This event amply celebrated Judy Bailey’s life, and it would be difficult to describe for those who were unable to attend, how heartwarming it was. When Judy died in August, 2025, there was naturally an outpouring of love and affection for her on social media, and for that matter in the media generally. The obituary I wrote at the time can be read on Sydney Arts Guide at this link https://sydneyartsguide.com.au/vale-dr-judy-bailey-oam-1935-2025/. Other excellent obits appeared, written by Henry Rasmussen (ABC Jazz), and John Shand (Sydney Morning Herald).
Those obits did great justice to Judy’s life and work, but I was moved especially by the tribute to her, entitled “We Lost a Titan Last Night”, which Steve Barry posted on Facebook the morning after Judy’s death. That’s now on my website at this link https://ericmyersjazz.com/contributions-17. Steve wrote, “Judy’s sense of play seemed boundless – that infectious, wicked sense of humour that hummed through both her piano playing and our conversations… Judy taught us all how to be our best selves – to listen to, unearth and pursue our own creative truths.”
Steve is of course a New Zealander, as Judy was herself. She arrived in Sydney as long ago as 1960 on her way to the UK intending to pursue a career as a classical musician. I had much interaction with her over many years. For a starter she spent some 15 years on the management committee of my NSW jazz co-ordination program during the 80s and 90s, turning up dependably for quarterly meetings year after year while others tended to lose interest and drop out. Along with Bruce Johnson, Peter Rechniewski and the late John Pochée, Judy was a tower of strength during those years.
It’s often forgotten that the national jazz co-ordination programs which commenced in 1983 were Judy’s idea. In 1982 she was coming to the end of her stint as a member of the Music Board of the Australia Council, at a time when a new director of the Board, the expatriate Australian Dr Richard Letts, arrived from the USA. Judy enlisted his support for the Australia Council to fund part-time jazz co-ordinators in all States. For 20 years this was a golden period for the Australian jazz community with co-ordinators around the country acting as a support system for jazz musicians, and actively advocating for the welfare of jazz in this country.
I never thought of Judy as a Kiwi, because she didn’t have those clipped vowels which are characteristic of the typical NZ accent. The same could be said for other important Kiwis such as Russell Crowe and Sam Neill, who have adopted the Australian vernacular, and sound like impeccable Aussies. Judy was of that ilk. Naturally we in this country claim all of them as our own. Everyone has a Judy Bailey story, and actually I have a number of them myself, but I’ll recount them elsewhere.
Having said that, the December 7 event did not minimise the New Zealand connection. On the contrary it was a strong undercurrent throughout the concert. The programme opened with prominent Kiwi Joy Yates delivering what can only be described as a full-blooded Whangarei New Zealand acknowledgment of country. An hour-and-a-half later the concert was closed by two other distinguished Kiwis, Mike Nock & Dave MacRae, on two grand pianos, collaborating on Thelonious Monk’s composition Blue Monk.
The concert was expertly emcee’d by Julie Simonds, probably best-known previously as the Manager of Programs at the Sydney Conservatorium High School. Judy’s children Chris De Gray & Lisette De Gray-Sieverts addressed the assembly, supported by Ian Dodd, who was Judy’s neighbour for many years in Finlayson Street, Lane Cove. A charming interlude was the participation of Chris’s son Austin De Gray who led on alto saxophone a version of When the Saints Go Marching In.
There were many highlights in this extraordinary concert, including a version of Judy’s well-known composition Colours of My Dream, which was best-known for the version sung by the late Bernadine Morgan. On this occasion it was sung by Judy’s daughter Lisette De Gray-Sieverts, who sang the theme ad lib accompanied by Kevin Hunt at the piano. The tune was completed in a lush version in tempo by the Conservatorium High School Choir conducted by Michael Bradshaw, with the choral arrangement done by Andrew Robertson.
Another highlight was the Bailey composition Wisdom To Know. In a nice touch trumpeter Warwick Alder was on hand to play the piece, which he recently discovered was dedicated to him by Judy, with a Con staff quintet including saxophonist David Theak, bassist Hannah James, pianist Steve Barry and drummer Tim Firth.
Judy’s extraordinary ability as a composer was underlined by two duos which followed: Tom Avgenicos (trumpet) and Lauren Tsamouras (piano) playing her composition The Calling; and Sandy Evans (tenor saxophone) and Alister Spence (piano) playing her composition When Monk Met Picasso. The latter especially revealed how much fun Judy expressed in her compositions.
Sandy Evans, in a moving tribute to Judy, spoke beautifully: “Judy was a trailblazer. A brilliant pianist, an exquisite composer with a rich and broad palate, and a great improviser. She was a dear friend to me, and a great inspiration. I continue to marvel at the extraordinary way she thrived as one of very few female jazz instrumentalists in her generation. Gradually over the last 20 years the jazz scene has become more gender diverse – something that Judy made a huge contribution to. I am deeply grateful for her leadership and support in that. I am honoured, privileged and overjoyed that I knew and played with such a great artist and wonderful, wise, compassionate, witty and brilliant human being. Thank you Judy.”
