Category: Features

January 6, 2026 / Features

Martin Hayes talks about the tradition that keeps on giving

I was once in the Irish town of Kilkenny on a Monday night, almost universally the quietest night of the week for live music. Yet, of the dozen pubs I chanced upon, only two didn’t have people playing, with the music always Irish traditional. The good burghers of Kilkenny obviously…

October 21, 2025 / Features - Archive

Bill Frisell: Staying in the moment, while open to the past

The song You Only Live Twice (from the James Bond film of the same name) would have more kitsch quotient than improvising potential to most ears. Not Bill Frisell. The one constant in the work of the jazz guitarist – a peer of John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and John…

August 19, 2025 / Features - Archive

Judy Bailey: Pioneering woman in Australian jazz

As a teen, pianist Judy Bailey usually heard classical or pop music coming from the cream-coloured Bakelite radio that hunched on the Formica kitchen bench of her family’s home in Whangarei, New Zealand. But on this particular afternoon, her 13-year-old ears heard something new. She recognised the song, East…