ERIC MYERS: MY JUDY BAILEY STORY

Above: Judy Bailey

The jazz pianist, composer, arranger & educator Judy Bailey passed away on August 8, 2025, aged 89. With the first anniversary of her death coming up in August, 2026, the purpose of this article is to provide a companion-piece to the obituary I wrote last year, which was published on August 19, 2025 in Sydney Arts Guide, at this link https://sydneyartsguide.com.au/vale-dr-judy-bailey-oam-1935-2025/ Here I’d like to add some personal anecdotes about my interaction with Judy, which were not possible in that formal obituary.

It’s odd how serendipitous events have continued to remind me of Judy. For example, when I recently purchased a new computer from the innovative company It Can Be Done, its proprietor John Aitcheson, who had access to all my photo files, selected at random a B & W pic of Judy which was taken long ago at the jazz cellar El Rocco, where she was a regular performer in the sixties, after arriving in Sydney from New Zealand in 1960. Whenever I boot up my computer the first thing I see on the welcome page is a head shot of Judy in action at the piano.

It was apparent that when Judy died, I was not the only person who knew her well. In fact, as the tributes on places like Facebook rolled in, it was clear that virtually everyone in the national jazz community had their own Judy Bailey story, so extensive was the universal respect with which she was regarded. In particular I was very moved by the tribute to her published on Facebook on the morning after her death, written by fellow Kiwi, the pianist Steve Barry. With Steve’s permission, I’ve reproduced this tribute entitled “We Lost a Titan Last Night” on my Australian jazz history website at this link https://ericmyersjazz.com/contributions-17.

 In the substantial email correspondence generated by Judy’s death, I was somewhat surprised to discover that one of Sydney’s leading jazz musicians, in a central position as a teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium, was unaware of one of Judy’s major lifetime achievements: her role in bringing about the jazz co-ordination programs in Australia. They began in 1983, as an initiative of the Music Board of the Australia Council, the Commonwealth Government’s arts funding and advisory body.

Circa 1982, towards the end of Judy’s membership of the Music Board, Judy had become concerned at the relatively small amount of Australia Council funds going to jazz around Australia. It was her idea that the Council should fund part-time, so-called jazz co-ordinators, in the various State capitals. Their purpose would be to devise initiatives which would benefit jazz, including encouraging the musicians to apply to the Australia Council for funds to support their projects.

It’s either forgotten, or generally unknown, that the jazz co-ordination programs which commenced in 1983 in all States were Judy’s idea. In 1982 a new director of the Board, the expatriate Australian Dr Richard Letts, arrived from the USA. Judy enlisted his support for the idea of jazz co-ordination. This led to a golden period over the next 20 years with paid administrators around the country acting as a support system for jazz musicians, and actively advocating for the welfare of jazz in the various States.  These programs were particularly successful in WA, SA and Qld, as subsequent documentation has shown. Much was achieved throughout the years as a result of Judy’s important initiative; those achievements are thoroughly documented for posterity, particularly in the JAZZ CO-ORDINATION folder on my website.

In New South Wales, the program was particularly successful also, chiefly as a result of the NSW Ministry for the Arts coming in immediately in 1984 to match the Australia Council funds. This enabled the NSW position to increase from two days a week to a four-day-a-week position. Support from funding authorities in other States was patchy over the years. In Melbourne where the second-largest jazz community after Sydney was located, the Victorian jazz co-ordination program down there was generally a dog’s breakfast over many years, for reasons which can’t be canvassed here, but which are documented elsewhere.

In 1986 the NSW management committee of the program established an incorporated association, the Jazz Co-ordination Association of NSW, in order to take delivery of the government funds. By this time additional funds from the Australia Council had been secured to fund another day a week for the National Jazz Co-ordinator position, which I was elected to take on, by the other State jazz co-ordinators. This created a full-time jazz co-ordination position in Sydney.

I have no record of exactly when Judy joined the management committee of the Association, which held quarterly meetings to monitor my activities, but she was a regular and reliable attendee for many years. The members of the committee were documented for the first time in the inaugural edition of the Association’s magazine Jazzchord, in Jan/Feb, 1993.  Judy was among the prominent jazz musicians on the committee, along with other musicians Bruce Johnson, Tony Ansell, Mark Isaacs, John Pochée and Jonathan Zwartz. Non-musicians included Peter Rechniewski and Kevin Casey. In the final edition of JazzChord, Apr/May, 2002, Judy was still listed as a member of the Committee, so she was involved with the Association until the very end of its existence.

