ESSAYS

This section includes essays on various jazz subjects, written by a number of writers. Contributions are welcome. Writers interested in contributing are welcome to contact the editor by filling out the form in the CONTACT tab. Photographs to illustrate those essays are welcome. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

JUDY BAILEY IN CONVERSATION

by Belinda Webster

Extempore, May, 2009

Belinda Webster writes: Judy Bailey is an icon of Australian jazz. For more years than she would care to admit Judy's been giving pleasure to Australian jazz enthusiasts, from the days of El Rocco right through to the present. Until the last two decades she has been the only woman in the top echelons (but won't talk about gender in music) and has forged her own way through her career (without any female mentors). She has spent years writing magnificent music that seems, so far, to have been avoided like the plague by our symphony orchestras. When Extempore asked me to talk to Judy for this issue of the journal I was delighted…

JACK MITCHELL: AUSTRALIAN DISCOGRAPHER

by Roger Beilby

Jazz Down Under, November/December, 1975

Although my interest in jazz had begun some years earlier, it was not until the 18th Australian Jazz Convention in 1963 that I was first introduced to recorded Australian jazz, the specialist labels and jazz discography. Nevill Sherburn of Swaggie Records had a stand in the foyer during the Convention and from him I purchased a 7" 33-1/3 rpm record of Frank Johnson and His Fabulous Dixielanders. Next day I met Bill Haesler…

THOUGHTS ON SEXISM IN JAZZ

by Shannon Barnett

jazz.org, February 10, 2016

Nobody asked, but here is my two cents worth on the latest discussions (particularly in Australia) about women in the music industry. Yes, there are problems. They have been there for a long time. They are societal, they are entrenched but they are also sometimes quite obvious. They have affected me and many other women that I know. There are also many men who champion women in the industry (for the right reasons). I have benefited from that and so have many other women. I would like things to change…