool, thoughtful style in the 1920s, and the horn
player Sidney Bechet, who moved jazz horn to a dramatic solo style. Bechet
influenced Johnny Hodges and John Coltrane who developed impressive timing of
improvised ornamentations.

Free Jazz, Fusion and Groove

In the 1960s, 'Free Jazz' abandoned chord patterns and sometimes rhythm and
melody on which to improvise. This style has dominated much of what has
happened since then. Since the 1960s, 'Fusion' blended jazz and rock in about 1968
and became popular in the 1970s. 'Groove' was a marriage with 1960s soul music
and re-surfaced as Acid Jazz in the 1990s. From 2000 onwards 'Groove' became a
hip version of 'Fusion'! Add samples to Groove and it becomes 'Nu-jazz'.

Australian jazz innovation

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Mixing jazz styles

A number of Australian players are well known internationally for mixing jazz styles.
Jackie Orszaczky came out to Australia from his native Hungary in the early 1970s,
and traced blues links in Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Chinese folk traditions. Jackie
founded a new soul funk/groove, rhythm and blues band in 1994 with jazz vocalist
Tina Harrod called the Grandmasters - touring in Australia and overseas.

In the 1990s, d.i.g. (Directions in Groove) toured successfully internationally in the

UK and Japan with an original sound that was a mix of acid jazz, jazz funk and
groove.

The practice of Australian jazz bands mixing jazz styles has contributed to
Australian jazz being seen as innovative, fresh and original, reflecting on the diverse
ethnic rhythms that are part of Australia's musical landscape and connecting to the
dance rhythms of the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.

The Necks and The Catholics

Sydney based band, The Necks, Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums), and
Lloyd Swanton (bass) mix avant-garde minimalist, ambient, and jazz styles to offer
Australian music that, according to the Age (13 Jan 2005), 'conjures clouds of
resonance, wind and rain, grand passion, and a strong sense of foreboding before
subsiding to set the listener down on a serene plain'.

The Necks have contributed to over 150 Australian albums and this distinction has
contributed to a defining edge in Australian music.

Rolling Stone wrote of The Catholics (led by Lloyd Swanton) in the context of
Australian new jazz: The richness, diversity and accessibility of The Catholics
suffuses every track... no written description can do justice to this music. If you've
heard the whisper, which is now becoming a roar, that [is] the new Australian jazz.

Improvisation within jazz styles - Australian jazz greats

Australian jazz innovation, expressed by improvising within jazz styles, is

represented in the work of artists like alto saxophonists Bernie McGann, pianist Mike
Nock and saxophonists Dale Barlow and Sandy Evans.

All of these Australian jazz artists are achievers on the world stage, playing at the
prestigious Chicago and Berlin Jazz Festivals. These performers have won 9 Mo
Awards and 7 Australian Record Industry Awards between them, as well as Australia

12
Council for the Arts fellowships and awards for their outstanding contributions to
Australian music.

Bernie McGann

Bernie McGann is Australia's foremost jazz saxophonist, playing in Sydney since the
1950s. His forty year plus career parallels the most important developments in
modern jazz. Bernie McGann is regarded as 'forging a bold, exciting, freewheeling
approach to modern jazz with his mix of original compositions and marvellous
reworkings of standards and lesser known songs'.

McGann's long established trio includes Lloyd Swanton, bass and John Pochée,
drums has recently been expanded with trumpeter Warwick Alder. Pianist Paul
Grabowsky, says of McGann as one of the truly great saxophonists of all time:
Bernie McGann is one of the most important artists Australia has produced in the
20th century. I think he stands alongside Patrick White and Fred Williams as one of
the people who most beautifully express the Australian condition in their work.

Mike Nock

In the 1960s jazz pianist Mike Nock led the seminal jazz-rock group The Fourth Way,
before spending twenty-five years working in the USA with many of the world's top
musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Yusef Lateef, Dione Warwick, and Michael
Brecker.

