Perth Voice Interactive

TWO big jazz birthdays will be celebrated in style with a special event at the State Library next month.

The Perth Jazz Society is turning 50 and the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra has been swinging for four decades, making 2023 a milestone year in jazz.

To mark the occasion they are joining forces for Homecoming: A Celebration of WA Jazz History, a music and heritage spectacular with live renditions of key songs from the annals of PJS and WAYJO, and related memorabilia from the State Library archives.

On the night, WAYJO will be joined by special guest performers including the much-loved jazz vocalist Libby Hammer.

“Each of the guests will perform original West Australian music by living and passed musicians from this great city,” says WAYJO artistic director Mace Francis.

“The live performance with also be accompanied by artefacts now in the State Library collection including live historic recordings from the regular Monday night Perth Jazz Society, albums, posters, photos and articles about WAYJO from over the last 40 years.”

There will also be screenings of new video interviews with significant figures in WA jazz including vibraphone and guitar guru Garry Lee, jazz vocalist Sue Kingham and renowned guitarist Ray Walker, who will reflect on the fascinating history of jazz in Perth.

“Ray Walker has given some insight into the venues that used to present jazz before WAYJO or the PJS were even started,” Francis says. “Everyone spoke about the history of the Perth jazz scene through their personal perspective and experience.”

Francis says the late jazz pianist Graham Wood, a huge presence in the local scene through his co-ownership of The Ellington and his jazz teachings at WAAPA, is also discussed in the interviews. He tragically succumbed to cancer in 2017 aged just 46.

The new flourishing buds of Perth jazz will be represented by talented young composer and saxophonist Gemma Farrell, who will be performing as a guest artist on the night.

She was PJS president from 2015-16 and runs the Progressions program at WAYJO, a pathway for genders on the “outskirts of jazz” including female and non-binary artists.

In 2017, Farrell founded the Artemis Orchestra, featuring mostly female, non-binary and transgender musicians that play tracks composed by female, non-binary and transgender Australians.

In 2023, does she feel that women and marginalised genders are now better represented in the Perth jazz scene?

“While I think initiatives like Progressions and Artemis have been very successful, I think a lot more work needs to be done,” she says. “I think a lot more people need to consider gender diversity on the stage when they are putting shows together because young women, non-binary and transpeople need to see themselves represented on stage so that they know they are more than welcome (and desperately needed) in the industry.”

Held in the towering atrium at the State Library in Northbridge, Homecoming: A Celebration of WA Jazz History is on December 9, 6:30pm. Tix at slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/homecoming.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK