Jazz narratives of nationhood

It was a different jazz experience when I heard Bruce Johnson present his lecture on jazz in Australia and its relationship to film over the first half of the 20th Century. The talk was one of a three lecture series by Bruce. The Canberra talk was entitled Jazz & Australia: Bridging the gap on screen. My summary of Bruce’s presentation is this.

Australia was a masculine place in its early days, with its ethos determined by the bush and male strength and perseverance. Jazz was more feminine, a product of an urban environment, a component in the decline of Western civilisation. Think drunken jazz parties and jazz as an ecstatic dance form in silent films. This association with dance as primarily a feminine art was threatening to the honest labour of the bush. As films added sound and industrialisation was promoted in Australia between the world wars, jazz came to be legitimised within the narratives of a more urban nationhood. Interestingly, this parallelled the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, representing a link between the industrialised south shore and the more rural north shore. Well before the time of Dingo, Ralf de Heer’s 1991 outback film featuring Miles Davis, jazz had taken on a musical seriousness in the popular consciousness, become the music of modernity and found a synergy with the bush. Bruce showed snippets of early films featuring jazz bands (The cheaters, Showgirl’s lunch, Squatter’s daughter) to display the early view of jazz as wanton and depraved and to confirm the modernising thesis. These snippets are always amusing to our eyes, and they got a few chuckles. As did the song called “Can’t sleep in the movies anymore” referring to the new-fangled talking movies. And the poster for a lost film, Can a girl propose, which was obviously indicative of early feminism and a changing society.

We heard plenty of interesting bits of trivia. The first jazz concert in Australia was a theatre burlesque affair, sometime around 1918. The first jazz festival held anywhere was staged in Australia, and it was so successful that it ran for an extra week. Jazz parties were a form of indulgent, bohemian affairs at the time. As an ex-librarian, I was particularly interested to hear that the State Library of South Australia has a unique collection of 80 shelf metres of sheet music to accompany silent films, from the archives of the now demolished State Theatre in Sydney. It is perhaps the only collection of its type in the world, and is particularly valuable as each piece of music has a date and place of performance, so it could be linked to a film being presented in a town on a certain date. Another fascinating snippet was about a ban against black/foreign (?) musicians performing in Australia that stood until Louis Armstrong visited in the 1950s. (See John Sharpe's corrections below). The ban followed a promiscuous visit early in the century that was busted by the police. Apparently the Musicians’ Union combined with the forces of propriety and intolerance to oust that band and establish the regulations to prevent further visits. All interesting, and a very different form of jazz outing from the other gigs that get reported here.

Corrections

Thanks to John Sharpe for his email with the corrections copied below. John is the author of our local history of jazz and obviously a far better historian than me. John’s book is A cool capital : the Canberra jazz scene, 1925-2005 / John Sharpe. http://shop.nla.gov.au/product_info.php?products_id=3708 Eric

There was a discussion about race relations in jazz in Australia. Mention was made about the sex, drugs and jazz scandal at the time of the first African-American jazz band to visit Australia in 1928 - Sonny Clay’s Plantation Band (this is covered in my book ‘A Cool Capital, pages 19-22). It’s interesting that Ivy Anderson, later to sing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra was in that band (dancing in photo). Someone said (not Bruce) that visits to Australia by black jazz musicians were then banned until Louis Armstrong came out in the 1950s. Not so. Rex Stewart, ex Duke Ellington trumpet player came to Australia and toured with Graeme Bell in 1949 (see photo).

This was opposed by the Australian Musicians Union which eventually reluctantly agreed that Rex could play near but not with the band. He had to appear as a soloist and at all times had to stand at least 60 centimetres in front of any accompanying orchestra (see photo). This visit is covered in Graeme’s autobiography pages 126-34.

While in Australia Rex also recorded with some of our then leading modernists, including Frank Smith, Don Andrews, Bruce Clarke and Don Banks (Australian Jazz on Record 1925-80 – Jack Mitchell, page 197).

In our own words

John Sharpe launched his third book on Australian jazz, today, at the Australian Jazz Archive, located at the National Film and Sound Archive. John’s second book was that valuable tome which documents jazz in Canberra, “Cool Capital: The Canberra Jazz Scene, 1925-2005” which he published in 2006. This new book is “I wanted to be a jazz musician”. It’s a collection of oral histories and pictures of a number of interesting and renowned Australian jazz players: Mike Nock, Sandy Evans, David Jones, Kevin Hunt, Joe Chindamo, Miroslav Bukovsky and the like. The book is divided into two sections: interview transcripts and themed chapters on interests outside music (that’s of particular interest to me), the Rock & Roll experience, and [career] highlights. Accompanying pics are taken from the AJA archive, but interestingly, also from private collections. I was particularly taken by a pic of Mike Nock chatting with Chick Corea and Dave Holland in Chick’s NY apartment, presumably sometime in the 60s or 70s. Also a posed portrait of Joe Chindamo with Kevin Rudd and Hillary Clinton, apparently taken when he was on overseas tour (as was Rudd, I expect; nothing new under the sun). Another that caught everyones’ attention was a posed band photo from the Mona Vale Public School in 1972, with John Morrison on tuba and James Morrison on French horn. Haven’t they come a long way? The pic of Bob Bertles playing with the Wild One, Johnny O’Keefe, set the scene for the involvement of jazz players with rock & roll, and I guess any other musical form that pays. Another fascinating book on Australian jazz which crosses the popular and academic divide. Thanks again to John Sharpe.

The book was formally launched by Bruce Johnson. Bruce was instrumental in setting up the AJA and authored the definitive “Oxford companion to Australian Jazz” (1987) as well as several other learned works. Bruce surprised me with some comments on the importance of Australian jazz in the world context. Apparently, a European encyclopaedia has recently claimed Australia is second only to the US in its importance in international jazz history. Along similar lines, Bruce claimed that jazz is the major Australian cultural export (perhaps only matched by film from the 70s). More facts: Australia held the first ever jazz festival in Sydney, and the Australian Jazz festival is the oldest continuous surviving jazz festival in the world. Impressive.

The whole show was introduced by Matthew Davies, Senior Curator of Recorded Sound at the NFSA. Here’s some news on the AJA. The Australian Jazz Archive now holds over 12,500 items. The cataloguing’s not up to date, but how’s that different from any other cultural institution? And this is just the first amongst equals of jazz archives in Australia, so our jazz history is in good hands.

Bruce Johnson at Glasgow University