Mike Nock is recognised internationally with three U.S. National Endowment for the
Arts fellowships as well as being awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit, O.N.Z.M.
for services to jazz in 2003. From 1996 to 2001 he was music director of Naxos/Jazz
records, overseeing the production of more than 70 critically acclaimed jazz CDs,
from all corners of the world.

Sandy Evans

Sandy Evans is widely recognised as one of the leading saxophonists (tenor and
soprano) and composers for contemporary jazz in Australia. She leads the Sandy
Evans Trio, co-leads the internationally acclaimed Clarion Fracture Zone and was a
founding member of The Catholics as well as the ten piece ensemble, Ten Part
Invention (1986), an innovative contemporary jazz ensemble. Sandy is the winner of
the Inaugural Bell Award for Australian Jazz Musician of The Year, 2003.

Dale Barlow

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Dale Barlow is widely recognised as a tenor saxophonist and composer, highly
regarded as a 'neo-bop' player. As a composer he has written for large and small
ensemble, film and television, and recorded extensively. After completing his
musical studies at the NSW conservatorium, he moved to New York where he
studied saxophone with George Coleman and Dave Liebman. Dale was a member of
legendary American groups The Cedar Walton Quartet, and Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers.

Since returning to Australia, Dale has received numerous awards and accolades
including: Album of the Year/ Jazz performer of the year/ International Artist of the
Year/ Bicentennial Artist of the Year, and four Mo Awards. For the last few years,
Dale has toured as a member of Billy Cobham's Band.

Australians defining 'Nu-jazz'

'Nu-jazz' style includes electronic and digital forms of jazz and sampling. Emerging
artists developing 'Nu-jazz' include The Assumptions Trio, a Melbourne based trio,
with Julien Wilson (tenor saxophone), Will Guthrie (drums) and Steve Magnuson
(guitar), presenting an ambient-free-jazz-power sound. The Assumptions have been
hailed as one of the most significant new groups to emerge in recent times - three
times winners of the National Jazz Awards.

Another emerging group is the Andrew Robson Trio, Hamish Stuart (drums), Steve
Elphick (double bass), and Andrew Robson (alto saxophonist and composer), which
performed at the prestigious Berlin Jazz Festival in 2004.

The fact that the Now Now Festival, a six-night festival of improvised music held in
Sydney, is celebrating its fifth year in 2007, indicates the strength of improvised
jazz in Australia, part of the burgeoning festival scene of 'Jazz Australia'.

Australian jazz legends

Frank Coughlan

Frank Coughlan is recognised as the 'Father of Australian Jazz'. Frank played with
the first jazz group to come to Australia in 1924 - the Californians. From 1928-30,
Frank Coughlan played in England with the leading dance bands of the day - playing
at the Savoy Hotel, Claridges, the Kit Kat Club and many others. He recorded with
Jack Hilton's Band, Fred Elizalde, Arthur Rosebery and the New Mayfair Orchestra.
When the Sydney Trocadero Club opened in 1936, Frank Coughlan and his Dance

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Band became world famous over night. He successfully combined a career as dance
band leader in the commercial world of dance, with that of a dedicated jazzman.

Graeme Bell

One of the pinnacles of success in Australian jazz is to win a Bell Award, named
after the acknowledged leader in the development of Australian jazz, Graeme Bell.
Bell first played for Harry Stein, a jazz drummer, one of the founders of the
Australian Jazz Convention.

Graeme Bell was born in Melbourne to a professional singer mother and comedian
father. Graeme started learning the piano at eleven. In his early twenties, he heard
jazz for the first time and started playing jazz with his younger brother, Roger, with
whom he formed his first band in the late 1930s.

In 1947, Graeme and his Australian Jazz Band sailed to Europe to take part in an
international youth festival in Prague. By the time they reached London, everyone
was talking about the Bells, as the band came to be known, and their unique
Australian style. A chance meeting between their manager and the manager of
comedian Tommy Trinder in a London pub led to the band to be broadcast on the
BBC, followed by sell-out performances throughout Europe.

By the time the band returned to Australia, jazz had flourished and they were
offered a concert tour for the ABC. Since then, Graeme's name has become familiar
to jazz fans throughout the world and he has rarely stopped performing.

Don Burrows

Don Burrows began playing in clubs as a professional musician in his mid-teens. By

the time he was 16 in 1944, he was the clarinet soloist with Jim Gussey's ABC Dance
Band. In 1950, he made the first of many overseas trips and was even offered a job
with Count Basie (a legendary American band leader of the 1930s).

In 1973, Burrows was awarded an MBE – the first such honour for an Australian jazz
musician. He continues to play flute, clarinet and saxophone with jazz ensembles,
both in Australia and around the world, and has even performed with such diverse
groups as the Sydney String Quartet and Galapagos Duck.

Len Barnard

Len Barnard (1929-2005) was a highly versatile jazz musician who explored a
variety of jazz genres, from traditional through to swing and innovative jazz. An
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accomplished drummer, Len Barnard's Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first
Australian long-play album in 1951. This album resulted in a recording contract in
Sydney with the major international label Parlophone. During his career, Len
Barnard performed with prominent jazz musicians including Ade Monsbourgh, Roger
Bell, Dave Dallwitz, Errol Buddle, John Sangster, his brother Bob Barnard and Don
Burrows, as well as established ensembles such as Galapagos Duck and in big
bands at the Palais de Danse. In 2006, Len Barnard was posthumously awarded
Member of the Order of Australia, for service to jazz music, to improving the
professionalism of Australian jazz music, and to the encouragement of young
musicians.

Bob Barnard

Bob Barnard has achieved national and international acclaim for his lyrical cornet
playing. In 1974, Bob Barnard formed his own ensemble that toured Australia, Asia,
Europe and the United States from 1976 to 1982. Bob Barnard performs regularly at
festivals and concerts in the United States, Britain and Europe and has recorded
with notable jazz performers such as Wild Bill Davison, Milt Hinton, Peanuts Hucko
and Dan Barrett. Throughout his career, Bob Barnard has won numerous awards,
including the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal (1977), Member of the Order of
Australia (1990), Australian Legends of Jazz Award (1991), Advance Australia
(1991), Australian Jazz Critics Award (1990-92) and the Mo Awards Jazz Performer of
the Year (1993, 1997).

Kerrie Biddell

David Franklin, Portrait of Kerrie Biddell, 1990, photograph: gelatin silver.

Photograph courtesy of Renate Franklin.

Music has always been in Kerrie Biddell's genes – both her parents are pianists and
her grandmother used to play piano for silent movies. Kerrie started playing the
piano at age five but took up singing after a bout of arthritis. She auditioned for a
rock band called the Affair and introduced the band to jazz elements. Eighteen
months later, they played with Don Burrows and soon won a trip to London in a
battle of the bands competition.

These days, Kerrie is a dedicated jazz singer who is exploring the boundaries of
using her voice as an instrument, rather than just singing the words to a song. She
has also won numerous awards, including a Mo award. She is widely regarded as
the diva of Australian jazz.

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James Morrison

James Morrison was given his first instrument at the age of seven, at nine he formed
his first band and at thirteen he was playing professionally in nightclubs. James
Morrison debuted in the USA at age 16 with a concert at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Following this were performances at the big festivals in Europe, playing with many
of the legends of jazz such as Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Ray Charles, B.B. King
and Ray Brown.

James has performed for royalty and presidents and in 1997, he was recognised for
his service to the arts in Australia and awarded a medal of The Order of Australia.
While most know him as a trumpeter, he also plays trombone, euphonium, flugel
horn, tuba, saxophones and piano. James is also a patron of several youth
orchestras and a celebrated composer.

The strength of mainstream music in Australia is reflected in the wide range of

Australian jazz festivals and the fact that the Australian Jazz Convention is still going
after more than sixty years. Almost every week, a jazz event is held somewhere in
Australia - there are hundreds of jazz festivals held around the country every year.

Bibliography

1. Australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-jazz-innovative

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2. Wikipedia.org/Australian jazz

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