I was always vastly impressed by Judy’s support and loyalty to the program. While other committee members came and went, Judy stayed on year after year, despite her busy schedule as a teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium, and despite her composing and arranging responsibilities, not to mention her work as one of the busiest performers in Australian jazz, and running the big band training orchestra Jazz Connection.

She warmly applauded the achievements of the jazz co-ordination program as they came along. They included for example the establishment of the Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) in 1984; the annual Midsummer Jazz concert in The Domain, part of the Sydney Festival, in 1985; the APRA Award for Jazz Composition in 1985; the Australian Jazz Orchestra’s two tours of Australia and its tour of the US in 1988; the ground-breaking three-weeks tour of the Soviet Union in 1989 by the trio The Engine Room; the provision of the model for the highly successful Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues in 1989; and other achievements too numerous to mention here. Judy was always highly cognisant that such achievements were practical outcomes of her original 1982 vision.

Circa 2015, and now living in Marsfield, I spent a lot of time in Lane Cove Library, using their scanning facilities while I was working on my new Australian jazz history website. During the following few years, knowing that Judy was no longer driving, and being aware that she lived in Finlayson Street, Lane Cove, which was on my route, I got into the habit of letting her know when I was coming to the library. If she was available I’d pick her up on the way. She’d spend about an hour shopping while I was in the library, then we’d sit outside the library with a coffee, and chat for a while. I discovered interestingly something of which I was unaware: that she was a smoker. The intimate discussions that were possible were an opportunity to experience her wicked sense of humour and her perceptive, off-the-record comments on controversial personalities in the jazz community. Like many jazz musicians she was an accomplished raconteur, full of fascinating stories.

Also there are umpteen articles on Judy on my website, and anyone interested in those articles can become aware of them by simply doing a search for her name on the site. I often had cause to visit her at home to borrow photos to illustrate those articles. One of the most delightful aspects of those regular meetings was that Judy would often sit down at her grand piano and play for me. I remember when, in particular, she played a lovely piece, and my first query was “What’s the name of that?” Judy said it wasn’t an already composed work; in fact it was a spontaneous improvisation. I should have known this, as Judy had long advocated that improvisation should be regarded as in-the-moment composition.

On one occasion, which I suspect was around 2019 or 2020, I arrived to pick her up, to find her in some distress physically. The walk from her front door down the driveway to my car, a distance of no more than about 20 metres, took her, I estimate, at least 15 minutes, maybe more. She asked if I wouldn’t mind driving her to an appointment with her GP, which I did. When I picked her up from that appointment about an hour later, she asked me to drive her to Royal North Shore Hospital, which I did, in order to attend an appointment with a specialist which her GP had organised.

Judy estimated that her appointment at RNS would take about an hour, so I waited for her phone call to collect her and drive her home. The wait however was interminable, and she emerged from the consultation after some four hours. I had a book to read, which took up the time profitably. On the way back to Lane Cove Judy was tight-lipped about the consultation, but my intuition was that she’d not received good news. We now know that she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in August 2020, and subsequently underwent a hip replacement operation where she suffered from mild cognitive impairment as the result of a failed anaesthetic.

In early 2021 I received news that Judy had taken up residence at Estia Health Willoughby. I made enquiries to those whom I knew were close to Judy to ask if it was possible for me to telephone her. However, I was given to understand that phone calls were not likely to be successful, owing to a mixture of Judy’s hearing difficulties and the effects of her mild cognitive impairment. So I was effectively warned off from contacting her. To be honest I was worried about her. Did she have access to good listening facilities so she could enjoy hearing music? Would there be any point in my writing to her?

The one time I saw Judy again was at the Sydney Con Jazz Festival in June, 2024. I noticed she was present in the Verbrugghen Hall for the performance of her classic composition Colours of My Dream. I was hoping to get an opportunity to pay my respects, but whenever I saw her throughout the day, she was invariably surrounded by a host of well-wishers, and I was reluctant to impose myself.

I felt somewhat guilty, in the same way I felt guilty after the death of my father many years ago, wishing that I’d made the time to have conversations with him, that were now no longer possible. I wondered if, during the time I’d spent with Judy in the twilight years of her life, I’d adequately thanked her for facilitating the 20 years I had spent as a jazz co-ordinator, that is to say, as an arts administrator in the 80s and 90s, a period in my life which was most interesting and productive. This had come about courtesy of Judy’s vision, and I can only trust that she was fully aware of my gratitude.