This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the first performance by Ten Part Invention at the Adelaide Festival in 1986. The ten piece ensemble was an inspirational part of the Australian Jazz scene for three decades. Jazz writer and critic John Shand described them as the Rolls Royce of Australian jazz.
This podcast, The Making of Australian Jazz: Ten Part at the Kakadu, is centred on a recording of a live performance by the band in 1988. It’s brought to life by the voice of Ten Part’s founder, band leader and drummer John Pochee. John introduces the band and its music in 1988 then, thirty years later, he reflects on forming the band. We also hear from the two musicians who were the youngest members of the ensemble when it formed . Saxophonist and composer Sandy Evans and trombonist James Greening.
The recording of the band was unearthed in a box of cassette tapes. The box was donated to Eastside by the family of Wally Wrightman, after his death , as part of his collection of music For years, Wally’s unmistakable voice delivering a wealth of music anecdotes made him one of the station’s most popular jazz presenters.
Mick Paddon and Phil James from Eastside went through cassettes. In total there were recordings of 21 performances between 1987 and 1993 by different ensembles playing in 7 venues. The recordings captured a really significant period in the development of Australian jazz so they were hoping to make them public.
Unfortunately, the quality of most of the recordings is so poor that they cannot be broadcast. But the best recording was of Ten Part Invention playing at the Kakadu club in Sydney in July 1988.
Mick Paddon interviewed John Pochee about Ten Part not long before John’s death in 2022. He interviewed Sandy Evans and James Greening together while they were grabbing a quick bite to eat before a gig. He produced this podcast , interweaving the voices of John, Sandy and James with four long pieces from Ten Part’s performance
The podcast, which runs for 70 minutes, first went to air on Mick Paddon’s weekly Eastside show, Time and Space on Thursday March 26th.