Graeme Bell R.I.P.

[Durium]

The legendary Australian piano player, composer, band leader and entertainer passed away - 97 years old.

Graeme Bell (1914-2012)

Durium

[robertoart]

My link

[AllenLowe]

I'm still using his phone.

[robertoart]

I'm still using his phone.

He dropped the Alexander from his name because nobody would take his trumpet playing seriously. Kept asking him about the phone.

[Larry Kart]

The Bell brothers recorded some great stuff. That Australian Trad scene was something else.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Larry, you're right about the Ausralian jazz scene of the Bell brothers, the Barnards, Ade Monsborough and others -- quite a distinctive take on jazz, with its' own accent.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Bell, and recording him with the Climax Jazz Band here in Toronto in 1975. He was a very good pianist, and a very good interview -- a charming man, full of anecdotes. A nice couple of days in his company. I recall that I had a full beard on one day of his visit, and was clean-shaven on the next. He didn't recognize me, and said something like "It's an instant disguise!".

I was in Sydney in 2008, and Bob Barnard put me on the phone with Graeme. He said, "Oh, yes -- Toronto! Did you ever grow your beard again?" That was 33 years later, and he was 94, and obviously still sharp as a tack.

[Larry Kart]

@ Ted -- Dave Dallwitz! One of the great, by any standards, jazz composers IMO. The Ern Malley Suite for one. I've got a good deal of what Dallwitz recorded on Swaggie LPs, but I'm afraid that much of it is o.o.p. now. My, and Chuck's, good friend Terry Martin is a native of Adelaide (Dallwitz's hometown) and knew him fairly well, initially because Terry and Dallwitz's son were childhood pals.

Dallwitz was a heck of a painter, too:

http://www.greenhillgalleriesadelaide.com.au/show-artist.php?id=76

[Ted O'Reilly]

Dallwitz, of course! My late night posting passed right over him, and shouldn't have. A great composer and pianist, essential in creating significant and distinctive music. He 'caught' Australia and expressed it using the same tools as any other composer, but it came out completely individual. "Ern Malley Suite", the "Melbourne Suite", dozens of truly original compositions, stylistically ranging from ragtime to dixieland to mainstream (if you want to try to label An Original).

I am surprised to learn that he was an artist, and did a search to learn of his great talent in that direction. Indeed, I guess that painting and teaching took over his life for 20 + years. I never knew why there was a gap in his music from the early '50s to the early '70s, but that would explain it.

Like Graeme Bell, Dallwitz had a long life -- he made it to 89 years.

I wish some Canadian composer did as well as Dallwitz in picturing his own country in jazz -- probably our best is composer/clarinetist Phil Nimmons, especially in his wonderful "Atlantic Suite". Phil's going strong, too -- he just passed his 89th birthday, and has concerts scheduled through the summer. He and a brilliant younger pianist David Braid (mid-30s) go onstage with no music, no pre-discussion, and just start improvising. Mostly brilliant, never banal...