Up from Victoria the retired ABC jazz broadcaster Jim McLeod gave a short address referring to the forthcoming 50th anniversary in January, 2026 of his influential ABC radio program Jazztrack. He also quoted from the interview with Judy which he included in his 1994 book Jim McLeod’s Jazztrack. The text that he read out is worth reproducing here, as Jim successfully captured something really essential about Judy’s modus operandi. Judy referred to a cruise on Sydney Harbour on Australia Day where a version of her fledgling Jazz Connection orchestra was to perform. Judy said:
It’s going to be wonderful fun because it’s Regatta Day [the Sydney ferries’ Race Day]… One of the highlights for me is going to be a little junior jazz ensemble that I coach every Saturday. They are coming on board with all their instruments. Their average age is about thirteen. We have five alto saxophones, two tenors, trombone, clarinet and piano… I’m so proud of these kids because they can now actually get up and play—stand there, without music stands, without music—and play a whole forty-minute set from memory. All ‘standards’, plus improvising. So that’s pretty good! This is a group that’s attached to the Sydney North Youth Orchestra and I started coaching them nearly eighteen months ago. They were, most of them, real beginners and, most of them, very loath to get up and even attempt to improvise. Gradually, they’ve come along and been getting better and better with their playing and gaining confidence. All of them now improvise … and it’s fantastic!
It’s a mixture, really, of a lot of playing and a lot of talk and constant reminders, on my part, to them to keep using these things on the sides of their heads called ears. Their reading ability has gradually improved over the time but the thing that is wonderful is that their listening has just grown at a remarkable rate along with their confidence. It’s sort of self-perpetuating in a way, because as they gain confidence and try out different things when they’re improvising, they start to get good results. That inspires them to continue doing it. They’ve also learnt the thrill of being able to get up and play without music. That’s been a major breakthrough for them. They do have written music, which I’ve written out for them, but they’ve learnt their parts so they have a fairly sizeable repertoire for musicians of their age that they can play totally from memory.
Shortly before Judy became ill circa 2021, she told me that the group of which she was most proud, was the celebrated trio she led for some 20 years since 2004, including bassist Craig Scott and drummer Tim Firth. It was therefore appropriate that Scott and Firth, with Kevin Hunt on piano, should perform Judy’s composition Theme 3, along with two other musicians long associated with her, Col Loughnan (tenor saxophone) and James Greening (trombone).
In my view the sense of fun in Judy’s music was also underlined by her two compositions/arrangements Child’s Play and 2nd Line N’Orleans, played by her Jazz Connection Jazz Orchestra, a brilliant big band assembled for the day from musicians who had played in the Jazz Connection band over several years. They included Michael Avgenicos, Sam Gill, Tom Avgenicos, Yutaro Okuda, Harry Sutherland, Alex Hirlian, and many others, part of a list which looks like a who’s who of leading current Sydney jazz musicians.
Des Cannings and James Power, organisers and directors of the Judy Bailey Jazz Connection Big Band, selected the two compositions to be played by this version of Jazz Connection, and they chose well. Judy wrote music that invariably warmed the heart and listening to these pieces I couldn’t help thinking that there couldn’t have been a better example of the characteristic whimsicality in Judy’s compositions and arrangements. That sense of fun and mischief in her music was one of her prime calling cards.
In closing down proceedings at the end of this event emcee Julie Simonds made a remark that I believe would have been genuinely endorsed by all who had attended this splendid concert. She said, “Jude really would have been gobsmacked.” No doubt many behind the scenes deserve credit for the success of this lovely concert, but my intuition is that Kevin Hunt, lecturer in jazz piano at the Con, and widely regarded as the concert’s curator, especially deserves much of the credit for his indefatigable work behind the scenes.
I interviewed Judy Bailey many times over the years, and published umpteen articles on her on my Australian jazz history website, written by various jazz writers. In 1986 to celebrate her winning the inaugural APRA Music Award for Most Performed Australasian Jazz Work, which ironically had come about through the jazz co-ordination program lobbying APRA to create the award, I did a special interview with her for the APRA Magazine in a piece entitled “Judy Bailey: An Improvised Career”.
Judy insisted that a short poem she had written should head the piece. This is what she provided:
“think of yourself
(he said)
as an instrument,
through which
passes the music of Life
and Love…
an endless river…
And the music flows on
even after the instrument has ceased to play.”
— Judy Bailey
This concert took place at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music on Sunday, December 7, 2025. All compositions played on the day, with the exception of “When The Saints Go Marching In” and “Blue Monk” were written by Judy Bailey. Participating musicians included Joy Yates, Lisette De Gray-Sieverts, Sandie White, Jacki Cooper, John Morrison, Austin De Gray, the Conservatorium High School Choir conducted by Michael Bradshaw, Warwick Alder, David Theak, Hannah James, Steve Barry, Tim Firth, Tom Avgenicos, Lauren Tsamouras, Sandy Evans, Alister Spence, Craig Scott, Kevin Hunt, Col Loughnan, James Greening, Michael Avgenicos, Sam Gill, Tom Avgenicos, Yutaro Okuda, Harry Sutherland, Alex Hirlian, Anthony Tummillo, Chris Higgins, Jack Stoneham, James Power, Joe Lisk, Tom Arblaster, Des Cannings, Ellie Shearer, Jacob Parks, Nich Polevineo, Sarah Evans, Mike Nock & Dave MacRae.
