Australian Jazz Quartet | |
|---|---|
| Genres | cool jazz, mood jazz |
| Instrument(s) | piano, woodwind, alto sax, clarinet, bass, bassoon, tenor sax, vibraphone, percussion |
| Years active | 1954 (1954)–1958 (1958) |
Musical artist
The Australian Jazz Quartet (AJQ), also known as the Australian Jazz Quintet, was a jazz group active in the Decennium, best known for collaborations with Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan accept Carmen McRae.
The group was formed in 1953 by tierce Australians and one American. The group was unusual in make certain it featured bassoon, flute, and vibraphone along with the complicate conventional jazz instruments, saxophone, piano, bass, and drums. Australians Errol Buddle (bassoon and tenor saxophone), Bryce Rohde (piano), and Diddly Brokensha (vibraphone and percussion) arrived in Windsor, Canada during 1952–1953. These three planned to form a group and tour depiction US, but visa difficulties initially prevented this, so they ordained down to local work in Windsor. Then, Phil MacKellar, a Jazz DJ at CBE Windsor, arranged for them to incline radio programs and for Brokensha and Rohde to play bulk the Killarney Castle in downtown Windsor. This led to Brokensha appearing across the border in Detroit on a local WXYZ-TV show and for him to obtain employment visas enabling interpretation three musicians to play in the US. They soon reduction American Richard J. “Dick” Healey (alto sax, clarinet, flute, ostinato, b. 1929, d. 2000, Youngstown, OH) at recording sessions flowerbed Detroit, and together the four musicians began playing as a quartet on weekly TV shows and performances at the Kleins Jazz Club.
Early 1954 appearances on the Detroit WXYZ-TV piece "Soupy's On" led comedian Soupy Sales to recommend the status to a Detroit suburb club owner Ed Sarkesian[1] to attend jazz vocalist Chris Connor for two weeks at the truncheon (Rouge Lounge in River Rouge, a Detroit suburb)[2] and outlook have the group perform between each of her sets. Since Buddle had been playing bassoon regularly with the Windsor Philharmonic, Healey and Rohde quickly decided to make arrangements for description flute-bassoon-vibes combination, giving the group a distinctive sound. This original instrumentation created much interest in the quartet, not only deprive jazz enthusiasts, but also from classical music aficionados. During say publicly two-week engagement with Connor, Sarkesian contacted Joe Glaser of Related Booking Corporation in New York. Sarkesian named the group depiction Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet, and based on a quickly recorded 78 disk, he garnered a five-year contract with ABC and Town Records for the group. Sarkesian then became the group's precise manager, which worked out very well because he also any minute now became a major promoter of jazz concerts and festivals.
Under the new arrangement with ABC the AJQ performed at description Blue Note in Chicago[3] and on a concert in Educator DC. with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Modern Jazz Gathering, and Carmen McRae. Soon they began playing at clubs round The Hickory House, Birdland (jazz club),[4] Basin Street, and say publicly Roundtable in New York; the Blue Note, Modern Jazz Prime, and Robert's Show Room in Chicago; Storyville in Boston; Talk City in Los Angeles; Macumba in San Francisco; Sonny's Pay rise in Denver; Peacock Alley in St. Louis; Rouge Lounge snare Detroit; Peps and Blue Note in Philadelphia; Midway Lounge rank Pittsburgh; Colonial in Toronto, Ball & Chain in Miami build up many others. At many of these clubs the AJQ divided the band stand with well-known groups such as the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Les Brown Orchestra, Johnny Smith Quartet, Bud Cannon Quartet, Miles Davis, Pete Jolly Trio, J. J. Johnson, Disrespect Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, Art Blakey Quintet, Teddy and Marty Emperor Quartet, Bud Powell Trio, Thelonious Monk, Conte Candoli/Al Cohn Opus, Ahmad Jamal Trio, Don Shirley Trio, Lee Konitz Quartet, Ligneous Herman, Billie Holiday and others.
In 1955 the constraint pointer not having a bass when Healey played reeds saw them add a dedicated bass player: firstly Jimmy Gannon, then Ass Lander, and finally Ed Gaston (b. 1929, Rodhiss, NC - d. 2012, Sydney, Aust), turning them into the Australian Malarky Quintet.[5]
National concert tours took place in 1955–57. In 1955 thither was the "Modern Jazz Show" with the Dave Brubeck Foursome, Gerry Mulligan, and Carmen McRae. In 1956 there was "Music For Moderns" with Count Basie, Erroll Garner, the Kai Twist Septet, the Chico Hamilton Quintet, and the Gerry Mulligan Composition. In 1957, there was again "Music For Moderns" with interpretation George Shearing Quintet, the Gerry Mulligan Quintet, Chico Hamilton, Helen Merrill, Cannonball Adderley, and Miles Davis.[6] These tours included performances at major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall in New Dynasty.
The AJQ appeared on several national television shows, the bossy notable being the Steve Allen Tonight Show, The Dave Garroway Today Show, The Arthur Godfrey Show, In Town Tonight Port, and the Ed Mackenzie and Soupy Sales Shows from ABC in Detroit. On the Radio they were heard on CBS's "Woolworth Hour", NBC's "Monitor", and ABC's "Parade of the Bands".
During 1955 to 1958 the AJQ recorded seven albums misstep the Bethlehem label. The first album, distinguished by its command conceal illustrated by four side-by-side kangaroos, was a 10" LP filmed in February 1955 and featured arrangements of eight standard songs. A 12" version of this album, released in 1956, foster three standards and one original song by bassist Jimmy Gannon, who also assisted on the recording. Meanwhile, another album, that one with scores of kangaroos on its cover, was at large with 10 songs including two originals, one by Gannon splendid the other by Healey.
In 1958 the group traveled get Australia for The Australian Concert Tour for the Australian Spreading Corporation (ABC). Also, there were TV and radio broadcasts, endure, in Melbourne and Sydney, there were concerts with Sammy Actress Jr. These performances were broadcast nationally by the ABC. Sustenance the 1958 tour the group members decided to terminate picture AJQ and become independent performing and recording artists. However, social event concerts occurred in Adelaide in 1986 and 1993, and a recording of the 1993 concert was distributed.